Angels’ Dominance Against A’s Continues

A lot of things went the Angels’ way Wednesday night, as they tend to when they face Oakland this season. They had runners on base in each of the first six innings, scored in five of them and got a quality outing from starter Allen Watson.

But the best news of the night came out of Texas, where the Rangers scored three in the ninth to beat the Mariners.

The Angels continued their dominance of Oakland with an 8-4 victory in front of 16,800 at Anaheim Stadium, in the process running their season record against the A’s to 11-0.

And--thanks to the flagging Seattle bullpen--the Angels finally managed to gain some ground on the American League West-leading Mariners.

The Angels picked up a full game on the Mariners for the first time since Sept. 7 and trail Seattle by five with 10 to play.

As much as the Angels try to sound sincere when they say they can’t concern themselves with what Seattle is doing, the Mariners’ recent routine of matching every Angel victory and loss has been disheartening for the Angels. Their hopes that next week’s two-game series in Seattle will have meaning continue to hinge on the Mariners losing a few in the next few days.

“We know what we’re up against,” Manager Terry Collins said, “and it’s not going to be easy. But we’ll go out and play hard and hope it’s enough.”

The first batter of Wednesday’s game, Oakland’s Jason McDonald, walked, stole second and scored on Ben Grieve’s single to center, but it was a first and last hurrah for the A’s against Watson. The Angel left-hander avoided the long ball--he’s give up more home runs (35) than any pitcher in baseball--in a six-inning performance that included five hits, one run, three strikeouts and two walks.

Oakland managed to get only one runner past second base against him after the first inning.

“I go at hitters and I don’t like walking guys,” said Watson, who had given up six home runs in his previous three starts, including a grand slam. “You can’t let home runs bother you. You can’t crumble. You just have to deal with it. I feel like as long as I don’t give up the big shots, the grand slams and three-run homers, I’ll be OK.”

The A’s, who had only one player in their lineup Wednesday with more than 13 homers, aren’t exactly the 1927 Yankees, and Watson had the advantage of a three-run lead by the time he took the mound in the second inning.

The Angels made the most of three hits in the first inning, scoring four times. Garret Anderson had a run-scoring single, Tim Salmon hit his 32nd homer, a two-run shot to left, and Dave Hollins followed with a bases-empty drive into the seats in right.

The Angels made the least of a single and four walks in the second, scoring only once, and performed similar feats in the fourth--when they pushed across only one run despite three singles and a walk--and in the fifth--when they had three more hits and scored only once.