Angels Can’t Throw This One Back

There are walk-off home runs, hits, wild pitches and passed balls, and the Washington Nationals even lost a game this season on a walk-off balk. But the Oakland Athletics’ 5-4 victory over the Angels Thursday ended in such bizarre walk-off fashion that it was impossible to stamp it with a label that would do it justice.

Officially, it was a walk-off error that knocked the Angels out of first place in the American League West for the first time since June 5, only the third day this season they have not held at least a share of the lead, but it was so much more than that.

It was Angel closer Francisco Rodriguez, frustrated and possibly distracted by an umpire’s call, botching a routine play he said a 5-year-old could make, muffing the throw back to the mound from catcher Jose Molina with runners on second and third and two out in the bottom of the ninth.

And it was A’s catcher Jason Kendall alertly taking advantage of the gaffe, breaking from third when Molina’s throw nicked off Rodriguez’s glove and rolled about 30 feet behind the mound, and scoring the winning run well before Rodriguez’s throw.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a game end like that,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “You’d have to see it to believe it.”

Rodriguez took the blame for the loss, but he had several accomplices. Reliever Brendan Donnelly, who hadn’t given up a home run in two months, replaced starter Paul Byrd with a 4-0 lead to start the seventh and coughed it up, giving up Jay Payton’s solo home run and Eric Chavez’s three-run blast.

And setup man Scot Shields, who suffered a blown save and loss in Wednesday night’s crushing 4-3 defeat, created the ninth-inning mess by allowing singles to Mark Ellis and Mark Kotsay, sandwiched around Kendall’s fielder’s choice.

Scioscia summoned Rodriguez, who got Bobby Crosby to bounce into a force out at second. Rodriguez, with runners at the corners, started Chavez with a sharp, knee-high slider that umpire Mike DiMuro called a ball.

While Crosby took second on defensive indifference, Molina turned to dispute the call before throwing back to the mound, and Rodriguez appeared agitated. Molina’s throw to Rodriguez was waist-high and slightly toward Rodriguez’s right, and the closer appeared to turn his head as he stabbed for the ball.

Rodriguez missed it, neither shortstop Orlando Cabrera nor second baseman Adam Kennedy were in good enough position to back up the play, and Kendall raced home with the run that gave the A’s two of three games in the highly anticipated series.

“I should have caught the ball, and I didn’t, and it cost us the game,” Rodriguez said. “It’s not like I lost [track of the ball]. It was a throw a 5-year-old could have caught. I’m embarrassed we lost a game like that, but what can you do? You have to get over it and get ready for the next game.”

Rodriguez claimed he was not upset about DiMuro’s call, but the A’s thought differently.

“I heard Molina yell at the umpire -- I thought it was a good pitch too,” Chavez said. “But Rodriguez was more frustrated than anybody. He messed the play up a little bit.”

Said Crosby of Rodriguez: “He was lackadaisical trying to catch it. As soon as he dropped the ball, Jason went. ... I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Middle infielders are taught in Little League to back up the throw from the mound with a runner on third, but with Chavez, the Oakland cleanup batter, up, “we were both playing deep,” Kennedy said. “We were headed in the right direction, but that ball wound up in no-man’s land, and by the time Orlando got to it, Frankie was there.”

Like everyone in McAfee Stadium on Thursday, Byrd, who gave up eight hits in six shutout innings but wound up with a no-decision, said he had never seen a game end like that.

“It was a gift; we gave the game away,” Byrd said.

Could back-to-back stunning losses to their division rivals, in which two of the Angels’ best relievers were torched for eight hits and seven runs in two innings, leave an emotional scar for a team that has struggled to live up to its potential this season?

“It could,” Byrd said. “It depends on the character of the team. This is where we see what we’re made of.”

The Angels seemed determined not to let Thursday’s loss rip them apart. Asked if he was irritated by the way Rodriguez handled the game’s final play, first baseman Darin Erstad said:

“With Frankie? Are you kidding me? I’ll never be irritated at that guy. He’s a great player, a great person, a great teammate. You just feel for him. It’s hard to explain.”

Indeed, Thursday’s odd ending left everyone shaking their heads.

“They say you see something new in baseball every day,” Erstad said. “Well, there you go.”