Athletics outlast Angels, 10-8, in 19 innings

OAKLAND — Monday night merged into Tuesday, and on and on the Angels and Oakland Athletics played, their game stretching so far into the wee hours of the morning that the cows were home and tucked into bed long before it was over.

It was the longest time of game in Angels history, 6 hours and 32 minutes, and it went 19 innings, one shy of the franchise record for innings, the teams combining to use 40 players and throw 598 pitches.

But it ended all too suddenly for the Angels, as Brandon Moss hit a two-run homer off Angels reliever Barry Enright at 1:41 a.m. PDT to give the Athletics a grueling 10-8, 19-inning walk-off victory in the Oakland Coliseum and send the Angels (9-16) to their sixth loss in eight games.

“Losing a game like this stinks,” said Angels center fielder Peter Bourjos, who suffered a left hamstring strain in the 11th and will be go on the disabled list Tuesday. “You play this long into the night and come out on the wrong end … it would have been nice to win. The momentum could have carried us a long way.”

How long was the marathon?

So long that Angels right-hander Jerome Williams entered in the 10th inning and could have gotten credit for a quality start — he gave up one unearned run and four hits in six innings, struck out two and threw 73 pitches.

So long that A’s left-hander Brett Anderson apparently had enough time to heal from the right-ankle injury that caused him to be scratched from Monday night’s start — he entered in the 13th and threw 5 1/3 innings, allowing one run and three hits and striking out five.

And so long that Angels right fielder Josh Hamilton opened with two promising at-bats in his first three plate appearances, driving the ball to deep left field, and ended it mired in a deeper slump — he went 0 for 8 with three strikeouts and looked overmatched in several at-bats, his average falling to .202.

“Man, he had a great batting practice and looked more comfortable, but as the game went on, he was really feeling for his swing up there,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He needs at-bats to get through this, but right now, he’s obviously not in sync. A week ago, his at-bats were getting better. Tonight was tough.”

The Angels nearly ended the game in the 15th inning when J.B. Shuck, who entered for Bourjos, drew a four-pitch, bases-loaded walk from Anderson to force in Brendan Harris for an 8-7 lead. Harris provided the key hit of the inning, a double into the right-field corner.

But an error by Angels first baseman Albert Pujols, who dropped a rushed throw from Howie Kendrick after the second baseman bobbled Josh Donaldson’s leadoff grounder to start the bottom of the 15th, opened the door for the A’s.

Derek Norris walked to put two on, and Chris Young followed with a grounder to third. Harris fielded the ball, slipped and stumbled as he tagged the bag and recovered in time to throw to first for the double play.

But Adam Rosales, who entered as a pinch-hitter in the seventh, came through with a clutch two-out RBI single to center to tie the score, 8-8.

“Everybody gave everything they had out there, but it’s frustrating when you don’t put those last outs together and hold leads,” Scioscia said. “We just couldn’t finish it off.”

Had the Angels gotten the kind of relief pitching during regulation that they got in overtime, which also featured two dominant perfect innings from right-hander Michael Kohn, the game would have ended much sooner.

Pujols had four hits and a pair of solo homers in the first nine innings, sending lasers over the left-field wall in the first and seventh innings and hitting a key RBI single in a four-run fifth.

Mark Trumbo hit a prodigious homer in the second that traveled an estimated 475 feet, tied with Anthony Rizzo of the Chicago Cubs for the longest in baseball this year, and added a two-run double in the fifth.

And starting pitcher Tommy Hanson allowed two runs and six hits in six innings, using an effective curve to strike out six, as the Angels took a 7-2 lead in the seventh.

But three Angels relievers — Michael Roth, Dane De La Rosa and Scott Downs — combined to give up four runs and five hits in the eighth inning, and closer Ernesto Frieri, who came on to get the last out in the eighth, couldn’t hold a one-run lead in the ninth.

Coco Crisp led off the A’s ninth with a walk and took second when he tagged on Seth Smith’s fly ball to the warning track in right. Frieri struck out Jed Lowrie for the second out, and after Crisp stole third, Yoenis Cespedes ripped a shot off the left-center field wall to score Crisp with the tying run.

Frieri struck out Moss to end the inning but suffered his first blown save of the season and the team’s fifth blown save in eight opportunities.

“We should have won that game,” Frieri said. “The bullpen cost us the game. We didn’t make our pitches. It was tough. It was bad. It wasn’t fun.”

Especially for Bourjos, the center fielder and leadoff batter who was hitting .310 and feeling comfortable at the plate but will now miss at least the next two weeks because of his injury, which he suffered as he crossed the first-base bag on a sacrifice bunt and came out of the game.

“It stinks, especially when you’re swinging the bat so well and you feel good at the plate,” said Bourjos, who went on the DL because of a hamstring strain in 2011. “It’s pretty sore right now. I have no idea how long I’ll be out. It grabbed pretty good. I knew it was pulled.”

The Angels also lost third baseman Luis Jimenez, who left in the eighth inning because of a bruised shin, but his injury isn’t believed to be serious.

Way back on Monday afternoon, during batting practice, A’s fans tossed several Butterfinger bars at Hamilton, a reference to the former Texas outfielder’s dropped fly ball that cost the Rangers two runs in the 2012 regular-season finale, a 12-5, American League West-clinching win for Oakland. Hamilton tore one open and took a bite.

He got some sweet revenge, saving a run with a diving back-hand catch of Cespedes’ flare toward the line after a long run in the first, making a nice over-the-shoulder catch of Josh Reddick’s drive to the wall with two on in the second and ranging far into the corner to make a leaping catch of Donaldson’s drive to the wall in the 10th.

But Hamilton couldn’t save the Angels on the last play of the game, leaping high above the right-field wall in an effort to pull back Moss’ second homer of the night/morning.

“You’re always going to have your share of frustrating games over the course of the season,” Scioscia said. “This one was obviously extremely frustrating, but we’ve got to get these guys to bounce back tomorrow.”

Actually, today.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

Twitter: @MikeDiGiovanna