Oakland Athletics double down in 4-1 victory over Angels

Jered Weaver achieved one of his stated goals Saturday, keeping the ball in the park against the Oakland Athletics. This was no small achievement, considering the Angels right-hander has been tagged for 16 home runs this season, tied with Minnesota’s Phil Hughes for most in the American League.

But that didn’t prevent Weaver from suffering his fourth consecutive loss. The Athletics found plenty of patches of open grass in the outfield, ripping three run-scoring doubles off Weaver and another off reliever Cam Bedrosian in a 4-1 victory over the Angels in the Oakland Coliseum.

The Angels tied the score, 1-1, in the top of the sixth when Mike Trout singled to center with one out off Oakland starter Jesse Hahn, Albert Pujols walked and Erick Aybar grounded a run-scoring single to center field.

But the A’s broke the tie with three runs in the bottom of the sixth, Stephen Vogt sparking the rally with a leadoff single to right. Ben Zobrist grounded into a fielder’s choice, but Josh Reddick stayed back on a Weaver curve and drove it into the left-field corner for an opposite-field RBI double and a 2-1 lead.

Weaver struck out Ike Davis on a changeup for the second out. Brett Lawrie lined a first-pitch RBI double into the left-field corner for a 3-1 lead. Lawrie was so fired up he went into second with a hard pop-up slide, even though no Angels player was within 60 feet of the bag.

Manager Mike Scioscia replaced Weaver with Bedrosian, whose first pitch was banged into the left-fielder corner by Josh Phegley for an RBI double and a 4-1 lead.

Weaver, who gave up back-to-back doubles to Marcus Semien and Vogt for a run in the first, was charged with four earned runs in 5 2/3 innings, allowing six hits, striking out four and walking one to fall to 4-8 with a 4.75 ERA in a streak-filled season.

After opening with an 0-4 record and 6.29 earned-run average in his first six starts, Weaver went 4-0 with a 1.98 ERA in his next five starts from May 8-30. But in his last four starts, he is 0-4 with a 6.58 ERA.

Hahn allowed one run and four hits in 7 2/3 innings, striking out four and walking four to improve to 5-5 with a 3.40 ERA, and Tyler Clippard got the final four outs for his 11th save.

Angels left-hander Cesar Ramos relieved Bedrosian in the seventh and escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam to keep the score close.

Follow Mike DiGiovanna on Twitter @MikeDiGiovanna