K-ROD COMES UP ONE STRIKE SHORT OAKLAND RALLY IN 9TH GIVES ANGELS' CLOSER 1ST BLOWN SAVE OF SEASON OAKLAND 4, ANGELS 3.Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer ANAHEIM - In a way, Francisco Rodriguez's initiation into the fraternity of closers was completed Friday night. It's often said the toughest element of baseball's ultimate high-wire gig is bouncing back from failure. Rodriguez will learn how difficult that is after failing for the first time as the Angels' full-time closer Friday, when Scott Hatteberg's two-out, two-strike, two-run ninth-inning single gave the Oakland Athletics “Philadelphia Athletics” redirects here. For other uses, see Philadelphia Athletics (disambiguation). The Oakland Athletics are a professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. a 4-3 victory over the Angels. Rodriguez, pitching on three consecutive nights for the first time this season, was handed a 3-2 lead, but gave up singles to Mark Kotsay Mark Steven Kotsay (born December 2, 1975) is an outfielder for the Oakland Athletics. A native of Whittier, California[1], Kotsay was selected by the Florida Marlins the 9th pick of the Amateur Draft in 1996 out of Cal State Fullerton. and Marco Scutaro Marco Scutaro (pronounced /ˈskud̪əɾo/; born October 30, 1975 in Yaracuy State, Venezuela to an Italian father and a Spanish mother) is a Major League Baseball second baseman who plays for the Oakland to start the inning. He battled back to strike out No. 3 hitter Eric Chavez Eric Cesar Chavez (pronounced CHA-vez) (born December 7, 1977 in Los Angeles, California) is a Mexican-American third baseman in Major League Baseball who has played for the Oakland Athletics since 1998. on a slider A block of material that holds the read/write head of a magnetic disk. See flying head. that kissed the inside corner for the inning's first out. Erubiel Durazo Erubiel Durazo Cárdenas (born January 23, 1974 in Hermosillo, Sonora) is a Mexican baseball player. Durazo played for the Arizona Diamondbacks (1999-2002) and the Oakland Athletics (2003-2005). Durazo enjoyed his best season in 2004 when he hit . went down even easier, fanning at a two-strike slider in the dirt. But the pitch was nasty enough to bounce away from catcher Jose Molina, and the runners moved up. But when Rodriguez got two quick strikes on Hatteberg, that didn't seem to matter. The sellout crowd of 43,810 roared in support of perhaps the club's most exciting performer, and Rodriguez needed just one more strike to complete a 23-inning scoreless streak by the bullpen. But he left a fastball over the plate and Hatteberg went the opposite way, knocking it into left field for a two-run single. Octavio Dotel Octavio Eduardo Dotel (born November 25, 1973 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a major league pitcher for the Atlanta Braves. He bats and throws right-handed. Mets gave up a two-out double to Juan Rivera Juan Rivera may refer to:
DaVanon came up through the Oakland Athletics system before being traded to the Anaheim Angels as a minor-leaguer in 1999. struck out on a pitch in the dirt and the Angels (9-8) were foiled in their attempt to win three consecutive games for the first time this season. While the bullpen ultimately was saddled for the loss, they did most of the heavy lifting to get the Angels in position to win. Kevin Gregg pitched a scoreless sixth and Scot Shields two scoreless innings, deftly dodging a bases-loaded mess of his own creation in the seventh. Angels starter John Lackey did not pitch beyond the fifth inning for the third time in four starts, creating a bullpen burden the Angels would rather avoid. Lackey exhausted 105 pitches to complete five innings, which is why he hit the bench early. And he once again was unable to hold a lead his teammates gave him, as he coughed up a 2-1 advantage when Adam Melhuse hit an RBI RBI abbr. Baseball runs batted in Noun 1. rbi - a run that is the result of the batter's performance; "he had more than 100 rbi last season" run batted in double in the fourth. But he managed to avoid the knockout blow that has dogged him in recent years, leaning on off-speed stuff rather than heat to dodge trouble. When he muffed a tailor-made double-play ball for an error in the second, creating a bases-loaded situation, the wheels could have come off. Instead, he struck out Nick Swisher on a changeup and, after hitting Bobby Kielty to make it 1-0 Oakland, got Melhuse to pop to third, ending the inning. In the fourth, Lackey nearly had a 1-2-3 inning, but when he broke Kielty's bat with a 94-mph fastball, the ball fell softly into right field for a two-out single. Lackey pounded his glove in frustration, then yielded Melhuse's RBI double, tying it at 2-2. But an off-speed pitch retired Kotsay on a grounder to first, and a first-and-second situation in the fifth ended when Mark Ellis struck out on a full-count changeup. The Angels lineup couldn't muster much on Oakland starter Kirk Saarloos, however. DaVanon's RBI single gave them a 2-1 lead in the second, and Garret Anderson's RBI groundout in the sixth made it 3-2. But Ricardo Rincon, Keiichi Yabu and Dotel combined for 3 2/3 shutout innings. Gabe Lacques, (626) 962-8811 gabe.lacques(at)sgvn.com CAPTION(S): photo, 4 boxes Photo: The A's Marco Scutaro, left, reaches to tag out Angels outfielder Vladimir Guerrero during a rundown as Oakland's Mark Ellis looks on in the sixth. Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press Box: (1) ANGELS vs. OAKLAND (2) GAME RECAP (3) HOW THE RUNS SCORED (4) ALMANAC almanac, originally, a calendar with notations of astronomical and other data. Almanacs have been known in simple form almost since the invention of writing, for they served to record religious feasts, seasonal changes, and the like. |
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