The game was decided in a single inning. Oakland trailed by one heading into the fifth, then sent ten batters to the plate and scored seven times, turning a 0-1 deficit into a 7-1 lead that Los Angeles never threatened. The Athletics won 9-3 at Angel Stadium on Friday night.
J. T. Ginn absorbed the early Angels lead and held it together long enough for his offense to take over. He went 6.0 innings, allowing 3 runs on 8 hits with 5 strikeouts and 1 walk on 89 pitches. Ginn improved to 6-4 with a 3.25 ERA. Nick Kurtz went 2-for-5 with 2 RBI and scored twice, while Henry Bolte drove in 2 runs and scored twice as well. Shea Langeliers added 2 hits and an RBI, and Jonah Heim went 1-for-4 with a double and an RBI.
Los Angeles took the lead in the fourth when Donovan Walton singled to center and Meckler scored. Oakland answered emphatically in the fifth. Jeff McNeil singled to right, scoring Butler and Heim to give the Athletics a 2-1 lead — the go-ahead play that proved to be the turning point. Alika Williams then singled to center, and Muncy scored on an error. Bolte followed with a single to left, scoring McNeil and Williams to push the lead to 5-1. Kurtz singled to center to score Bolte, and Langeliers singled to left to score Kurtz, capping the seven-run frame. Jo Adell hit a two-run homer to right center — 379 feet — in the bottom of the fifth to make it 7-3, but Oakland added two more in the seventh on a Kurtz single and a Heim ground rule double to close out the scoring.
Walbert Urena took the loss for Los Angeles, lasting just 4.1 innings and allowing 7 runs on 6 hits with 5 strikeouts and 2 walks. He fell to 5-6 with a 3.14 ERA. The Angels managed 9 hits but could not recover from the fifth-inning collapse, compounded by 2 errors.
Oakland improved to 39-42 with the win. Los Angeles dropped to 34-48, fifth in the division, despite having won two straight entering the night.