Luis Rengifo hit the eighth pitch of the game for a home run and Jose Suarez won a pitcher’s duel over fellow left-hander Cole Irvin as the visiting Los Angeles Angels beat the Oakland Athletics 1-0 in the opener of a three-game series Monday night.
The Angels recorded the win, their third in the last five games, despite sitting out star Shohei Ohtani, who got spiked atop the left foot in a freak accident during Sunday’s loss in Seattle.
Angels interim manager Phil Nevin said holding out Ohtani was done in order to rest him for his scheduled pitching start Tuesday rather than anything to do with his foot injury.
Rengifo jumped on Irvin’s first pitch with two outs in the first and put it well over the left field wall for his sixth homer of the season.
That was the first and only scoring in a game that featured just seven hits, including just two by the A’s.
Suarez (4-4) worked the first seven innings for the Angels, limiting the A’s to two hits — an infield single by Jonah Bride in the third and a solid single to center field by Elvis Andrus in the fourth. He walked two and struck out eight.
The A’s got baserunners to second base in both innings in which they got a hit off Suarez, but failed to come through with a two-out hit that could have tied the score.
Aaron Loup and Ryan Tepera finished up for Suarez, needing a total of just 15 pitches to dispatch the A’s in order in both the eighth and ninth innings. Tepera pitched the ninth and earned his second save.
Irvin (6-9) went eight innings, allowing just the one run on Renfigo’s homer. He gave up five hits and no walks while striking out six.
The Angels also threatened in the sixth when David Fletcher and Taylor Ward singled consecutively with one out. But Irvin got Rengifo to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Rengifo and Fletcher had two hits apiece for the Angels, who recorded the game’s only extra-base hit on Rengifo’s homer.
–Field Level Media