Game 60 Recap or It's Raining Singles

Oakland 10, Anaheim 1 (WPA Graph from Fangraphs)

A's Current Record: 31-29

This was a big game for the A's --- they clearly had a disadvantage in the pitching matchup and losing would guarantee the Angels a split at worse in the series.  When your team wins a game like this, especially in a relatively painless way (at no point did the A's have less than a 50% chance of winning on the WPA graph), it feels like you're playing with house money.

The A's continued to manufacture runs with 2-out singles (not exactly a sustainable model of offense, but hey, I'll take it for now), scoring 1 run in each of the first 3 innings in that way, with Jack Cust, Eric Patterson and Gabe Gross providing the hits.  The A's definitely got lucky with the 3rd run, as Ryan Sweeney looked to be out at the plate (and Eric Patterson looked like he got picked off 2nd the next inning) and it proved to be a pretty important run.

Vin Mazzaro looked better than I've seen him this season, walking none (though his command wasn't great) and showing above-average stuff, giving the A's 5 innings before handing it off to the bullpen.  The Angels rallied in the 5th, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with 0 out (and Mike Ryan missed a homer by about 18 inches), but Mazzaro got out of it allowing only 1 run, thanks in part to the Angels' impatience.  Having the 3-run lead made me feel a lot more comfortable than if it had just been 2.  In the 7th, the Angels put 2 on with 2 out, bringing the go-ahead run to the plate, but Jerry Blevins got a big strikeout of Erick Aybar.  The bullpen pitched great overall, putting up 4 scoreless innings with 5 Ks and 0 walks.  Tyson Ross looked good in a low-leverage situation, and the A's managed to save Wuertz and Bailey for the remainder of the series.

Thanks in part to Mike Scioscia leaving in Jered Weaver in a little too long, Kurt Suzuki finally broke the game open (after 11 singles and just 3 runs) with a 3-run HR.  The A's scored 4 more off Trevor Bell, including a 2-run bomb off Jack Cust, and ended up with a season-high 18 hits (including 4 from Suzuki and 3 each from Patterson & Sweeney).

One bit of news --- with Rajai Davis nursing a sore hamstring, the A's called up Matt Carson (who was up briefly this year) and sent down Henry Rodriguez, going back down to 12 pitchers.  Gabe Gross played CF today instead of Ryan Sweeney, which surprised me initially, but taking a quick look at fielding numbers, it was actually probably the right call (and boy, Eric Patterson has terrible UZR #s in the OF).  Good to know.