Los Angeles Angels vs Oakland Athletics Box Score on Jul 26, 2020

The Oakland Athletics took advantage of the wild pitching from Shohei Ohtani to score five times in the first inning and held on for a 6-4 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Angels on Sunday afternoon.

After the teams had split the first two contests of a four-game series, the A's immediately grabbed the upper hand in the third matchup.

They got plenty of help from Ohtani (0-1), who was pitching in a regular-season game for the first time since a painful outing in September of 2018 that was followed with Tommy John elbow surgery.

After Marcus Semien singled to open the first, Ohtani walked Ramon Laureano, Matt Chapman and Matt Olson in succession, forcing in the game's first run.

Mark Canha followed with a two-run single and Robbie Grossman had an RBI hit, increasing the A's lead to 4-0, while prompting Angels manager Joe Maddon to pull Ohtani before he had recorded a single out.

Ohtani, the American League rookie of the year in 2018, faced six batters, allowing three hits and three walks. He was charged with all five runs in the inning.

Reliever Matt Andriese needed just two batters to produce three outs to end the inning, but a double-play grounder off the bat of Vimael Machin produced a fifth run.

Despite being gifted a big lead, Oakland right-hander Mike Fiers did not complete the five innings required to get credit for a win. He was pulled two batters into the fifth, two innings after the Angels closed the gap to 5-3 on a three-run home run from Mike Trout, his first.

The Angels got within 5-4 when Brian Goodwin, who had led off the fifth with a single off Fiers, scored on a sacrifice fly by Trout.

But Yusmeiro Petit (1-0) got out of the inning without further damage, and four other A's relievers kept Los Angeles scoreless on two hits over the final four innings.

Liam Hendriks, who got the final out of the eighth inning, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his first save.

Catcher Sean Murphy provided the Oakland bullpen with an insurance run on a solo home run, his first of the season, off Noe Ramirez in the sixth.

Semien and Grossman had two hits apiece for the A's.

Trout finished with two hits and four RBIs, while David Fletcher went 4-for-4 for the Angels, who out-hit Oakland 9-7.

--Field Level Media