Mike Trout and Taylor Ward homered and Michael Lorenzen threw five effective innings to lead the Los Angeles Angels to a 4-1 victory over the Oakland A's on Wednesday night in Anaheim, Calif.
Trout's homer leading off the fourth inning, his 38th of the season, sparked a three-run rally in support of Lorenzen (8-6). The right-hander gave up one unearned run in the first inning and nothing else in five innings. He yielded three hits and three walks while striking out eight.
Ward added his 22nd homer of the season in the eighth inning. Jimmy Herget pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his eighth save.
The Angels also got a lift from reliever Jose Quijada, who entered the game with two on and one out in the seventh inning and the Angels leading 3-1.
Quijada struck out pinch hitters Chad Pinder and Jonah Bride to escape, then threw a perfect eighth inning before handing the ball over to Herget.
The A's scored in the first inning after Tony Kemp led off with an infield single and took second on a throwing error by third baseman Matt Duffy.
Kemp went to third on a groundout and scored on Conner Capel's two-out single to put the visitors up 1-0.
Oakland starter Adrian Martinez (4-6) sailed through the first three innings, allowing only a third-inning single to Angels catcher Logan O'Hoppe, who was making his major league debut.
In the fourth, Trout led off with a home run and the Angels didn't stop there. Los Angeles added two more runs in the inning, getting an RBI single from Matt Thaiss and an RBI groundout from Duffy, putting the hosts on top 3-1.
Martinez got out of the inning but he didn't make it out of the fifth. In all, he gave up three runs on five hits while striking out four and walking none in 4 2/3 innings.
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