OC Register: Angels blank A’s behind strong start from Jaime Barría

[AngelsWin.com]

ANAHEIM ― The Angels are temporarily wearing the uniforms the club employed from 1973 to 1992, with a sans serif script across the front, a pin stripe down the pant legs, and a red silhouette of the state of California on the left sleeve.

Saturday, the Angels won a game that belonged to an earlier era.

Starting pitcher Jaime Barría scattered four hits across 6 ⅔ scoreless innings in a 1-0 win over the Oakland A’s before an announced crowd of 23,207 at Angel Stadium. The two teams combined for 11 hits and no home runs in a game that lasted 2 hours and 43 minutes.

The Angels (52-52) moved one game closer to Oakland (59-47), the current holder of the second wild card berth in the American League.

The Angels manufactured their only run in the third inning using two singles and a double.

Matt Thaiss, in his first major league at-bat of the season, greeted A’s starter Cole Irvin with a single to right field. David Fletcher singled with one out, sending Thaiss to second base.

The next hitter, Shohei Ohtani, launched a fastball down the middle of the plate to the gap in right-center field. Thaiss scored easily as Ohtani cruised into second base, and the Angels had the game’s first, last, and only run.

Barría (2-0) threw 95 pitches and got only eight swings and misses, but limited the Athletics to mostly weak contact. The right-hander lowered his earned-run average from 6.23 to 4.12 in his fourth appearance of the season, and logged his second win since being recalled from Triple-A on July 25.

Barría didn’t encounter any trouble until the seventh inning, when Oakland loaded the bases on two singles and an error. Right-hander Steve Cishek was summoned from the bullpen and retired Mark Canha on a line drive to left field, ending the threat.

Left-hander Jose Quijada pitched the eighth inning and got two outs when Matt Olson hit into a double play. The next batter, Ramon Laureano, doubled. But closer Raisel Iglesias ― who remained an Angel after the trade deadline Friday ― got Jed Lowrie to line out to end the inning.

Iglesias then struck out two of the three batters he faced in the ninth inning to nail down his 22nd save of the season.

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