Surging Angels Get All A’s in Oakland

OAKLAND — The Angels tied their Windsor knots, donned their sports coats, leisurely grabbed their briefcases and headed out of the Oakland Coliseum after Sunday’s 5-3 victory over the Athletics.

Another four-game sweep of the hapless A’s was complete, running the Angels to 10-0 against Oakland this season, but it didn’t seem like any big deal. Just business as usual.

“That’s the one thing we want to keep in check,” Angel right fielder Tim Salmon said. “We’re winning, scoring some runs, playing well, and that’s great, but we don’t want to get overly excited because of the competition we’ve been facing.

“You recognize what teams’ strengths and weaknesses are, and it’s obvious this team is struggling and wasn’t able to throw much pitching at us. We need to take advantage of that. This was a series we’re supposed to win, and that’s what we did.”

The Angels have won 11 in a row against the A’s dating to last season, their longest streak over one team in history, and their six-game road sweep was the first time since 1982 the A’s have dropped all six games at home to one team. Toronto went 6-0 at Oakland that year.

Sunday’s victory, before a crowd of 15,164, was forged on some clutch hitting--Tony Phillips and Darin Erstad had two-out RBI singles in a three-run second and Salmon had a two-out RBI single in the sixth--and some outstanding relief pitching.

Starter Dennis Springer had a no-hitter through four innings but fell apart in the fifth, giving up a two-out RBI double to Tony Batista and RBI singles to Brent Mayne and Mark Bellhorn, as the A’s cut a 4-0 deficit to 4-3.

A walk to Jason Giambi to load the bases brought Manager Terry Collins--and reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa--to the mound. Canseco worked the count full against Hasegawa before grounding out to short to end the inning.

Hasegawa pitched a scoreless sixth and seventh, Rich DeLucia added a perfect eighth and Troy Percival a hitless ninth for his 12th save, helping the Angels improve to a season-high six games over .500 (48-42) and pull within 2 1/2 games of the Seattle Mariners.

“Shige was outstanding today,” Collins said. “It’s not fun to come in with the bases loaded and face Jose Canseco, but what I needed there was someone to throw strikes . . . he has no fear in that situation.”

Hasegawa, who started four games this season with little success, still holds out hope of returning to the rotation--many of his followers in Japan don’t hold relief pitchers in the same regard as starters, so they think Hasegawa is something of a failure.

But the fact is Hasegawa, who gained the victory Sunday, has been more valuable as a reliever. He’s 2-4 with a 4.06 earned-run average, and in seven appearances dating to June 23, he has given up only one run and six hits in 12 2/3 innings.

“He’s been big for us in the past month,” Collins said. “He’s durable, and he can throw strikes with any of his pitches. As a starter, you’ve got to be able to go through the lineup at least two or three times. The first time through Shige can do some things, but the second and third time through he had a tendency to hang some pitches. He hasn’t done that out of the bullpen.”

Hasegawa, 28, said Percival helped him make the transition from starter to reliever.

“He told me it’s important to throw a strike on the first pitch, especially with runners on base,” Hasegawa said. “I realize how important relievers are.”

Percival has been impressed with Hasegawa’s adjustments.

“The hitters here are not like hitters in Japan,” Percival said. “He liked to throw down and in to left-handers in Japan, but 90% of the hitters here love that pitch. That’s where he was getting hurt. I told him to approach all these guys as if they were the strongest Japanese hitters.”

Hasegawa is also a stronger Japanese pitcher.

“He’s lifting weights for the first time,” Percival said. “His velocity is up--he’s throwing a legitimate 90-mph fastball. He could be effective as a starter, but it’s kind of hard when he’s so valuable in the bullpen.”