Juan Rivera hit a two run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning off of Athletics relief pitcher Keith Foulke and the Los Angeles Angels went on to beat the Oakland Athletics by the score of 7-4. With the victory the Angels took two out of three games from the A’s and improved their season record to 51-34.
Rivera’s home run put the Angels in the lead for good and then the Angels got two more insurance runs with single runs in the seventh and eighth innings. Erick Aybar had a solo home run in the seventh and Reggie Willits had a rbi sac fly in the eighth inning. Casey Kotchman also recorded an rbi in the game and now has 40 on the season.
Joe Saunders improved his record to 12-4 on the year after picking up the victory. Saunders pitched 6 1/3 innings and gave up six hits and four runs. Two of the four runs were earned and charged to Saunders who now has a 3.04 era.
Jose Arredondo, Scot Shields, and Francisco Rodriguez all did good out of the bullpen. K-rod grabbed his 34th save in the game as he continues to have a marvelous first half of the season.
The Angels will now be off on Thursday and will begin a series with the Toronto Blue Jays on friday.
