Is this real life? The Oakland Athletics defeated the visiting Angels 2-1 on Saturday, clinched a series victory, and have now won seven of their last 12 games spanning 13 days. We can't complain!
The Athletics started the season with an impaccable 1-0 record beating the Los Angeles Angles inside the Oakland Coliseum all the way back on Mar. 30. They won 2-1.
The Ahtletics started to wrap up the season this weekend with an ugly 39-95 record entering Friday's opener against the Angels, but they're now sitting pretty at 41-95 while winning the third of fourth series against LA this year.
win vibes 👊 pic.twitter.com/6088DvVxqs
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) September 2, 2023
There will be another meeting to really finish the season spanning three days at the end of September and Oct. 1, but there are still a lot of games left to be played between now and then.
While the Angels couldn't have started this second meeting in any stronger fashion, tagging the A's as early as in the first inning and Paul Blackburn's 27th pitch on the day, that's all they did as Luis Rengifo flew out to bring Nolan Schanuel home but couldn't amount to any other run through the remaining eight-and-change innings of play.
It took a while for the Athletics to bounceback from that early deficit, but they scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, took the lead, and never looked back.
Brents Away 💣 pic.twitter.com/RmGgCPbJRt
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) September 2, 2023
The 23rd homer of Brent Rooker's campaign was all the A's needed to earn their second victory in a row. Rooker put it past the fences to round the bases and score Ryan Noda charging both runs to Angels' starter Griffin Canning.
Now, for the bad news, Tony Kemp will enter free agency in a few weeks. Tony Kemp is a seasoned, grizzled veteran. Tony Kemp is an extraordinarily nice person, at least judging from the outside. Tony Kemp will probably leave the organization, sign elsewhere, and never play for the Las Vegas Athletics.
That sucks, because Tony Kemp cand do things like this on a baseball field.
Just TK things ⚡ pic.twitter.com/oYRRBNDJcj
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) September 2, 2023
Enjoy Tony Kemp while he's a member of the A's. Kemp is a wonderful human being, even better baseball player. And he's also a two-child father now! Yay!
See you on Sunday for the series finale when the A's will try to win their third straight game, something they've only done once this season when they won seven consecutive games in the Jun. 7 through Jun. 13 span.