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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Jarrod Washburn knew he was about to hand the ball to a reliever. He just didn't know whether he'd be handing him a no-hitter, too.
|  | | Jarrod Washburn said he would have been too "gassed" to complete a no-hitter himself. |
"I knew that if it was going to be a no-hitter, it would have to be a combined effort. I was gassed," the Anaheim left-hander said after the Angels' 7-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Saturday night.
Washburn took a no-hitter into the seventh, then allowed a
leadoff homer to Olmedo Saenz and a two-out shot to Matt Stairs.
"I really wasn't thinking much about a no-hitter. I just wanted to keep putting up zeros, because this was a big game for us," Washburn said. "Regardless, I think that would've been my last inning."
He didn't get to complete the seventh. After the homer by
Stairs, Al Levine came on to finish with 2 1/3 innings of one-hit ball.
"I thought it was a struggle. I didn't feel like I was
cruising," said Washburn, who walked five. "I didn't have my good
command."
Angels manager Mike Scioscia was also surprised Washburn took a
no-hitter into the seventh.
"You look up and see he hasn't allowed anything but, honestly,
he wasn't as sharp as I've seen him," Scioscia said. "He was
behind a lot, and came back to get big outs.
"But you can't discount his performance."
The Athletics certainly were not about to belittle Washburn's effort, which resulted in their fourth consecutive loss.
"We're a little off now, but he threw a good game. We just couldn't get anything going," Jason Giambi said.
After being held to three hits for the second straight game --
Brian Cooper had blanked Oakland 7-0 in the series opener Friday
night -- A's manager Art Howe was clearly upset.
He held a spirited team meeting after the game, then said, "I'm
just upset with our performance, period. This was not a good
evening. We have to start playing the game the way it's supposed to
be played."
The Athletics had as many errors as hits, with two of the miscues figuring in the scoring, and four pitchers combined to issue nine walks. Three of the walks turned into runs.
"Everyone's a little tired, but we have to stop playing like
we're tired," Giambi said. "We have to suck it up, play hard, and
finish up strong before the (All-Star Game) break."
Washburn (4-2) allowed two runs and two hits, struck out two and
walked five in 6 2/3 innings.
Levine allowed just a double to Ben Grieve in 2 1/3 innings to complete the three-hitter.
The Angels took a 2-0 lead in the first when Tim Salmon hit an
RBI single and Mo Vaughn scored on an errant pickoff throw by Ariel
Prieto (1-1).
Bengie Molina's two-run homer in the third, his eighth, made it
4-0.
Anaheim added an unearned run in the fifth, on second baseman
Randy Velarde's wild relay on a potential inning-ending double
play. Vaughn's RBI single in the sixth made it 6-0.
Vaughn added another RBI single in the eighth to make it 7-2.
Washburn flirted with a no-hitter for the second time this
season, but this was the first time he was actually on the mound to
see it end.
On May 29, the left-hander held the Indians hitless for five
innings in Cleveland, then was removed as a precaution because of a
strained oblique muscle.
Prieto, slowly making his way back from 1998 reconstructive
elbow surgery, went four-plus innings in his third start of the
year. He allowed five runs -- three earned -- on four hits, with five
walks and two strikeouts.
Game notes
The Angels have spent the entire season between two games
under and four games over .500. ... Garret Anderson's walk against
Scott Service in the fifth was his first unintentional walk since
June 2, a span of 102 at-bats. ... Since missing a couple of games
a week ago with back spasms, Troy Glaus is 1-for-18, with 12
strikeouts. Glaus even grounded into a double play in the seventh
after doing so only once in his first 272 at-bats. ... The A's have
scored six runs during their slump. ... Angels SS Benji Gil
prolonged Washburn's no-hitter by going deep into the hole for
Velarde's sixth-inning one-out grounder and throwing him out at
first.
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