Los Angeles Angels Walk Off With Victory Over the Oakland Athletics
It took 14 innings but it was all worth the wait.
Espn.com reports that the Los Angeles Angels prevailed over the Oakland Athletics, 2-1, as Colin Cowgill delivered the decisive long drive in the 14th inning. Cowgill hit a two-out homer and gave the Angels their fifth consecutive victory Tuesday night.
The Angels tallied the score when Cespedes kept the match tied with a throw that will be on the highlight reel for years. He cut down Howie Kendrick on the plate with a 300-foot heave on a fly from deep down the left-field line.
After five futile innings, Cowgill hit against Jeff Francis, driving a two strike pitch over cespedes' head and into the bullpen beyond the left field.
"I was just hoping it had enough on it to get it over his head," said Cowgill, who had three hits. "That guy has made some incredible plays on us the last couple of times."
The Angels could have won the match earlier but Albert Pujols and Kendrick both were thrown out at the plate. The out on Kendrick coming from the spectacular play of the night - Cespedes' mind-boggling throw in the eighth.
"He's capable of doing just about anything on the baseball field, and that's just another example," said Jed Lowrie, who drove in Oakland's only run.
The main spectacle of the match was pitching and defense which was aptly described by The Athletics manager.
"Hey, what can you do?" manager Bob Melvin said. "They played as hard as they could, both teams did. After a while, everybody is trying to win it with one swing. Unfortunately, we weren't at our best today offensively."
The Angels benefited from an exceptional fill-in start from Hector Santiago, recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake. He was filling in for Tyler Skaggs who went on the disabled list. Santiago lost his spot in Los Angeles' rotation May 7 after going 0-6, but the Angels' offseason acquisition from the White Sox limited powerful Oakland to three singles and one walk.
I had clean mechanics and felt like everything was smooth," Santiago said. "That's what I went down there to work on, and the results came out."
