WEST SACRAMENTO — Zach Neto is becoming an A’s assassin.
For the second time this season, Neto hit a ninth-inning home run against the Athletics. The first was a walk-off shot last month. His Father’s Day blast was a go-ahead homer that sent the Angels to a 9-7 win on Sunday.
“I think with Net, you always feel like something’s going to happen,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said after the game. “He loves big moments. He wants that big moment.”
Neto thinks they’re a good time.
“It’s fun hitting the game-winning homer, the walk-off homer. Big-time hit not only for me, but for everyone in this clubhouse,” Neto said after the game. “I’ve got to do a better job throughout the whole game, but we’re going to enjoy this one a little bit.”
Denzer Guzman’s third home run in as many days, a three-run shot, tied the game in the top of the eighth, but the Angels were still looking for their first lead of the game until Neto delivered in the ninth.
Neto said that watching him emerge into the player he’s becoming has been “so fun to watch,” while manager Kurt Suzuki has been saying all weekend he’s looking like he belongs.
Guzman feels that he belongs too.
“I know I belong here,” Guzman said through an interpreter after Sunday’s game. “I prepare for that, and I work for that. Here are the results.”
The A’s failed to do anything with a runner on second in the bottom of the eighth, and Angels reliever Sam Bachman earned some redemption in the same situation he faced Friday night: a two-run lead in the ninth. This time, the hard-throwing right-hander shut the door with a 1-2-3 inning, earning his first save of the season.
The series between the Angels and A’s began with the home team collecting six straight hits and scoring five runs before the visitors had another turn at bat. Sunday’s game followed a similar path in the first inning.
In the top of the first, Colby Thomas extended over the right-field wall to rob Jo Adell of a home run and end the inning. In the bottom half, Reid Detmers gave up a single on the first pitch he threw, then walked the next three batters he faced, giving the A’s an early lead.
The A’s tacked on three more runs in the inning on a sacrifice fly and RBI singles from Joey Meneses and Henry Bolte.
This time, the Angels showed some fight in the top of the second. A pair of singles set the stage for Donovan Walton’s three-run homer that put his team right back in the game. A young Angels fan in a Mike Trout shirt caught Walton’s home run ball.
Back-to-back doubles from Zack Gelof and Nick Kurtz padded the A’s lead in the fourth. The Angels answered unconventionally in the fifth. A single and a walk put runners on first and second, then a pair of wild pitches scored Jose Siri to bring the Angels back within a run.
For most of the four-game series against the A’s, Angels pitching had been able to quiet the bat of first baseman Nick Kurtz. Heading into his plate appearance in the bottom of the seventh on Sunday, he had gone 4 for 13 with three doubles and two RBIs. He had also struck out eight times.
That all changed with a runner on in the bottom of the seventh, when Kurtz clobbered a Brent Suter four-seam fastball 437 feet to center, extending the A’s lead. The home run was his 19th of the season, but just his first against Angels pitching in eight games.
Each time the A’s scored, the Angels answered back to stay within striking distance until Guzman’s homer in the eighth finally brought them even.
Detmers entered the game having allowed three or fewer runs in each of his last nine games. He finished Sunday with six innings, six hits, five earned runs, four walks and four strikeouts. The only other blemish in that run also came against the A’s, on May 19.
“Just didn’t feel good mechanically in the first,” Detmers said after the game. He just needed a reset to get him back to where he’s shown he can be, and that got him through six innings. “I’m glad I was able to make it through six and kept the pitch count relatively low.”
The Angels finished the road trip 3-4 and head home for a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles.