ANAHEIM — Yusei Kikuchi received a nice ovation and doffed his cap to the Angel Stadium crowd after his game-opening strikeout of Shea Langeliers on Saturday night, the whiff giving the Japanese left-hander 1,000 strikeouts in his career.
Five batters later, the thrill was gone for Kikuchi, who watched helplessly as Angels left fielder Taylor Ward turned Tyler Soderstrom’s slicing drive over his head that should have been an inning-ending flyout into a three-run double.
One inning after that, those hometown cheers turned to jeers after Kikuchi gave up a three-run homer to Colby Thomas, the Athletics building an early seven-run cushion en route to a 17-4 blowout of the rapidly fading Angels, who have lost 14 of 21 since Aug. 15 to fall eight games back in the American League wild-card race.
Their season may not be officially over–the Angels are not mathematically eliminated with 20 games left – but the final credits are beginning to roll on another box-office bust that will extend their playoff drought to 11 years and mark their 10th straight season with a losing record.
The night actually began on a high note for Kikuchi, who threw an 87-mph slider by Langeliers to join Yu Darvish, Hiedo Nomo and Kenta Maeda as the only Japanese-born pitchers with 1,000 major league strikeouts.
Brent Rooker flied to right, but two walks and Jacob Wilson’s single loaded the bases with two outs. Soderstrom followed with a drive to left, where Ward moved in and to his left before realizing the ball was sailing over his right shoulder.
Ward adjusted his route but not quickly enough to catch the ball, which one-hopped the wall for a bases-clearing double and a 3-0 A’s lead.
Kikuchi retired the first two batters in the second inning before giving up back-to-back doubles to Langeliers and Rooker for a 4-0 A’s lead. Nick Kurtz walked, and Thomas blasted a three-run homer to left-center for a 7-0 lead.
Kikuchi gave up a single to Wilson and hit Soderstrom with a pitch before getting Darell Hernaiz to ground out, but interim manager Ray Montgomery had seen enough, replacing the starter with Chase Silseth to begin the third.
Kikuchi, the team’s ace and lone All-Star representative, fell to 6-11 with a 4.18 ERA on the season and 0-3 with a 13.89 ERA in his last three starts in which he gave up 18 earned runs in 11⅔ innings against the Texas Rangers, Houston Astros and A’s.
The Angels cut the deficit to 7-1 in the third when Mike Trout singled with two outs off Athletics starter J.T. Ginn and scored on Yoán Moncada’s triple off the center-field wall.
But the A’s got that run back in the fourth when Kurtz, the A.L. rookie-of-the-year favorite, smashed his 29th homer of the season off Silseth, a solo shot that left Kurtz’s bat at 110.7 mph and traveled 447 feet to center field for an 8-1 lead.
The game took an ugly turn for the Angels in the sixth, when reliever Brock Burke sailed a throw six feet over first baseman Oswald Peraza’s head on Thomas’s inning-opening comebacker, an error that led to an unearned run and a 9-1 A’s lead.
Things got even uglier in the eighth, when Angels infielder Scott Kingery took the mound. The right-hander struck out Kurtz with a 32.5-mph floater before giving up five runs and eight hits, including Carlos Cortes’ three-run homer, in the inning.
Jo Adell hit his team-leading 34th homer in the bottom of the eighth for the Angels. A’s outfielder JJ Bleday hit a three-run homer off Kingery in the ninth.
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