Piscotty drives in three runs, A's win ninth in row at home

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The Oakland Athletics love to swing their way to early leads, and then pile up more runs whenever they can.

Marcus Semien homered to give Mike Fiers a quick cushion, Stephen Piscotty drove in all three of his runs with two outs, and the AL-best A's beat the Los Angeles Angels 5-3 on Friday night to run their home winning streak to nine games.

The A’s (19-8) moved a season-best 11 games over .500 and have their best 27-game start since beginning 21-6 in 1990.

“Always good to get off to a good start,” Piscotty said, noting of two-out hits, “those are big at-bats. A lot of us, including myself, have usually struggled a little bit there but it was only a matter of time before that started to turn.”

Fiers (3-1) allowed three runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Semien notched his third career leadoff home run and second this season as Oakland jumped on Andrew Heaney from the start, also getting Stephen Piscotty's two-run double in the first. Matt Olson added an RBI double in the fifth to chase Heaney (1-2) before Piscotty's run-scoring single.

“I’ve pitched against this lineup and it’s not fun," Fiers said. “They burn you in so many ways.”

Angels star Mike Trout hit a broken-bat, two-run single in the sixth that glanced off first baseman Matt Olson's glove and then got past a lunging Chad Pinder.

Joakim Soria threw a 76 mph slider to retire Trout on a called third strike to end an eight-pitch at-bat and the eighth inning. Liam Hendriks finished for his ninth save.

Angels slugger Albert Pujols went 1 for 5 with a double and remained stuck at 659 home runs, one from tying Hall of Famer Willie Mays for fifth all-time.

Anthony Rendon had four more hits for an 11-game hitting streak for the Angels.

Heaney, who took a no-decision...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Piscotty-drives-in-three-runs-A-s-win-ninth-in-15506793.php