Zach Neto walloped a two-run homer with no outs in the ninth inning giving the Los Angeles Angels a dramatic 2-1 victory over the Athletics on Monday night at Anaheim, Calif.
The Angels didn’t record a hit through eight innings against J.T. Ginn before breaking through in the ninth to end their six-game losing streak.
Adam Frazier led off the ninth with a single to center on an 0-2 slider, ending Ginn’s no-hit ball, and pinch runner Jose Siri replaced him. Neto strode up and sent a 1-1 sinker over the fence in center.
Ginn (2-2) struck out a career-high 10, walked one and also hit a batter. The right-hander threw 105 pitches — 99 through eight innings before returning for the ninth.
Lawrence Butler’s pinch-hit single in the top of the ninth plated the Athletics’ lone run.
Chase Silseth (1-0) induced Nick Kurtz to hit into a double play with the bases loaded in the ninth to end the inning and set up the decisive rally. That was the only batter Silseth faced.
Ginn retired the Angels’ first 13 batters of the game until he walked Yoan Moncada with one out in the fifth. He rebounded by striking out Jo Adell and getting Josh Lowe on a comebacker to end the inning.
Ginn hit Neto on the left thigh with a pitch with two outs in the sixth before getting Mike Trout on a grounder to third to end the inning.
In the seventh, Ginn struck out Nolan Schanuel, Jorge Soler and Moncada, and he got through the eighth by retiring Adell and Lowe on liners to center before Logan O’Hoppe popped out to shortstop to end the inning.
Ginn was trying to achieve the Athletics’ first no-hitter since Mike Fiers’ effort on May 7, 2019 against the Cincinnati Reds.
Angels starter Walbert Urena pitched six shutout innings. He gave up four hits and two walks and struck out four.
Kurtz doubled in the fifth inning to extend his streak of reaching base to 41 consecutive games. That is the franchise’s longest single-season streak since Mark McGwire reached in 48 straight in 1996.
The Athletics’ Zach Gelof singled with one out in the ninth off Ryan Zeferjahn and stole second. The theft allowed him to easily score on Butler’s single to center.
Zeferjahn then walked Carlos Cortes and Shea Langeliers to load the bases. Silseth entered and got Kurtz to bounce to second to start the double play.
