Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon homer again, but Angels fall to A’s

Angels right-hander Griffin Canning tipped his cap to the Athletics following Wednesday’s 8-4 loss in Angel Stadium, saying Oakland’s hitters, who clubbed three tape-measure home runs in four innings off him, simply “executed a game plan better than I did today.�

After Matt Olson hit a 454-foot solo shot to right-center field in the first inning, Robbie Grossman hit a 421-foot, two-run shot to right-center in the second and Stephen Piscotty hit a 428-foot solo shot to left in the fourth, Angels manager Joe Maddon wondered if there was something else Canning was tipping: his pitches.

“I just want to look at it — I want to see what’s going on,� Maddon said after the A’s avoided a three-game sweep. “Mickey [Callaway, pitching coach] and I talked about it. They just weren’t chasing, and they were early-count hitting.

“I don’t know if that was their game plan and they were fortuitous, but that’s one of the things you have to look at. … It just seemed like they were on everything, and [Canning] wasn’t getting the normal bad swings I see him get.�

Canning allowed four runs and six hits, struck out two and walked none. It was an improvement over his last start, when he walked six in 3 2/3 innings in last Friday’s 4-3 loss at Texas, but he didn’t feel like his line matched his stuff.

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“Honestly, I felt like I had probably some of the better stuff I had this year, so that’s just baseball,� Canning said. “I thought they did a really good job of laying off some good sliders that were down and away.�

As they review video, Canning and Callaway will try to determine if any pitches were tipped.

“I mean, especially in today’s game, I think it’s just something you consistently have to be on the lookout for,� Canning said. “I felt like my stuff was really good today. It could just be a product of them.

“They’re Major League Baseball players. They get paid a lot of money, too, so they just could have executed a game plan really well. Or, there could be something there, I don’t know.�

Mike Trout hit his team-leading eighth homer, a solo shot to right, in the first and a sacrifice fly in a two-run third, and Anthony Rendon homered in his third straight game, driving a solo shot to center in the sixth to pull the Angels to within 5-4.

The Angels nearly tied the score in the seventh when Brian Goodwin sent a two-out drive to deep center, where Ramon Laureano, playing on appeal of a six-game suspension for his part in Sunday’s benches-clearing incident with Houston, made a superb leaping catch above the wall to rob Goodwin of a homer.

“We knew it was gonna be close,� Maddon said of Goodwin’s drive. “It wasn’t gone-gone, one of those things where you know it’s a home run. When it left the bat, it was a definite maybe.�

Laureano also made a diving catch in shallow center to rob Jo Adell of a hit in the fifth and a leaping catch of Tommy La Stella’s drive to the wall in the sixth.

He then provided a dagger in the eighth, following Angels reliever Ty Buttrey’s bases-loaded walk to Marcus Semien with a two-out, two-run single to center for an 8-4 Oakland lead.

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“We obviously wish he had started serving his suspension today,� Maddon said of Laureano. “He’s a good baseball player. He swings the bat well, works good at-bats, doesn’t chase, he’s good on defense. He caught that blooper, catches the ball over the wall. He was probably the biggest difference in today’s game.�

Laureano had the only hit in the three-run eighth, as the A’s took advantage of Felix Pena’s walk to Grossman, Keynan Middleton’s walks to Piscotty and No. 9 hitter Sean Murphy and Buttrey’s walk on a full-count slider in the dirt to Semien.

Middleton, Pena and Buttrey were beginning to solidify late-inning roles with their stout relief work in the past week or so, but Wednesday was a step back for the bullpen.

“The walks hurt us there, no question about it,� Maddon said. “We just can’t walk teams like this and give them that opportunity.�

Three observations on the Angels

1. Demoted closer Hansel Robles provided a bright spot, striking out Matt Chapman with a 97-mph fastball, Mark Canha with a 95-mph fastball and Robbie Grossman with an 88-mph changeup in the ninth.
   
2. Rookie right fielder Jo Adell had a rough first week in the big leagues, making several defensive gaffes and knocking a Nick Solak fly ball over the wall with his glove for a four-base error on Sunday. But he made a nice leaping catch at the top of the wall of Matt Olson’s drive to end the eighth with two on.
   
3. Injured shortstop Andrelton Simmons (left-ankle sprain) could return this weekend, but he won’t push David Fletcher, who has dazzled defensively and sparked the offense from the leadoff spot, out of the lineup.