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		A’s edged by Angels in 10 By George Devine, Sr. July 9, 2010
	OAKLAND, CA - JULY 07: Cliff Pennington #2 of the Oakland Athletics turns a double play while Marcus Thames #38 of the New York Yankees slides into second base on a ball hit by Francisco Cervelli #29 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on July 7, 2010 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
	After being swept by the New York Yankees, the Athletics began a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Coliseum is one BART stop from the Fruitvale Station, and some were anxious approaching the venue after the previous evening’s violence in downtown Oakland. However, there was no sign of anything untoward en route to the game, except for the absence of the portable “roach coach” at Coliseum Station and an increase in visible Oakland Police at the stadium. The game began with Joel Piniero (9-6, 3.96 ERA) facing fellow RHP Vin Mazzaro (4-2, 3.81). The situation would not improve for the Elephants, as the Halos won, 6-5 in ten innings. Neither starter figured in the decision: the win goes to Kevin Jepsen (1-1) and the loss to Andrew Bailey (0-3). The Angels scored in the first frame when Erick Aybar bunted past Kevin Kouzmanoff at third, stole second and came home on Bobby Abreu’s shot to left into the seats above the out-of-town scoreboard, making it 2-0. The A’s came back in the third when Mark Ellis grounded to right, Gabe Gross doubled to right center to bring him home, then Cliff Pennington singled to center to advance Gross who scored on Coco Crisp’s 3-2 RBI groundout. In the sixth, Howie Kendrick walked, Abreu singled to center, Torii Hunter walked and Hideki Matsui’s sacrifice fly to center delivered Kendrick. Later that inning Jack Cust’s solo shot 362 feet to left put Oakland back in the game. In the eighth, though, Abreu singled and came home on Torii Hunter’s line drive that barely cleared the right field fence. Not to be vanquished so easily, the Athletics scored another two runs in the bottom of the inning as Ryan Sweeney led off with a double to left center and came home on Kurt Suzuki’s single to right. After Cust struck out swinging, Kevin Kouzmanoff doubled to left and Suzuki scored. In the tenth, Aybar homered to the right field seats and the home team could not respond in kind. The two AL West rivals meet again at 6:05 p.m. PDT on Saturday, July 10 with RHP Ben Sheets (3-8, 4.89) facing LHP Scott Kazmir (7-8, 5.98).