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Friday, Jun. 30 10:05pm ET
Cooper allows just three hits | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Brian Cooper was as conscious of his pitch count as he was of the Oakland Athletics' heavy-hitting lineup. The Anaheim Angels right-hander threw 123 pitches and scattered three hits -- all singles -- in his first major league shutout as he beat the Oakland Athletics 7-0 Friday night. "I was thinking about that after the seventh inning," Cooper said of his pitch count. "I went and looked at the chart and I saw that I already had 102 pitches. Buddy (pitching coach Bud Black) came up to me and said, 'I'll be honest with you. If you want to finish this game, you're going to have to do it quickly.' "I threw a few too many pitches in the eighth, and they said, 'Look, you've only got a few more pitches.' I knew if I put anybody else on base, I was done. So I just tried to throw it right down the middle." Cooper (3-2) already had thrown 113 pitches when he entered the ninth. He struck out Ramon Hernandez, retired Terrence Long on a fly to left and got Randy Velarde to ground to third. "That was certainly going to be his last hitter. We were close to taking him out," said manager Mike Scioscia, who had Al Levine warming up. "Although we'd like to give him every opportunity to get a shutout, he's got a ton of starts left this year. So we're not going to put those at risk. For him to go 123, that's his max range." Cooper ended a string of three consecutive no-decisions and a personal five-game winless streak in his first major league complete game. He struck out four and walked one in his 13th career start, giving the Angels their second shutout of the season. "I'm not the kind of guy who's going to strike people out. I've got to rely on my defense," said Cooper, who induced 13 groundballs. "Being mainly a groundball pitcher, the infielders have got to work hard and make plays for me. And they did." Oakland managed just Jason Giambi's first-inning single, a fifth-inning single by Matt Stairs off first baseman Mo Vaughn's glove and John Jaha's eighth-inning infield single by John Jaha. "He just threw strikes with everything he had," Athletics manager Art Howe said. "He changed speeds well and got ahead in the count. He did all the things a pitcher should do, and it looked pretty easy." Garret Anderson, who turned 28 on Friday, homered to trigger Anaheim's five-run sixth inning and robbed Velarde of a home run in the fourth to keep the score at 2-0. "I didn't think it would go that far. But I knew when I got to the wall that I had a chance," Anderson said. "Those are always hard to judge. You have so much time and you get back there so early that you have to judge it just right, instead of react." Anderson led off the sixth with his 22nd homer, one more than his previous career best, and Bengie Molina hit his seventh homer one out later. Adam Kennedy then doubled and scored on a single by Darin Erstad to give the Angels a 5-0 lead and chase Mark Mulder (5-3), who allowed six runs and 10 hits in 5 2-3 innings. Benji Gil greeted T.J. Mathews with the Angels' third homer of the inning and the Angels' 123rd of the season _ the most they've had before the All-Star break in the team's 40-year history. It also was their 75th at home, one more than they hit at Edison Field all last year. The Angels opened the scoring in the first on Tim Salmon's sacrifice fly. They loaded the bases later that inning on a two-out double by Anderson and an intentional walk to Troy Glaus, who had struck out in nine of his previous 11 at-bats. But Long raced to the warning track in center to retire Molina with an over-the-shoulder catch. Mo Vaughn increased the lead to 2-0 in the second with a two-out RBI single. Game notesThe Angels' only other shutout this season was Scott Schoeneweis' 6-0 three-hitter on April 10 against Toronto. ... The Angels have hit three homers in an inning five times this season and 23 times in club history. ... Long went 0-for-3 with a walk, ending his hitting streak at 17 games. He settled for a share of the Oakland record with Mike Edwards (1978) and Luis Polonia (1987) ... Erstad finished June with a .379 average, six homers, 24 RBIs and 19 runs scored. Overall, the Angels' leadoff hitter is batting .374 with 16 homers, 59 RBIs, 59 runs scored -- and a major league-leading 128 hits. At this time last year, Erstad was hitting .252 with seven homers, 22 RBIs and 78 hits. ... Angels pitcher Jason Dickson, whose season ended prematurely after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder last week, got engaged during the team's just-concluded road trip. "They're dropping like flies," teammate Justin Baughman said to pitcher Jarrod Washburn before the team began their pregame stretching. ... The Angels, 14-12 in June, finished their third consecutive month with a record of .500 or better for the first time since May-July, 1995. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Oakland Clubhouse Anaheim Clubhouse RECAPS Minnesota 7 Cleveland 2
Anaheim 7
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