ANAHEIM, Calif. — In a thrilling finish, Nolan Schanuel delivered a walk-off single in the 10th inning, clinching a 2-1 victory for the Los Angeles Angels over the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night. This marked Schanuel’s first career walk-off hit, as he drove in Jo Adell to seal the win.
Reid Detmers (2-2) was instrumental in maintaining the stalemate, striking out two of the three batters he faced in the top of the 10th, successfully stranding Oakland’s automatic runner. On the other side, Hogan Harris (1-1) absorbed the loss for the Athletics, who have been struggling with 22 defeats in their last 26 games.
The game was fiercely contested, with the Angels trailing 1-0 until the eighth inning. This was when Travis d’Arnaud stepped up, launching a pinch-hit home run off T.J. McFarland on his very first pitch to level the score at 1-1.
José Soriano, the Angels’ starting pitcher, delivered a standout performance, allowing just one run and two hits, while striking out a career-high of 12 hitters over seven innings. Soriano also achieved a personal milestone with a career-high of 110 pitches, 71 of which were strikes, and managed to induce 22 swinging strikes.
For the Athletics, Mitch Spence, in only his second start since transitioning from the bullpen, put on an impressive show. He did not concede a run over five innings, allowing three hits and striking out four without issuing any walks.
Soriano was nearly untouchable for the first five innings, maintaining a no-hit bid with nine strikeouts and just one walk. The perfect streak ended in the sixth, when Brent Rooker connected with an RBI double to left-center, eluding Adell’s diving effort and putting the A’s ahead 1-0.
A pivotal moment arrived with veteran right-hander Hunter Strickland, who navigated through a tight situation in the eighth with a runner on second and no outs. Strickland, who signed a minor league deal in early May, has been impeccable, maintaining a clean sheet across 11 innings in nine appearances with the Angels.
Highlighting the evening, d’Arnaud’s homer was his second career pinch-hit home run, with his first having been back in September 2021 for the Atlanta Braves against the Colorado Rockies.
Looking ahead, the Athletics will turn to left-hander JP Sears (5-5, 5.21 ERA) to face off against Angels right-hander Kyle Hendricks (2-6, 5.34 ERA) in Wednesday’s final game of the series.