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Smith posts second complete game in easy Athletics win

Jul 1, 2008 - 6:25 AM ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- Offense has been hard to come by lately for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. On Monday, the Oakland Athletics made them pay for it.

Rookie Greg Smith pitched his second complete game and Eric Chavez opened up a close game with a two-run single, sending the Athletics to a 6-1 victory over the Angels.

Smith (5-6) spent the majority of the contest forcing Anaheim into 19 fly-ball outs while logging his second complete game, both of which have come against the Angels. The lefthander needed just 86 pitches to go the distance in this contest, yielding one run and four hits with two walks and three strikeouts.

"I (was just mixing) up speeds, hitting locations, getting ahead and making quality strikes on my first pitch," Smith said. "The offense worked their (behinds) off tonight and gave me runs to work with. We kicked off the road trip on a good foot."

With a runner on and the A's leading, 2-1, in the seventh, Oakland benefited from some poor defense by Anaheim left fielder Juan Rivera, who misplayed a routine fly ball off the bat of Kurt Suzuki near the warning track, allowing runners to take second and third on the play.

Darren Oliver relieved Jon Garland (7-5) and forced Jack Cust into a groundout to get the first out of the frame. But the next batter, Chavez, scorched a grounder past first baseman Casey Kotchman to plate two runs and provide Oakland a 4-1 advantage.

"We ran into some trouble early, but we had our chances to win the game," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.

Chavez's two RBI increased his career total to 776, tying Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson for seventh place on Oakland's all-time list.

Ryan Sweeney added a run-scoring double in the eighth, and the A's took advantage of a throwing error by second baseman Howie Kendrick one inning later to increase the lead to 6-1.

Garland, who uncharacteristically struck out a season-high eight in his last outing vs. Oakland on June 7, fanned six more on Monday but became the third pitcher over the last four contests to suffer from a lack of offensive support. The righthander permitted four runs - two earned - and eight hits over six frames.

"I felt like I pitched a good game," Garland said. "I just ran into some tough situations and couldn't come up with that big pitch to get myself out of it."

Anaheim, which scored just one total run while losing two of three games to the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend, were held in check once again, getting only a fifth-inning solo blast from Mike Napoli.

Napoli also provided the only offense in Sunday's 1-0 win over the Dodgers with an RBI single.

The heart of the Angels' lineup - Vladimir Guerrero, Torii Hunter and Kendrick - went a combined 0-for-12 and accounted for 10 of Smith's fly-ball outs.

"Right now, we have a short lineup but every team goes through tough offensive times in the year, and I know we will bounce out of it," Hunter said.