• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

A's chase Pineiro in first, roll to victory over Halos

Jul 18, 2011 - 1:02 AM Oakland, CA (Sports Network) - Conor Jackson put an exclamation point on an eight-run first inning by hitting his first career grand slam, powering the Oakland Athletics to a 9-1 pounding of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the finale of a four game series.

Hideki Matsui collected three RBI while Jemile Weeks added an RBI single for the A's, who took three of four from their AL West rivals.

Gio Gonzalez (9-6) worked seven scoreless innings, giving up only four hits while fanning eight and walking two.

Joel Pineiro (5-4) recorded just one out in his start, giving up eight runs -- seven earned -- on four hits, while walking four.

"He had a little problem with his grip," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of his starter's rough outing. "He had good movement on his pitches, but he really couldn't get it in the zone and keep it in the zone and consequently, you saw what happened."

Bobby Wilson knocked in the lone LA run with a ninth-inning single, while Alberto Callaspo had three hits for the Angels, who fell to 9-5 in July.

The A's jumped all over Pineiro in their first at-bat, plating eight runs.

Pineiro was shaky out of the gate with serious control issues, as he walked the first three hitters of the inning -- Weeks, Coco Crisp and Josh Willingham -- to load the bases. Matsui followed with a two-run single and Scott Sizemore walked to re-load the bases. David DeJesus reached on a Mark Trumbo error to bring in another run for a 3-0 cushion.

The big blow in the inning came off the bat of Jackson, who cracked a fastball deep into the seats in left. Three batters later, Weeks ripped an RBI single in his second at-bat of the inning to widen the lead to 8-0.

"We had really focused at-bats," A's manager Bob Melvin said of his team's big inning. "It started with Weeks, who got behind in the count and ended up drawing a walk and good things happened after that. Sometimes it's just about passing the baton and having confidence in the guy behind you."

With runners on the corners and one out in the third, Matsui grounded into a fielder's choice to score Weeks for a 9-0 lead.

Game Notes

The Angels are 18-32 when they don't score first and are 15-17 against left- handed starters...Jackson's grand slam in the first gives the A's 52 home runs as a team, the fewest total in baseball... DeJesus is a career .340 hitter against Los Angeles...Matsui is one home run short of 500 for his professional career between the major leagues and the Japanese Professional League.