• Recap
• Bleachers

A's pound out 16 hits, down Angels

Apr 8, 2009 - 6:57 AM ANAHEIM, California (AP) -- When the Oakland Athletics finally scored their first run of 2009, there was a sense of relief.

"You could just feel everybody kind of relax," said Jason Giambi, who had three of Oakland's 16 hits Tuesday night in a 6-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. "We pushed that first run across and it was like, 'OK, now we're on the board. Now we can go. We're not going to be shut out again.'

"Once we did that, I think everything started to take off."

The A's managed only three hits in the season opener the previous night, a 3-0 loss to the Angels.

Jack Cust had three hits and drove in two runs, and Ryan Sweeney also had three hits for the A's in the win.

"Give credit to their guys. They kept the pressure on us when they were in the batter's box," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "They've got some veteran hitters in that lineup, and they adjusted to our pitching and got back on top."

Oakland starter Trevor Cahill worked five innings in his major league debut, allowing three runs, two earned, and five hits. The 21-year-old right-hander issued five walks, one intentional, and struck out one.

"I was kind of putting the pressure on myself the whole game, getting behind and walking guys and having guys on base in every inning," Cahill said. "I just got out of some jams, luckily. I gave up a few runs, but it could have been a lot worse. There were more emotions last night and today leading up to the game than the game itself. It couldn't come soon enough, and I just wanted to get it out of the way.

"I was excited. It was everything I thought it would be."

Cahill skipped Triple-A ball during his rapid ascension through the minors, and Oakland manager Bob Geren liked his composure in his first appearance.

"He seemed pretty calm. All the way until I took him out, he seemed very in the moment and nothing seemed to bother him," Geren said. "This was a good first step for him."

Oakland pushed across two runs in the seventh inning against Kevin Jepsen (0-1) to take a 5-3 lead. Eric Chavez had a run-scoring fielder's choice and Cust picked up his second RBI of the game with a broken-bat bloop single to center field. Giambi added an RBI double in the eighth.

Brad Ziegler gave up Bobby Abreu's RBI single in the ninth inning before striking out Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter to earn his first save.

Michael Wuertz (0-1) pitched a scoreless sixth inning to get the win.

Dustin Moseley gave up three runs and nine hits in six innings for the Angels.

Kendry Morales singled in Hunter in the fifth to tie it at 3-3. The run was unearned because of a two-base error by Cust, who dropped Guerrero's fly to short right-center leading off the inning.

Cust, Travis Buck and Mark Ellis had run-scoring singles in the fourth to give Oakland a 3-2 lead. Nomar Garciaparra began the rally with a leadoff hit, one of four singles off Moseley in the inning.

Los Angeles manufactured a run to take a 1-0 lead in the first. Chone Figgins walked, stole second and went to third on Howie Kendrick's fly to the warning track in right. He scored on Abreu's groundout.

Jeff Mathis led off the Angels' second with a double, advanced to third on Erick Aybar's sacrifice and raced home on a wild pitch by Cahill.

Notes: Oakland's Matt Holliday sat out, with Geren saying the left fielder just didn't feel well. Buck replaced him. ... Los Angeles CF Hunter was presented his eighth consecutive Gold Glove in a pregame ceremony. ... The Angels went 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position.