The A's magical month of August finally fell back to earth on Monday night.
Riding a nine-game win streak entering the first game of Oakland's series against the Los Angeles Angels, the A's blew a four-run lead and lost 10-9.
A win for the A's would have given Oakland a 10-game win streak, which when prorated over a standard 162-game season, would have been the equivalent of a 27-game win streak. The MLB record was set by the 1916 New York Giants at 26, while the 2017 Cleveland Indians own the AL's best-ever win streak at 22 games.
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The Angels jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, but Oakland roared back on the strength of two home runs by Matt Chapman, as the A's led 9-4 after the top of the fourth inning. Chapman also cleared the bases in that inning with a triple, producing six RBI overall in the losing effort.
But two-time AL MVP Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani brought some power of their own, as a Trout homer in the fourth and an Ohtani bomb in the sixth brought the Angels even at nine.
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The A's bats went quiet down the stretch of the game after a strong start, and Trout gave the Angels the lead with a towering solo home run off Yusmeiro Petit in the bottom of the eighth.
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Southpaw Sean Manaea struggled mightily against the potent Angels lineup, surrendering four runs on seven hits in just two and two-thirds of an inning before manager Bob Melvin went to the bullpen.
"I didn't think his stuff was bad, I think he's just got to fight through this right now," Melvin told reporters after the loss.
After an emotional weekend series against the rival Houston Astros, including a benches-clearing brawl Sunday that likely will be resulting in some discipline for outfielder Ramón Laureano, the A's couldn't sustain a strong start and see their winning streak end at nine games.
Oakland still leads the AL West by 4.5 games over the Astros, who've won the division in each of the past two seasons.
Mike Fiers will be on the bump Tuesday against Angels pitcher Dylan Bundy as Oakland looks to get back in the win column.
A's spoil historic nine-game winning streak with wild loss vs. Angels originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
