Instant Analysis: Angels Rally, Shock A's to Complete the Sweep

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ANAHEIM - Mike Trout and Albert Pujols did the damage you've come to expect Wednesday night from the two most feared hitters in the Angels' lineup.

The man who delivered the final dagger to Oakland's hopes wasn't so predictable.

Light-hitting former Athletic Cliff Pennington cracked a grand slam off Chris Hatcher in the seventh inning as the A's blew a five-run lead and fell 10-8 at Angel Stadium. That completed a three-game sweep by the home team, on a night that was shaping up to be an encouraging rebound for the A's offense.

They batted around in an eight-run fourth, their biggest inning of the season, that gave them an 8-3 lead. But the Angels, who are just one game behind Minnesota for the American League's second Wild Card spot, did not roll over. They chipped away off Kendall Graveman, who worked just five innings and gave up five runs, then erased off an 8-5 deficit off the A's bullpen with their five-run seventh.

Trout, a serious MVP candidate despite missing 39 games with a thumb injury earlier in the season, finished 4-for-4 with a homer, triple and four runs scored. The A's never retired him in five plate appearances.

Pujols, who at 37 is not quite as feared as he used to be, homered twice off Graveman and tied Jim Thome for seventh place on the all-time homer list with 612.

It shouldn't have mattered.

The A's grabbed control of this game when they sent 12 men to the plate in the fourth, getting a three-run homer from Matt Olson and a two-run shot from Bruce Maxwell. True, they didn't score a single run in the other eight innings, but an 8-3 lead is an 8-3 lead.

Pennington, who has just 36 homers over 10 big league seasons, never had hit a grand slam before Wednesday. Daniel Coulombe allowed Kole Calhoun's run-scoring single in the seventh to bring the Angels to within 8-6. Hatcher entered and struck out C.J. Cron but then walked Luis Valbuena to load the bases with two outs.

Pennington worked the count to 2-2 and then drove a ball that barely cleared the right field wall to put the Angels ahead. Seven of Pennington's previous 18 hits had gone for extra bases, but prior to that, he had just four extra-base hits in his previous 83 games combined dating back to last season.

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