Athletics rally, edge Angels 5-4

The Oakland A's rallied from an early deficit and beat the Los Angeles Angels 5-4 Friday night in Anaheim, Calif., the winning run scoring on a passed ball.

Angels catcher Kurt Suzuki, who played for the A's from 2007-11 and parts of both 2012 and 2013, homered in the game, but he also committed two passed balls in the sixth inning, including one that allowed Mark Canha to score from third and give Oakland a much-needed victory in their quest for an American League wild-card berth.

Oakland (80-67) is 2 1/2 games behind the Yankees for the second wild card, and three games behind wild card-leader Boston.

The A's went into the sixth inning trailing 4-3 before Matt Olson singled with one out. The Angels (72-75) brought in reliever Jose Marte, who walked Canha on a full-count pitch.

Olson and Canha moved up to second and third on Suzuki's first passed ball, and Seth Brown followed with a groundout to shortstop, scoring Olson to tie the game at 4-4, with Canha moving to third.

Marte then walked Matt Chapman on four pitches, with ball four getting by Suzuki and allowing Canha to score what turned out to be the game-winner.

A's starter Cole Irvin (10-13) got the win after throwing six innings. He allowed four runs, but only one was earned. Marte (0-1) got the loss. Sergio Romo pitched the ninth for Oakland and earned his third save.

The A's took the lead in the second inning against Angels starter Jhonathan Diaz, who was called up Friday to make his major league debut after seven-plus seasons in the minors.

Diaz didn't make it out of the inning, giving up two hits, including an RBI single by Josh Harrison, two walks and a sacrifice fly by Olson for a 2-0 Oakland advantage.

The Angels, though, responded in the bottom of the second inning with four runs against Irvin, and benefitted from two errors by the Oakland defense.

Suzuki led off with a home run for the Angels' first run of the inning, and a squeeze bunt by Juan Lagares later in the inning tied the game at 2-2. David Fletcher's two-run single put Los Angeles ahead, 4-2.

The A's got to within 4-3 in the third inning when Chapman led off with a single, went to third on a single by Khris Davis and scored on a sacrifice fly by Harrison.

--Field Level Media