Moss has the A’s rolling to seventh straight win

ANGEL STADIUM — Brandon Moss was a double shy of the cycle and drove in five runs as Oakland won its seventh in a row, taking down the Halos 11-5, Wednesday night.

Despite his career night at the plate, Moss said he wasn’t worried about his offensive production.

“My goal was to get better at first base and be a good defensive first baseman. I let the offensive take care of itself. You just can control what you swing at and that’s it.”

After an 0-2 start that seemed to have the Athletics appear that their 2012 AL West Division crown was a fluke, Oakland has really gone on a roll.  Their seven straight wins include 57 runs overall and 29 in the last three games.

Manager Bob Melvin says the A’s are playing with some swagger:

“Well I think anytime we put together a bunch of wins in a row you just gain confidence with each and every one. The team is really good about playing for the day and preparing for the day but when you do have a winning streak you want to take that with you and at this point everyone feels good and when we take the field we feel we have a chance to win.”

Following two straight wins against the Mariners to close out the opening homestand, the A’s feasted on lousy Astros pitching and are now in position to sweep an Angels team that many predicted would win the AL West.

Oakland began the onslaught innocently enough with a leadoff single from Coco Crisp.  After stealing second base, he advanced to third on a John Jaso groundout. Another groundout by Jed Lowrie made it 1-0 A’s.

The Angels answered on a manufactured run by Alberto Callaspo. He singled and advaned to third on a double from Albert Pujols.

Eric Sogard singled and advanced to second when gold glove right fielder Josh Hamilton booted the ball. Sogard eventually scored on an RBI single from Jaso. Moss hit a two run triple to make it a 4-1 A’s lead.

Anaheim closed it to a one run deficit scoring twice in the fifth.

After Moss homered in the fifth inning, the Angels closed to within 5-4 on a two run single by Howard Kendrick.

But the A’s broke it open with a five run sixth inning.  The first two runs scored on consecutive walks with the bases loaded. Seth Smith with a single up the middle scored Lowrie and Yoenis Cespedes. Josh Donaldson followed with another RBI single.

There was some bad news. Tuesday night, second baseman Scott Sizemore tried to field a pop up to shallow right center. Sizemore missed all of 2012 after tearing his ACL in Spring Training and now he’ll be on the shelf once again for the remainder of the 2013 campaign.

Josh Reddick jammed his wrist trying to make a play on a fly ball hit into foul territory in Houston over the weekend. Reddick hopes to be back by the weekend as the A’s host the Tigers in a three-game set.

Notes

The A’s seven-game winning streak is their longest in April since 1991 and Oakland has outscored opponents 57-23 during that span. … The A’s 5-9 batters recorded 11 hits and eight RBIs in the game…11 runs and 16 hits in a game are both season highs. … The A’s move to 6-1 when they score first and 7-0 when they score four or more runs. … Oakland is 19-0 against the Angels in the last three years when scoring four or more runs. … Crisp leads the majors with 12 runs. … Angels first baseman Albert Pujols was 4-for-4 and his second double of the game was the 1000th extra base hit of his career.