Butler homers, Sears pitches A's to series sweep of Angels with 5-0 win
Lawrence Butler homered, JP Sears won for the first time in more than a month, and the Oakland Athletics blanked the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday for a second straight game by the same 5-0 score to complete a three-game series sweep.
Miguel Andujar and Brent Rooker hit back-to-back RBI singles in the third and Tyler Soderstrom added a sacrifice fly in the decisive inning on a hot Independence Day in the Bay Area, with an announced holiday crowd of 11,956.
Sears (5-7) struck out six and walked one, allowing two hits over five scoreless innings to snap a six-start winless stretch since beating Houston on May 25. The left-hander had dropped his previous four decisions.
The Angels lost a fourth straight game coming off a 5-0 shutout Wednesday after having scored five or more runs in seven straight games. They were shut out in consecutive games for the first time since June 20-21, 2023 at home against the Dodgers.
The loss also ran the club's losing streak at the Coliseum to six games.
Right-hander Roansy Contreras (1-1) walked two of the first three batters in the third to get in trouble, then gave up the run-scoring singles and a sacrifice fly before another walk - and that was it in his second start for the Angels.
Butler hit a 400-foot homer in the eighth.
The Angels played the first of four straight day games as they head to Chicago to face the Cubs - their first visit to Wrigley Field since 2019.
Janie McCauley contributed to this report.