Recap: Oakland vs. LA Angels

Sports Network | October 3, 2009

Oakland, CA (Sports Network) - Juan Rivera hit a solo home run and Jered Weaver tossed five shutout innings, as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim defeated the Athletics, 5-2 in the opener of a three-game series at Oakland Coliseum.

Weaver (16-8) scattered three hits and struck out five, while Mike Napoli had two hits and drove in a run for the AL West Champions. Kendry Morales went 2- for-3 with a walk and a run scored.

Kurt Suzuki finished 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI for the Athletics, who have lost five straight. Gio Gonzalez (6-7) gave up four runs on eight hits and fanned a career-high 10 batters over six innings.

The Angels pushed across two runs in the second. Vladimir Guerrero led off with a single, advanced to second on a base hit from Morales and scored on a Napoli double. With Freddy Sandoval batting later in the inning, Morales stole home.

Rivera went deep with one away in the fourth, and Torii Hunter hit a grounder up the middle to chase home Sandoval in the next frame.

A broken-bat single by pinch-hitter Gary Matthews Jr. plated Bobby Abreu in the eighth for a 5-0 Angels lead.

Kevin Jepsen took over on the mound for Los Angeles in the ninth and surrendered a leadoff single to Adam Kennedy, who moved up to second on defensive indifference and later scored on a one-out single by Suzuki.

After Jack Cust reached on a bloop single to left, Brian Fuentes was summoned from the bullpen and yielded a run-scoring single to Daric Barton. Fuentes, though, struck out Mark Ellis and got pinch-hitter Nomar Garciaparra to pop out to notch his MLB-best 47th save.

Rivera's home run was his 25th of the season...Sean O'Sullivan allowed one hit in two innings of relief for Los Angeles.