Recap: Oakland vs. LA Angels

Sports Network | October 4, 2009

Oakland, CA (Sports Network) - Mike Napoli homered and scored three times, as the American League West champion LA Angels of Anaheim tuned up for the postseason with a 5-3 win over the Athletics to complete a three-game sweep in the regular season finale for both clubs.

Erick Aybar had three hits, and Joe Saunders (16-7) earned the win by allowing two runs on six hits and two walks in five innings of work.

The Angels (97-65) will open their divisional series at home on Thursday at 9:37 p.m. (et) against the Red Sox, the winners of the wild card.

Brad Kilby hurled two scoreless innings in his first career start for Oakland (75-87), which finished in the West-Division basement. Jeff Gray (0-1) was credited with loss, yielding three runs in 1 1/3 relief innings.

"If you look at the season as a whole it was a disappointing season. It was an awful season," Oakland's Nomar Garciaparra said.

Saunders loaded the bases in the second, and the A's pushed two runs across on Matt Carson's sacrifice fly and Eric Patterson's RBI single.

Napoli got a run back with his 20th homer in the third, and the Angels took the lead with a three-spot in the fifth. Bobby Abreu brought in a run with a groundout, and Torii Hunter recorded an RBI double before scoring on Kendry Morales' two-out base hit.

Napoli singled with one out in the sixth, moved to third on Aybar's base hit and scored on Craig Breslow's balk.

Ervin Santana threw two scoreless innings behind Saunders, Darren Oliver silenced Oakland in the eighth, and Kevin Jepsen closed it out in the ninth for his first save of the season despite giving up an RBI single to Cliff Pennington.

"I think [our record] is indicative of the talent level and depth on this club that has played well all season, especially on the offensive end," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of the Angels' numerous contributors.

The A's ended the year on a season-high seven-game losing streak...Anaheim went 8-1 in Oakland this season and won 12 of its 19 overall meetings with the A's in 2009...The Angels finished 48-33 on the road this year, while Oakland went 40-41 in front of its home fans.