Athletics erase six-run deficit, beat Angels 9-7 on Cortes homer

The Athletics turned a 6-0 deficit into a 9-7 win over the Angels on Tuesday night in West Sacramento. Carlos Cortes delivered the go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth inning, and Zack Gelof followed with a two-run shot that gave the A's enough room to survive an Angels run in the ninth.

Los Angeles controlled the first half. Mike Trout scored on Denzer Guzman's groundout in the first. Vaughn Grissom singled in Zach Neto in the third, and Guzman then hit a three-run homer that made it 5-0. Grissom's sixth-inning single pushed the lead to six. Guzman finished with four RBIs, and the Angels collected 15 hits.

The Athletics started cutting into that lead in the bottom of the sixth. Lawrence Butler's triple scored Shea Langeliers, and Butler came home on a Jeff McNeil fielder's choice that included an Angels throwing error. Carlos Cortes tripled in Alika Williams in the seventh; Langeliers singled home Cortes; and McNeil's bases-loaded walk brought in Henry Bolte. In two innings, a six-run gap had become a one-run game.

Cortes completed the comeback in the eighth with a two-run homer off Sam Bachman, scoring Williams ahead of him for a 7-6 lead. Gelof's two-run homer later in the inning made it 9-6. Christian Moore singled in a run for the Angels in the ninth, but the A's held the final margin at two. Cortes had a homer and a triple with three RBIs.

The Associated Press described the two eighth-inning homers as the decisive blows in a comeback that began only two innings earlier. The sequence is the story's hinge: Los Angeles did not lose one lead on one swing. The Athletics kept reaching base, scored five across the sixth and seventh, then got power from two different hitters in the eighth.

MLB's official highlights capture both the early Angels scoring and the Athletics' late surge.