Angels can’t solve Brett Anderson in 4-3 loss to A’s

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Left-hander Brett Anderson held the Angels scoreless on three hits for eight innings Thursday, and the Oakland Athletics held on for a 4-3 victory in Angel Stadium.

Mark Trumbo followed Erick Aybar’s leadoff single and Alberto Callaspo’s two-out walk with a three-run home run to left-center field, his team-leading eighth homer of the season, against Oakland closer Grant Balfour to pull the Angels to within 4-3.

Pinch-hitter Russell Branyan, who signed with the Angels earlier Thursday, then sent Balfour’s first pitch to deep center field, but Coco Crisp made the catch on the warning track to end the game.

Anderson, who mixed a fastball with an excellent curveball, struck out four and walked three, improving to 3-4. Of his 105 pitches, 72 were strikes.

Angels starter Joel Pineiro gave up four runs and 11 hits in 6 1/3 innings, striking out three and walking none, almost duplicating his previous start, Saturday against Atlanta, when he gave up four runs and 11 hits in 6 1/3 innings, struck out two and walked none.

Oakland used two singles, a sacrifice bunt and Andy LaRoche’s run-scoring groundout to score in the second. The A’s bunched four hits in a three-run fourth, with LaRoche (two-run double to left) and Cliff Pennington (run-scoring single to right) providing the big blows.

The Angels threatened in the sixth inning, when Reggie Willits walked with one out and took third on Maicer Izturis’ double to left, but Aybar flied out to shallow left, Willits holding, and Bobby Abreu grounded to third, ending the inning.

Torii Hunter walked and Callaspo singled to open the seventh, but Trumbo hit into a double play and Peter Bourjos struck out.

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-- Mike DiGiovanna