ANAHEIM — It didn’t take long for Josh Lowe to shake off the pain.
Two pitches after his foul ball bounced up and hit him in a very tender area, Lowe blasted the first grand slam of his big league career.
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The second-inning blast was all the Angels needed in a 4-1 victory over the A’s on Sunday, winning the series and continuing their weeks-long stretch of encouraging baseball.
Ever since the A’s took three of four from the Angels in May, including back-to-back extra inning games, the Angels (36-49) have been playing consistently solid baseball. They are 19-15 since that series, a .558 winning percentage.
During that span, they have scored 185 runs, which is the second most in the majors.
The latest victory was sparked by players who had been dispatched to Triple-A earlier this season.
Lowe was sent down in May — just after that A’s series, actually — with a .184 average. At Salt Lake, he cleared his head and improved his approach at the plate, earning a ticket back to the big leagues. In four games since he’s been up, he’s 5 for 12.
Starter Sam Aldegheri, who spent most of the first two months in the minors, got going back in the right direction after consecutive poor starts.
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Aldegheri gave up one run in five innings, the best of his five career major league starts. He gave up five hits and a walk, and he struck out four.
In the fifth, he gave up back-to-back hits to the bottom hitters in the order, putting him in a dicey spot as the hitters at the top got their third look at him. Aldegheri retired all three, with a run scoring on a sacrifice fly.
After Aldegheri was out, the Angels brought in right-hander José Fermin, who had two-week stint at Triple-A earlier this month.
Fermin pitched two scoreless innings. He has not allowed a run in eight innings since coming back from the minors.
Left-hander Samy Natera Jr., who had been in Triple-A for the first two months of the season, retired A’s slugger Nick Kurtz on a fly ball to strand two runners in the eighth. Kurtz was getting the day off, but he came up to pinch-hit representing the tying run with two outs. Angels manger Kurt Suzuki responded by taking out Ryan Zeferjahn and bringing in Natera.
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Natera then worked the ninth to pick up his first big league save.
More to come on this story.