Game 12 Recap: 7th Inning Rally Propels Oakland A's Past Los Angeles Angels 5-3

For six innings, it looked like the same script for much of the first 11 games of the 2012 season: The A's simply looked anemic at the plate. But in the seventh inning, they broke through for four runs keyed by a pair of walks to start the rally.

The big at-bats were provided by Josh Reddick and Yoenis Cespedes, who knocked in three of the four runs. Coco Crisp also singled to tie the score. The rally made a winner of Brian Fuentes while the Angels' Kevin Jepsen took the loss.

A's starter Tyson Ross was solid in his first start of the season. With a fastball topping out at 96, he minimized Angel rallies to hold them to two runs on seven hits in six solid innings. The most encouraging fact was that he did not walk a single batter. The bullpen was strong, though Grant Balfour did allow a harmless solo home run to Vernon Wells in the bottom of the ninth. He bounced back to retire Alberto Callaspo and Chris Iannetta to record his third save of the year in as many chances.

After Ross and Angels' starter Dan Haren matched zeros for four innings, Daric Barton give the A's a 1-0 lead with a solo home run with two outs in the fifth. The Angels bounced back in the bottom of the frame with an RBI ground out by Peter Bourjos, scoring Wells from third. The Angels then took the lead on a Torii Hunter single to left with two outs in the sixth.

In response, the A's rallied off of Jepsen. After Josh Donaldson struck out to begin the inning, Cliff Pennington and Jemile Weeks walked. Coco Crisp then laced a single to center scoring Pennington just ahead of Bourjos' throw to the plate. Reddick drilled a ground rule double to deep right, which scored Weeks and moved Crisp to third. Cespedes followed with a sharp single to left that scored Crisp and Reddick to give the A's a 5-2 lead. 

Good: Josh Reddick. Tyson Ross deserves honorable mention, but Reddick had three hits and provided a timely extra base hit for what seems like the first in a long time. At .286 he is by far the A's regular hitter average-wise and seems to have the best at-bats early in the season.

Bad: Seth Smith. He's 0-4 as the designated hitter and hitting just .214 as a platoon man. It's early, so I won't be too harsh, but the A's have to get something from their DH until Manny Ramirez is eligible.

Ugly: Josh Donaldson. He's 0-4 with two strikeouts and hitting .103. Quite frankly, he looks overmatched most of the time. To make matters worse, he committed his second error. Scott Sizemore's injury will only continue to loom larger with each passing game.

Now 5-7, the A's will continue this four-game set tomorrow at 7:05 p.m. Bartolo Colon looks for his third victory against the Angels' Ervin Santana