Seth Brown, Oakland A’s sweep Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels

OAKLAND – Tony Kemp remembers talking with David Forst early in the season — when the Oakland A’s struggles were reaching historic proportions — and telling the general manager, “Don’t give up on us.”

Kemp said Forst responded by saying, “We always come to the field believing something good will happen.”

The A’s are going through one of those rare good stretches now, and it’s helped them avoid the possibility of setting Major League Baseball’s modern-era record for most losses in a single season.

After being no-hit for five innings, the A’s scored four runs in the sixth and six more in the seventh on Sunday to earn a 10-6 win over the Los Angeles Angels and complete their third series sweep of the season.

Ryan Noda and Seth Brown both hit two-run home runs in the sixth to give Oakland a 4-3 lead. After Angels outfielder Luis Rengifo hit a solo homer in the seventh to tie the game, a Kemp single to center, along with a Los Angeles error, scored three more runs to give the A’s the lead for good before an announced crowd of 12,425 at the Coliseum.

A two-RBI double by Shea Langeliers and an RBI infield single by Lawrence Butler rounded out the six-run inning, as the A’s completed their first three-game sweep since June 9-11 when they took three straight from the Brewers in Milwaukee. Oakland also beat San Francisco twice in a two-game set in early August.

The A’s have now won eight of their last 13 games, including a 4-2 mark against American League West opponents. Prior to this last week, Oakland was 5-28 against division rivals.

“It’s a great way to start September,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “We talked about this stretch of games in our division and wanting to try to improve on where we were when we left the division, and this is a good start.”

The A’s won just 12 of their first 62 games of the season, a mark that matched the 1932 Red Sox for the second-worst record after 62 games by any team since 1900. A 120-loss season, which would tie the modern-era record held by the 1962 New York Mets, didn’t seem so preposterous.

Now, with four weeks left, the A’s, at 42-95, only need to win one of their final 25 games to avoid such an ugly distinction. Oakland begins a three-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday, then starts a six-game road trip with stops in Texas and Houston.

“The grind of a season and the six months that we go through, if you don’t have optimism, it really becomes an environment that won’t create success or lead to success,” Kotsay said. “The belief is that this group, at some point, was going to find a way to win baseball games and a collectiveness that they need to play together and win together. And of late, we’ve started to develop a little bit of that.”

Four of the top six players in the A’s starting lineup Sunday were rookies, including the one-two-three hitters Esteury Ruiz, Zack Gelof, and Noda.

“A few of these young guys have brought some more energy and life,” Kotsay said. “On a daily basis, they come here prepared, as we have every day. But when you talk about confidence, you need the wins and the results, and I think they’re starting to get that.”

Gelof has clearly provided a spark since he made his MLB debut with the A’s on July 14, and on Sunday, he was named the AL’s Rookie of the Month for August.

Entering Sunday, Gelof led all Major League rookies in doubles (14) and extra-base hits
(25) since the All-Star break, and was tied for second in home runs (10) and fifth in hits (44).

In 27 games in August, Gelof hit .286 with seven home runs, eight doubles, and 15 RBI. In 117 plate appearances, he had a .912 OPS.

Sunday, Gelof went 2-for-4 with two runs and a walk. His infield single in the sixth, in which he beat out a throw to first base, broke up Tyler Anderson’s no-hit bid and started the A’s four-run rally.

“The effort level from Zack has been there since he got called up,” Kotsay said. “He plays with an intensity and you saw that with the infield single, just the hustle that it took to get down the line and beat a ground ball. If he doesn’t get out of the box, if he doesn’t get a good effort, he’s out there.”

A’s starting pitcher Kyle Muller, the 6-foot-7, 250-pound left-hander, shined for three innings Sunday before struggling in the fourth. Muller retired nine of the first 11 batters he faced, touching 98 mph with his four-seam fastball, but allowed three earned runs in the fourth.

Muller gave up a two-run homer to Eduardo Escobar and an RBI double to Chad Wallach and was taken out after four innings, preventing him from earning his first victory since May 5 in Kansas City.

MILLER NEARS RETURN: Right-hander Mason Miller’s return following a four-month rehab process appears imminent, although it remains unclear as to when he’ll come off of the injured list and pitch in a big-league game again.