Game of the Day | A's rout Angels to snatch AL West lead

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Frank Thomas is looking pretty spry these days after returning to Oakland.

The Big Hurt tripled for the first time in six years and got three hits against former teammate Jon Garland, and the Athletics took over the AL West lead from the Los Angeles Angels with a 14-2 rout of the defending division champions Monday night in the opener of a four-game series.

"That was priceless," winning pitcher Chad Gaudin said of Thomas' 12th career triple. "I played with the guy in '06, and I don't think I saw him beat out a ball — much less go from home to third on a triple.

"It's uplifting. He told me a couple of days ago, 'I can run now.' And I said, 'Really.' And I'm thinking to myself, in 15 years, all of a sudden you can run now? And sure enough, he can run."

Daric Barton singled with two outs in the first and scored when Thomas hit a towering fly that landed just inside the right-field line after a long but fruitless run by Vladimir Guerrero. The Athletics' DH slid into third with his first triple since April 24, 2002, with the Chicago White Sox in a 9-2 win at Cleveland. His last one before that was Aug. 22, 1998.

"It's been a long time since one of those," Thomas said, laughing. "The way the ball was curving, I just thought it was going to be a double. But then I saw the ball get by him. I've felt better all year, so I'm running a lot better."

Barton hit a three-run homer and Jack Hannahan and Emil Brown also homered for the Athletics, who have won eight of 10. They came into this series with just 12 home runs through their first 26 games.

Gaudin (3-1) breezed to his third straight victory, allowing two runs — one earned — and five hits over six innings with four strikeouts. The right-hander was 0-2 with a 6.75 earned-run average in his previous four starts against the Angels, but had a career-high 11 strikeouts the last time he faced them on Sept. 30 at Oakland.

Garland (3-3) allowed seven runs, 10 hits and three walks in six-plus innings, striking out five. He is 0-5 in his last seven starts against Oakland, and 3-9 with a 5.01 ERA in 14 career starts against the A's.

"I was getting behind and they were hitting the ball. That's all I can say," Garland said.

Oakland broke it open with an eight-run seventh that extended the lead to 14-2.