A's-Angels tilt pauses for 'broken fence delay'

OAKLAND -- Evan Scribner and his bullpen mates set an over/under. Danny Valencia considered it another shenanigan in his short stint with the A's. Manager Bob Melvin joked that the grounds crew used double-sided tape to fix it.

They were all referring to the left-field wall at the Coliseum, a sizable chunk of which fell down and caused a 10-minute delay in the fifth inning of the A's 11-5 win over the Angels on Monday night.

"You take it in stride," Melvin said. "We know there's going to be some issues here. It's actually sometimes a little bit of fun."

The fence fell forward after Angels outfielder Shane Victorino slammed into it in an attempt to catch Valencia's deep drive that ultimately ricocheted off the wall and scored Brett Lawrie from first. Valencia's second double of the game gave the A's a 6-3 lead.

During the delay, members of both teams returned to their respective dugouts. After 10 minutes, the game resumed and Trevor Gott replaced Fernando Salas on the mound for the Angels.

The Coliseum was used the night before for a Raiders preseason game, so the crew had a rapid turnaround from football to baseball venue.

Scribner said no one was surprised when the fence fell. The over/under was seven minutes, and Sean Doolittle was the official timer.

"I took the under," Scribner said, laughing. "Didn't work out."

Scribner joked that he thought members of the grounds crew were going to run out there with tape, and he said maybe he and his teammates will have to do so tomorrow.

Valencia hadn't heard too many stories about the craziness at the Coliseum -- which included a 38-minute delay for a lighting malfunction last season -- before he arrived in Oakland, but said he's seen his fair share of incidents already.

"We had a malfunction out there," Valencia said. "I guess a combination of the ball being hit as hard as it was and Victorino running into it as hard as he did brought the wall down."