Angels lose an advantage

Dustin Moseley gave the Angels everything they could want from their rotation fill-ins, a quality start and a chance to win, a six-inning effort in which the right-hander gave up three runs.

It was the Angels hitters who dropped the ball.

The Angels rattled Oakland starter Trevor Cahill on Tuesday night, but the 21-year-old right-hander refused to roll, leaving seven baserunners stranded in the first four innings of his major league debut.

The failure to cash in on those early opportunities loomed large for the Angels in a 6-4 loss to the Athletics at Angel Stadium.

Oakland broke a 3-3 tie with two runs in the seventh inning off reliever Kevin Jepsen and added an insurance run off Darren Oliver in the eighth.

Ryan Sweeney, Jason Giambi and Nomar Garciaparra set the table with singles in the seventh, and the A’s scored on Eric Chavez’s bases-loaded, fielder’s-choice grounder and Jack Cust’s broken-bat single to center. Sweeney doubled to lead off the eighth and scored on Giambi’s double.

The Angels threatened in the ninth when Chone Figgins singled and later scored on Bobby Abreu’s one-out single, but Oakland closer Brad Ziegler struck out Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter to end the game.

A key hit or two by Angels left fielder Juan Rivera in his first two at-bats against Cahill could have broken the game open.

With the bases loaded and two out in the first inning, Rivera, who got the starting nod over disgruntled outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. to open the season, flied to center. With runners on second and third and two out in the third, Rivera grounded out to shortstop.

The A’s, shut out by Joe Saunders and three relievers on opening night, bunched four hits off Moseley in the fourth inning and scored three runs.

Garciaparra led off with a single, took second on Chavez’s groundout and scored on Cust’s single off the right-field wall.

Kurt Suzuki singled to right-center, advancing Cust to third, and Cust scored on Travis Buck’s peculiar groundout, a shot that glanced off first baseman Kendry Morales’ glove and hit Suzuki, who was breaking for second, on the foot, preventing the ball from rolling to the outfield.

The ball caromed into the air, and Morales grabbed it and stepped on the bag for the out. Mark Ellis followed with a run-scoring single to center that made it 3-2 Oakland.

The Angels, who scored in the first inning on Abreu’s run-scoring groundout and in the second when Jeff Mathis doubled, took third on Erick Aybar’s bunt and came home on a wild pitch, tied the game in the fifth.

Guerrero opened with a pop to shallow right-center that Cust dropped after a long run for a two-base error. Guerrero was caught off the bag on Hunter’s ensuing grounder to the mound but stayed in the rundown long enough for Hunter to reach second.

Morales then lined a single to center for a 3-3 tie.

Moseley, one of three pitchers filling in for injured starters John Lackey, Ervin Santana and Kelvim Escobar, gave up nine hits but made it through six innings, striking out four and walking none.

Cahill, a second-round pick out of San Diego Vista High in 2006, struggled with his command, walking five and needing 103 pitches -- 57 of them strikes -- to get through five innings.

But Cahill gave up only five hits and kept the A’s in the game by retiring Rivera in the first and third innings and getting Abreu to ground to second with two on to end the fourth.

A’s reliever Michael Wuertz threw a scoreless sixth, and Santiago Casilla did not give up a hit while pitching a scoreless seventh and eighth.

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com