The Los Angeles Angels can hit home runs, and they used solo shots by Trout, Neto and Soler to earn the victory.
Wins are rare these days for the Los Angeles Angels, but yesterday they were able to ride some home-run power from their formidable lineup to get a badly-needed 4-3 win over the Chicago White Sox .
The Angels offense has been a feast-or-famine affair in the power department lately, and yesterday was a feast day, although the Halos had to come from behind to earn the win. The White Sox scored the first two runs in the first inning off newly-promoted starter Sam Aldegheri, who walked two hitters as Randy Grichuk drove in one run with an RBI single and Edgar Quero hit a sacrifice fly to get a second run home.
The Angels canceled that lead immediately with solo homers by Mike Trout and Jorge Soler, and the score stayed knotted at 2-2 until the Halos broke through again against Chicago starter Eric Fedde in the fourth. Once again it was a home run that did the trick, this one by Zach Neto, and a Trout walk followed by a Nolan Schanuel double padded the lead to make it 4-2.
The White Sox drew closer with a solo homer of their own by Chase Meidroth off reliever Sam Bachman in the seventh, but the Halos held on to set up Ryan Zeferjahn for an adventure save. Zeferjahn walked two and hit a batter, but he also struck out a pair o Sox hitters before he managed to get Quero to ground out with the bases loaded to end the game.
The bullpen is still an ongoing mess, but the Angels were able to get four innings from Aldegheri as he gave up just those first-inning runs, with Jose Fermin and Drew Pomeranz following up to get to Bachman and Zeferjahn. Fermin got the win to go with Zeferjahn’s save, and Fedde took the loss for Chicago.
Trout’s ongoing heroics aside, the offensive hero in this one was Neto, who’s been slumping badly at the top of the lineup. The Angels were also able to limit their strikeout total to five, which is a big key for this offense when it comes to run production.
The Angels did get some good news on the bullpen front, though, as Kirby Yates was activated in advance of today’s series finale against the White Sox. Yates just completed a rehab assignment after complaining of knee pain in spring training, but he hasn’t built his velocity up over 90 mph yet, so his appearances could also be an ongoing adventure.