The Los Angeles Angels offense broke out in a big way as the Halos routed the Houston Astros in a rare laugher.
The Los Angeles Angels offense has been an inconsistent beast this year, but last night they jumped all over Houston Astros starter Paul Lambert and a pair of relievers in an 18-2 laugher that also gave the Angels the series win over the ‘Stros.
The Angels offense started early with RBI single from Zach Neto to score the first run. But Houston came back with two in the bottom of the first off starter Grayson Rodriguez an a groundout from Jose Altuve that brought home a run due to a throwing error by Vaughn Grissom, and Rodriguez let the second run in on a wild pitch that scored Yordan Alvarez.
That made it 2-1, but the Astros lead didn’t last long. The Angels plated three more in the second on a Grissom single, a safety squeeze from Tyler Heineman and a groundout from Adam Frazier to make it 4-2.
After that the route was on, with the Halos getting six runs in the fourth and four more in the fifth. The Angels sent ten men to the plate in the fourth and seven more in the fifth, with Neto punctuating the offensive explosion wiht a three-run homer at the end of the scoring binge to make it 14-2.
Neto wound up being the offensive star as he had five hits and seven RBIs while scoring a pair of runs. He had plenty of company in the offensive parade, though, as Grissom had a three-hit night, and three other Angels had two-hit nights as the Angels pounded out a total of 18 hits in this one.
The quieter story was Rodriguez, who had one of his best starts as an Angel with friends and family in the stands. He righted the ship after that rough start to go seven innings as he gave up five hits and two walks to go with six strikeouts, and both runs were unearned due to Grissom’s error.
The game did feature one genuinely terrifying moment, however, as leadoff man Wade Meckler was hit in the head by a Bryan King "sinker" in the fifth inning that caught him flush in the ear flap and sent his helmet flying.
Meckler stayed down initially, but he was finally able to get up on his own, and he tried to talk the Angels training staff into staying in the game. He was removerd, however, and Meckler is currently being evaluated for a concussion.
