The Los Angeles Angels came from behind to earn a fun win over the Minnesota Twins.
The Los Angeles Angels won a back-and-forth battle against the Minnesota Twins, 6-5 in 11 innings, as they took 2-1 lead in the four-game series on an infield single by Christian Moore with the bases loaded in the 11th.
Reid Detmers started for the Angels, but this wasn’t one of his better games. The Twins opened the scoring in the second with a single from Walker Jenkins and an RBI double from Luke Keaschall, with a groundout from Austin Martin bringing another run home to make it 2-0.
The Twins padded their lead on an RBI single from Victor Caratini in the fourth, but Jose Siri got the Halos on the board with a two-run homer off starter Joe Ryan to make it 3-2.
Detmers continued to struggle in the fifth inning as he gave up a solo homer to Ryan Kreidler, and the Angels bats went silent after that as they continued to trail, 4-2. Caratini struck again in the eighth with another RBI single to make it 5-2 as it looked like another disappointing Angels loss.
The offense showed some late life, however, starting with a double from Adam Frazier that drove home two to narrow the margin to a single run in the eighth, and Vaughn Grissom played hero in the ninth with a solo homer of Twins reliever A.J. Minter to tie the game at 5-5 and send it to extras.
Neither team scored in the tenth, and Angels reliever Tyler Saucedo held Minnesota scoreless in the 11th to give the Angels another chance to win. The Twins elected to walk Mike Trout intentionally, and the move worked initially when Wade Meckler flied to right.
But reliever Taylor Rogers hit Grissom with a pitch to load the bases with one out. It looked like the rally would hit a dead end when Moises Ballesteros struck out swinging on a night when he went 0-for-6.
The Angels got some unusual luck, though, when Moore bounced a grounder over Rogers head, and the seeing-eye infield hit allowed ghost runner Zach Neto to race home with the winning run.
The Halos are now 5-5 in their last ten games, which is giving them a solid shot to avoid a 100-loss season. They also closed to a game of the Athletics in the AL West, so they’ve got a shot at escaping the basement as they try to close out their season on a positive note.
