The Los Angeles Angels salvaged the third game of their series against Detroit behind Ryan Johnson.
The Los Angeles Angels got a surprisingly strong start from Ryan Johnson to post a 3-2 win over the Detroit Tigers as they salvaged the final game of their three-game series.
This one started out as a surprising pitchers duel as the Angels got a good start by Ryan Johnson. It didn’t look good after the first inning, as Kevin McGonigle started the scoring with a solo home run. But Johnson settled in after that and would up pitching five innings of one-run ball as he gave up just two hits and three walks to go with five strikeouts.
The Angels tied it in the second off Tigers starter Casey Mizeon a double by Vaughn Grissom, a sacrifice bunt by Josh Lowe and an RBI infield hit by Oswalkd Peraza.
The Angels doubled their 1-0 lead in the fifth via a pair of walks to Mike Trout and Zach Neto, followed by a base hit by the red-hot Nolan Schanuel. His hit didn’t score Trout, but a groundout by Jorge Soler got the run home.
They padded their lead in the sixth on another Peraza single, a stolen base and a base hit by Zach Neto to get him home and make it 3-1.
The late innings are always nail-biters for the Angels and their fans, and this one was no exception. Samy Natera Jr., Chase Silseth and Sam Bachman all pitched scoreless innings, and manager Kurt Suzuki went to Ryan Zeferjahn instead of Kirby Yates to close it out.
Not surprisingly, it was an adventure. Zeferjahn immediately used up his insurance run by giving up a solo homer to right-center to make it 3-2. But Zeferjahn settled down to get a pair of pop-ups sandwiched around a fly ball to left, and he got his third save of the season as Johnson got his second win.
The offensive star was Peraza, who had two hits, an RBI and a run to help spark the offens. Nolan Schanuel had a three-hit day, and Vaughn Grissom also chipped in with a couple of hits.
The win broke a four game losing streak, although the series loss was the Angel’s fifth straight. There’s no guarantee that Johnson can keep up this kind of pitching performance, but the Angels will take every good pitching performance from their young starters that they can get, and it will be interesting to see if Zeferjahn gets additional opportunities to close.
The Angels will try and keep it going and break their series losing streak against the St. Louis Cardinals tomorrow night, with Jose Soriano taking the mound against Kyle Leahy for the Cards.
