The Los Angeles Angels finally managed to hold a lead to get a surprising win over Seattle.
The Los Angeles Angels finally found a winning formula of sorts as they built up a big lead, then managed to keep it for a change to get a 6-4 win over the Seattle Mariners in the first game of their three-game series in Anaheim.
The offensive hero was Jose Siri, who got the Angels off to a good start after a Mike Trout single by doubling home the Halos star in the first inning. Vaughn Grissom followed up with a sacrifice fly that scored Siri to stake starter Reid Detmers to a 2-0. lead.
The Angels added two more off Seattle starter Kade Anderson as Wade Meckler singled and came home on a triple by Zach Neto. Siri then singled to left to score Neto and give Detmers a 4-0 lead in the third, but Detmers proceeded to give most of it back in the fourth.
The culprit was Cal Raleigh, who homered after singles from Randy Arozarena and Dominic Canzone to cut the Angels lead to 4-3.
Developments like that are usually an ominous sign, but Denzer Guzman chipped in with some rare offense as he drove home two runs with an RBI single to up the count to 6-3 and gave the Halos a bit of a cushion.
Detmers went six in this one, giving up three runs on seven hits and a walk to go with eight strikeouts. It wasn’t one of his best starts, but it was good enough to get a rare win as the Angels bullpen managed to hold up.
It didn’t look that way in the seventh, though, when reliever Blake Weiman gave up a solo homer to J.P. Crawford that cut the lead to 6-4, which meant it was nail-biting time in Anaheim.
But Ryan Watson picked up Weiman with a scoreless 1-1/3 inning appearance, and that set the stage for Ben Joyce to take yet another stab at seizing the closer’s job.
It wasn’t easy. Joyce walked two hitters in a 20-pitch inning that had potential disaster written all over it, but he finally got the third out on a soft liner to Grissom at first to put the game away.
The win snapped the Angels’ latest losing streak at three games, and it all but sealed Seattle’s playoff fate, as they’re now 5.5 in the AL West and six back in the wild card race. Someone has to win this pathetic division, but it almost certainly won’t be the Mariners.
