Angels Use Long Ball To Nip Marlins, 4-3, In Series Opener

Back-to-back wins are rare for the Los Angeles Angels these days, but they managed to win a tight one over the Miami Marlins, 4-3, as Mike Trout homered early and the Angels’ bullpen hung on and thwarted a late Miami comeback. 

The Angels broke on top in the first on  Mike Trout’s 19th home run of the season off Marlins starter Tyler Phillips, but the Marlins got the run back in the fourth inning off George Klassen, who returned to the Halos staff to make his third start of the season. 

The Miami rally started with a walk to Owen Caissie, followed by a bunt single from Jakob Marsee. Another walk to Esteury Ruiz loaded the bases as Klassen lost the strike zone, and the rookie then walked home a run by issuing a free pass to Kyle Stowers. Klassen left after four with just that one run on his final line, as he gave up four hits and four walks to go with three strikeouts. 

The Marlins took the lead in the sixth off reliever Tyler Saucedo, a Marsee singled again, advanced to second on a Joe Mack groundout and was singled home by Stowers to make it 2-1. 

The Angels struck back in the seventh off reliever Josh Ekness, who made a throwing error against Mike Troutt to score Josh Lowe after Lowe walked and Tyler Heineman sacrificed him to second. Nolan Schanuel then shifted the Halos out of the small-ball approach with a two-run homer that gave LA a 4-2 lead. 

That lead held up into the ninth as Ben Joyce pitched a scoreless frame, and the Angels turned to Jose Fermin to try and close the game out. But Fermin turned the ninth into an adventure by giving up a single to Agustin Ramirez, then another to Leo Jiminez that scored a run to make it 4-3. 

Javier Sanoja then doubled in what was the play of the game, withJimenez ruled out on a tag play at home as left fielder Jose Siri gunned down Jimenez when he tried to score.

Shaun Anderson got the win as he returned from his latest round of minor league duty, with Trout and Schanuel cast in the role of long-ball heroes. The Angels will try to get a series win tomorrow as they send Walbert Urena to the mound against Sandy Alcantara in what should be a fine pitching matchup.