Neto (2 HRs), Thaiss (3 RBIs) lead surging Angels in finale
ANAHEIM — After the Angels misplaced a 3rd straight sport towards the Astros on June 3 and dropped again to .500 at 30-30, they may’ve saved sliding very like they did final yr throughout a 14-game dropping streak that basically ended their season by mid-June.
But the Halos as an alternative have been resilient, profitable six of seven since then, together with going 5-1 on their homestand towards the Cubs and Mariners. Los Angeles capped it off behind rookie Zach Neto’s first profession multihomer sport, a three-hit efficiency from Shohei Ohtani and three RBIs from Matt Thaiss in a 9-4 win over Seattle within the collection finale on Sunday at Angel Stadium.
“We finished with a win in Houston, and we brought it back home, going 5-1,” Angels supervisor Phil Nevin mentioned. “It was a very nice week at home. That was a good baseball team over there. You’re going to see them until the end. They know what it takes. They’ve been places we haven’t been, and to beat a team like that is a shot in the arm for the whole room.”
The Angels now path the Astros by simply 1 1/2 video games for the ultimate AL Wild Card spot and proceed to place themselves in a greater place to be consumers on the Aug. 1 Trade Deadline. It’s clearly an essential season, with Ohtani within the closing yr of his contract and Los Angeles aiming to make the postseason for the primary time since 2014.
Ohtani had an enormous homestand offensively, hitting .417 (10-for-24) with three homers, two doubles and 5 RBIs in six video games, together with a 3-for-5 Sunday. He additionally allowed three runs over 5 innings in a no-decision throughout Friday’s 5-4 win.
But he was removed from the one one who contributed within the finale, as Neto homered twice for the primary time in his profession, Thaiss drove in three runs and Taylor Ward hit a leadoff homer. Mike Trout additionally snapped an 0-for-14 skid with a single as a part of a three-run third inning and hit a sacrifice fly to the warning monitor to proper subject with the bases loaded within the fourth.
“We’re doing the right things,” Neto mentioned. “We’re bringing guys in to score when we need to. We’re doing situational hitting. Our pitchers have been doing amazing. Our bullpen has been shutting it down. And our defense has been holding its own. We’re playing all-around good baseball, and that’s going to lead to wins.”
Right-hander Griffin Canning was given a six-run lead after three innings and allowed 4 runs (three earned) on seven hits, together with two homers, over five-plus innings. But he struck out seven and didn’t stroll a batter whereas enhancing to 5-2 with a 4.56 ERA.
“It was good enough,” Canning mentioned. “It kept the team in the game. We got out to a nice lead there. I just didn’t want to mess it up. It was a good team win. We’ve won six of the last seven. So can’t complain with that.”
The Angels posted a 3.33 ERA throughout their six-game homestand, but it surely was the bullpen that particularly dominated. Angels relievers mixed to put up a 0.77 ERA with 22 strikeouts in 23 1/3 innings. They leaned closely on veterans similar to nearer Carlos Estévez, Chris Devenski and Jacob Webb in addition to kids similar to José Soriano and Sam Bachman. Devenski exited one other jam with inherited runners within the sixth, Soriano threw two scoreless innings and Jimmy Herget hurled a scoreless body to finish it on Sunday.
“It was a great week for us on the offensive side of the ball, and defensively and pitching,” Thaiss mentioned. “The pitching staff really stepped up this week, especially the bullpen. Every guy out there came and did a great job, and we’re excited to get on the road.”
The Angels, although, have a troublesome collection arising, as they head to Texas to tackle the first-place Rangers for a four-game set. Texas has been working away with the division and leads the Halos by 6 1/2 video games, so it must be a very good take a look at for Los Angeles, very like final weekend in Houston.
“We’ve got a tough week ahead, but I will enjoy this one and get on the plane and go,” Nevin mentioned. “We played well. We played clean games, although today we made a couple of mistakes defensively that let them back into it. But I think when we play our best and we play clean games and we swing the bats the way we are capable of, we can beat anybody.”
