Suarez and Rendon Bring the Angels Back to .500

Alex Cobb was back on the mound in Arizona playing by NL rules. He was against a tough lefty, so run support would be minimal. Not that it mattered as he himself had a no good very bad day. 3 innings, 5 runs, although not all were earned. Thankfully, Jose Suarez pitched stellar relief, going 4 innings and allowing just 1 run. And the offense came through with 8 runs to win the game and get back to .500!

Recap

Clobbered Cobb

The Angels had a Justin Upton leadoff walk but he was stranded. Alex Cobb hit himself a 1-2-3 inning to begin his game.

Churches started the second off with an infield base hit. Yet, once again, he was stranded there. Things didn’t go as smoothly for Cobb in the second, but nothing came in to site against him.

For the third, Upton drew another walk, but, again, was stranded, again. Which was rather unfortunate as Cobb allowed 5 runs in the bottom of the 3rd. How did this happen? By beating the shift constantly, and errors. All with 2 outs.

Down 5-0, Rendon partly made up for his mistakes with a leadoff home run. Lagares hit a double off the glove, and Gosselin drove him in with a bloops single. 5-2 Arizona.

Suarez Super Relief

Suarez came in for the bottom of the 4th, and had a shutdown inning to send the offense back out there.

Upton led off the fifth with his third walk of the game. Stassi and Rendon hit back to back doubles to make it 5-4 Arizona. Suarez had himself a 1-2-3 inning to keep the score within one.

In the 6th, they stranded a runner like usual. Suarez though, continued to pitch well, making his case to be in the rotation, keeping it a 5-4 game after 6.

Walsh walked in the 7th, finally not striking out, but he was stranded. Stretch time and Suarez went back out there. Things didn’t go well this time, as he gave up a leadoff home run. 6-4 Arizona after 7.

Taylor Ward hit a single and Shohei Ohtani pinch hit a single as well. 2 on and Wong pinch hit for the pitcher. He sacrificed Ward in to make it a 1 run game again.

Anchor Leg

So it made perfect sense to bring in Claudio to pitch the 8th? Well, he got all 3 batters out. Perhaps he is getting good now.

It was the last gasp for the Halos. Jared Walsh started it off with a leadoff double. Stassi followed it up with a single to put runners on the corners for Rendon. A sac fly tied the game! 6-6. Churches got a hit, and so did Ward, 8-6 Angels!

D-Cell had a save opportunity, with a 2 run lead this time. That was surely needed as with 2 outs, a solo home run made it a 1 run game. It was just a blip, as he got the last out and the Angels are back to .500!

Upcoming

The Angels are now 32-32 on the season and face Arizona one more time tomorrow afternoon. It’s very much a must win against the worst team in baseball. A chance to sweep and have a 5 game winning streak.