It was going to be a tall task to beat Pittsburgh tonight. Offensively the Angels were basically playing 8 on 9 so they needed Jose Soriano to bring his A game to the mound. Unfortunately he did not.
The big blow was that home run, a three run shot from Hall of Great Guy-er Andrew McCutchen that pushed the score to 5-1 Pirates and ended Soriano’s night. The one run on the board for the Angels came courtesy of what else but a solo home run; this one by Taylor Ward.
If you think the Angels only score on solo shots, you are right. Hard to blame Ward here as the pitcher’s spot was ahead of him in the lineup. But it has been a long time since the Angels put up a crooked number when hitting a longball.
In the home half of the 4th, the Angels scratched across two more runs to cut the deficit to 5-3. A Nolan Schanuel sacrifice fly plated Jorge Soler then a Jo Adell doubled punched in Logan O’hoppe.
Unfortunately that would be as close as the team go. Pittsburgh extended the lead to 6-3 in the top of the 5th. And the Halos were a bit fortunate to only be down three. The Pirates hit into 3 inning ending double plays over the first 8 innings or it would have been worse.
Walks to Taylor Ward and Mike Trout brought Jorge Soler to the plate as the tying run with 2 outs in the 8th inning. The Buccos went to their closer Dennis Santana who put Soler away on three pitches. Two of them were in the dirt but Soler swung anyway.
Ian Anderson came in to really put the game away in the 9th and he did, giving up another run to push the final score to 9-3.
Tomorrow former Angel Andrew Heaney toes the rubber for Pittsburgh. Our squad counters with Silent C. Hean-dog’s ERA starts with a 2, our guy’s starts with a 6.
If you’re looking for something to put a smile on your face today, here it is:
