Johnny G paves over Street's potholes, Halos win 2nd straight walk-off 4-3!!

Johnny Giovatella stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, and you just had the feeling that the irrepressibly improbable imp is still srpinkling magic pixie dust over his inaugural season in the place of the outstanding Howie Kendrick. And there you have it. With Erick Aybar standing on first after having forced pinch runner Taylor Featherstone out at second base, Mike Sciscia called for the hit and run and Aybar/Giovatella executed perfectly. Johnny G. drove a line shot to the right field corner with just enough depth to bring Aybar all the way around to score the winning run.

Thus, the Halos had their second walk-off victory in a row, both over the equally struggling Mariners. Tonight's final score was 4-3. A tip of the hat for Scioscia, Aybar AND Johnny G.

The Angels offense is still chaotic and  fractured. Except for Johnny G's RBI in the 9th, the Halos only plated any runs in one frame, the bottom of the 3rd. Colin Cowgill hit a one-out triple on the 2nd pitch he saw to position himself to score on Kole Calhoun's following first pitch double. That brought up Mike Trout.  Trout, on his 4th pitch, smashed a 2-run monster shot that bounced UP the batter's eye in straight center field!

Thus, in the span of 6 pitches from M's starter Roenis Elias, who otherwise had the Angels locked down, the Angels had a 3-0 lead.

C.J. Wilson went 7 full innings, the first 3 of which were very strong. After a shaky 4th inning where he gave back 2 of the 3 runs the Angels offense provided, Wilson walked a short tight rope in the 5th, then settled down and managed the 6th and 7th innings with ease......Joe Smith took over the 8th and, except for dinging Robinson Cano on the leg, had far more success than last night and the game was turned over to Huston Street in the 9th with the Angels leading 3-2......That was not to last. Street gave up a leadoff double and burned through 25 pitches holding the M's to that single runner scoring. But, yeah, that meant the game was tied and Street had blown the save.

By the way, for those NOT watching at home, Trout also added a spectacular race to deep right center field to make a diving snag made possible only by his phenomenal speed:

So somebody needs to explain to me why this kid, with THAT MUCH RANGE, who is among the league leaders in innings played, outs made, percentage of team outs made, with zero errors committed, has such a punishingly bad UZR!?!

With the Astros losing again to the Rangers, the Halos Find themselves out of first place in the AL West by only 5 games. It's, like, somebody is saying that there might be a chance. Oh, the tease!