Angels finally get a win, avoiding consecutive loss infamy with 7-6 comeback over Mariners

Angels 7 Mariners 6

They did it! They actually did it! The Angels managed to come back from behind, the fall behind, then come back from behind again to get the win over Seattle. The 11 game losing streak has been snapped, thank you Baseball Gods.

This was looking like loss #12 for much of the evening, with the Mariners getting four runs off of starter Jhoulys Chacin and then two off of reliever J.C. Ramirez. Heading into the sixth, the Angels were down 4-1, but they then started cooking something up when Kole Calhoun and Mike Trout drew walks.

Albert Pujols was next up, and if you were to dramatize this game, you’d have Albert hit a massive, three-run homer, tying the game up. If you were feeling especially frisky in the embellishment department, you might then add that Jett Bandy would follow up with a towering solo shot of his his own. Well, that was the real life drama we got, on Ducks night, with Pennywise’s “Bro Hymn” playing after each blast.

The Angels had a lead, the Big A was rocking and the stench of the recent failures seemed to subside, if only a little bit. Of course, before things got too cozy, the Mariners would come back again. J.C. Ramirez gave up a couple to the Mariners in the seventh, with a wild pitch that scored one, then a sac fly. Cliff Pennington also had an error that made the inning go on longer than need be.

The Mariners retook a 6-5 lead, and the hardscrabble game headed to the 8th with the Halos on the ropes. Jefry Marte, with two outs already on the board, had other ideas about the game and it’s outcome, as he hit a solo bomb down the left field line. Next, Cliff Pennington would pay his penance for earlier errors, when he had an RBI triple that scored Jett Bandy.

That triple would be the game-winner, giving the Halos a 7-6 lead, and they’d make swift work of the Mariners in the 9th. To most fans, this is a time to rejoice, for we saw some fun, entertaining Angels baseball. To a subset of those fans, it’s a bittersweet victory, because now they’ll never see the team make a new consecutive loss record, on Hello Kitty night, nonetheless.

Well, too bad. This team wasn’t going down like that, apparently, because they fought back like beasts, and for the first time in a long time, they had finally snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, and not the other way around.

This is a decent game to build off of, one more face-saving surge in 2016. Maybe.