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Tonight wasn’t the Angels night, let’s just put it that way. Well, it WAS...until it wasn’t. Yeah, that works. Such is life on a Friday night at Angel Stadium I reckon. As the fans watched the home town dudes take a nice lead into late innings, and as the onset of weird May rain dissipated, so did all of that good cheer, and a solid W turned into a solid L.
Something cool happened in this game, at least: Justin Upton homered, his 10th on the season, and even cooler, it was his fourth straight game in which the LF went yard. He is the 15th Angels player to ever accomplish such a feat. Other than that HR, though, the Halos didn’t really put on a display of power like they had in previous games. There was a Zack Cozart groundout and an Andrelton Simmons walk that accounted for their other runs, but still, by the time they headed into the ninth inning, that was good enough for a 4-2 advantage over Minnesota.
The Twins only runs at that point came off of two solo homers allowed by Angels starter Tyler Skaggs, who otherwise looked pretty dang nifty. Skaggs threw 6.0 IP, giving up six total hits, walking two batters and striking out seven. Skaggs was mostly money, exactly what they mostly need from him. Justin Anderson was also mostly money, but he didn’t come out quite as unscathed, at least in regards to the final score.
Anderson, the surprise of the season, some may easily say, had a perfect eighth inning, and was then ready to come on and get his first MLB save of his career, but right off the bat (pun intended) he let Eddie Rosario get his second dinger of the evening, bringing the Twins within one run. Veteran Jim Johnson would then come on in relief, and that’s when the heartbreak set in. Johnson would allow a single and a sac fly and thus allow the visitors to take a 5-4 lead in the top of the ninth, much to the chagrin of...well..everyone outside of people from Minnesota.
Down 5-4, the Halos didn’t have any comeback in them tonight, and just like that, they had a neat win become a bummer loss. How’s that for a Friday night? Don’t answer that. It’s rhetorical. Turn the page, dudes.