Angels return to winning formula, bag another 5-3 victory

Angels 5, Rays 3

In baseball, 5-3 is a putout from third base to first base. A lazy grounder, or perhaps a hotshot. The Angels third baseman, David Fletcher, made a couple 5-3 putouts to first baseman Justin Bour today. In fact, both Fletcher and Bour featured prominently in the win.

To the Angels, however, 5-3 is the tally of every single win this week. Whenever the score is 5-3, they win. Whenever they win, the score is 5-3. It goes both ways.

Charlie Morton is one tough customer. Coming into the game, he compiled an 8-0 record with a league-leading 2.68 FIP, mostly due to his low home run rate. Morton had only allowed four home runs this season.

Today, in the matinee game, Morton looked like he had all his stuff. He struck out nine through six innings and made Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani look like Little Leaguers. When he did get into a spot of trouble, the Angels made him pay.

In the second inning, after Morton walked Kevan Smith, Brian Goodwin lifted a lazy blooper into left field. On the Tropicana Field turf, however, the ball bounced over the heads of Tommy Pham and **player who wins Gold Gloves over Mike Trout** Kevin Kiermaier, scoring Smith. The next batter, David Fletcher, batting sixth for some logical reason, hooked an 0-2 into the seats.

The next inning, Justin Bour deposited a pitch in the upper third of the zone the other way into the seats. He’s homered in two straight games he’s played.

For the most part, José Suarez was locating and going after hitters, leaving them off balance. He worked through five innings in just sixty-four pitches, the efficiency radiating from his left hand blinding most of the Angel pitchers, including Andrew Heaney and Tyler Skaggs.

In the sixth, Suarez got into a bit of trouble. Avisail Garcia and Tommy Pham singled, and Austin Meadows hit a booming fly ball to the wall. The next man up, Yandy Diaz, smashed a three-run shot the other way, effectively ending Suarez’s night.

Kevan Smith added a solo shot in the eighth:

Cam Bedrosian got four outs, Ty Buttrey got three, and Hansel Robles got the last three to slam the door.

It was good to see the Angels scratch out a win when the top three hitters in the lineup went 0-13 with five strikeouts.

And of course, always good to see the 5-3.