Matt Harvey leads the Angels to a win in his return to the mound

Angels 9 Mariners 2

Matt Harvey is back, and he gave us possibly his best start of the season (definitely top 3). He served up a double and a walk in the first inning but dialed it in. Harvey was given some breathing room by the potent Angels offense who remain one of the top run producing teams in baseball and have scored 29 runs over their past 3 games.

Thanks to an Andrelton Simmons stolen base, Alberto Pujols RBI, and Kole Calhoun bomb, the Angels were off to an early 2-0 lead in the 2nd inning. They tacked on 3 more in the 3rd when Luis Rengifo led off with a double, David Fletcher his his 3rd triple, and Mike Trout hit his 30th home run. Over the last 7 games Mike Trout now has 8 home runs and has been on an absolute tear.

The Angels Twitter page had some fun with that Trout homer. Apparently Noe Ramirez doesn’t need a glove:

For his part, Harvey kept cruising and he faced just 1 over the minimum batters in the 2nd through 5th innings. He was pulled when he got into a tiny bit of trouble in the 6th but he was also at 93 pitches. Harvey’s final line was 5.2 IP, 4 hits, 3 walks, 3 Ks, 1 ER. Is this a new improved Harvey, some dude who was facing the terrible Mariners, or maybe a bit of both??

The Mariners did score a run in the 6th and 7th but Albert Pujols put to bed any notion of a Mariners come back with this 3 runs blast (career HR #647):

Notable stats in this one include 4 RBIs by the Machine, 2-hit game by Fletcher, Pujols, and Calhoun, plus a 3-hit game buy Luis Rengifo. The Angels were also 6 for 8 with runners in scoring position. I could sure get used to games like this. Like Friday night, this game was over early.