White Sox punish Angels early and late

Andrew Heaney’s slot machine came up triple sevens on Friday, but unfortunately for the Angels that meant jackpot for the White Sox in an 12-8 Chicago triumph in Anaheim.

The first seven was a boon for Heaney, retiring his first seven batters faced.

But then he allowed seven of the next nine batters to reach, the first blow coming on a grand slam by reigning American League MVP Jose Abreu in the third inning.

Heaney ran into more trouble in the fourth inning, leaving with two runners on base, and Chicago cashed both of them in against Junior Guerra, which meant seven runs were charged to Heaney’s ledger.

The Angels trailed 7-1 shortly after Heaney’s departure, but all was not necessarily lost just yet. They mounted a comeback immediately in the bottom of the inning when Mike Trout doubles, Justin Upton walked, and Albert Pujols followed with a three-run home run, the 663rd of his illustrious career.

Trout reached base four times on the night with a double, single, and two walks, and owns a tidy .778 on-base percentage through two games.

Chris Rodriguez was electric in his major league debut, beginning with his first batter faced, Yoan Moncada in the fifth inning, a three-pitch swinging strikeout.

Rodriguez averaged 96.6 mph on his two-seam fastball, and pitched two scoreless innings, striking out three while allowing two singles and a walk, throwing 27 pitches.

“That was special, that was powerful,” Joe Maddon said of Rodriguez’s debut. “It’s really impressive to get that many outs with so few pitches.”

The Angels pulled to within 7-6 in the fifth inning thanks to a botched catch by Adam Eaton in right field off the bat of Anthony Rendon, allowing a pair of runs to scored. That put Rendon, the tying run on third base with two outs, but Matt Foster struck out Upton to end the threat.

Angels closer Raisel Iglesias was called on for a second straight night, entering down a run in the top of the ninth, but he was greeted rudely by Tim Anderson, who homered to right center, the start of a floodgate-opening rally that gave Chicago five runs of insurance.

The White Sox have a new closer of their own in Liam Hendriks, and in his debut with Chicago he entered in the eighth with just a one-run lead and two runners on but got Jose Iglesias to fly out to end the frame. Then with a bigger cushion, Hendriks got the final three outs in the ninth to close out the game and even the series, but not before Shohei Ohtani hit his first home run of the season.

Notes

• José Rojas made his major league debut as a pinch-hitter leading off the ninth inning, but he struck out against Hendriks.
• Chicago designated hitter Yermin Mercedes, making his first major league start, went 5-for-5 with a double and four runs batted in, for his first five major league hits.
• Maddon said Ohtani would be in the lineup again on Saturday, one day before his scheduled pitching start.
• Hendriks threw 34 pitches in his outing.

Friday particulars

Home runs: Albert Pujols (1), Shohei Ohtani (1); José Abreu (1), Tim Anderson (1)

WP — Michael Kopech (1-0): 2 IP, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts

LP — Andrew Heaney (0-1): 3+ IP, 5 hits, 7 runs, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts

Sv — Liam Hendriks (1): 1⅓ IP, 2 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts

Up next

Alex Cobb makes his Angels debut on Saturday night (6:07 p.m. PT, Bally Sports West), facing Lance Lynn, who is making his White Sox debut.