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If you turned the game off when the Angels trailed 5-1, I don’t blame you. Well, you may be a little surprised when you see the final score. After falling behind by four runs, the Angels outscored the Mariners by 11 runs to defeat them, 12-5.
Oh where to begin. Well, for starters, Shohei Ohtani hit his 16th home run of the season in the first inning. That seemed so distant after everything that happened in the game.
Max Stassi homered in the fourth inning, cutting LA’s deficit to only three runs. It was the next inning in which the offense really started to pile it on. After an error and two singles, the Angels got to within run in the fifth. An inning later, Taylor Ward hit a two-run homer, putting the Angels ahead by a run.
They scored another run an inning later, but the offense damage came in the eighth inning when they scored five runs. Stassi and Jared Walsh began the inning with back-to-back hits. Juan Lagares followed with a two-run single, giving the Angels a comfortable 9-5 lead. They weren’t done, though. Justin Upton delivered a two-run double, putting LA up six runs. For good measure, Ohtani added an RBI double to give the Angels a seven run lead.
Switching over to the pitching side of things, Alex Cobb gave the Angels seven strong innings, something almost rare coming from an Angels starter this season. Although he allowed five runs, it’s a trade the Angels would accept considering he got to save a lot of bullpen arms. Cobb struck out six and had 11 whiffs. His called strike/whiff percentage was 35%.
The Angels have won two in a row and have now won three of their last four games. Whoa, don’t let the boys get hot! The Halos are seven games back of first place in the AL West, but now find themselves only five games back of a wild card spot. It won’t happen over the course of a week, but if the Angels can make up one game in the standings a week, they can find themselves in first place of the Wild Card or maybe even the division by the All-Star break.
Hey, gotta have confidence, right?