Friday the 13th Fright: Angels Fall to Astros

The Angels drop game one of the second series matchup against the ‘Stros. Tonights starting pitcher matchup featured two players pitching against their former organizations in Zack Greinke and Patrick Sandoval.

Max Stassi was back in the lineup after being HBP on his left forearm Wednesday night versus Toronto. He hit a leadoff double in the second but the Angels were unable to bring him home. Neither pitcher gave up a run through three.

Sandoval got into trouble in the fourth as he walked the first two batters he faced and then a soft single loaded the bases with no outs. With the bases full of Astros Kyle Tucker hit a grand slam on Sandoval’s sixty-third pitch of the night. That was the second grand slam the Angels have given up in the past three days.

Sandoval’s night was done with two outs in the fifth at 83 pitches and gave way to Mike Mayers which was undoubtedly a bright spot; seeing him pitch on Friday the 13th. On top of the connection even though it is a different movie, but it’s close enough, Mayers stranded Sandy’s inherited runner making his final line: 4.2 IP, 4 R, 5 H, 2 BB, 3K and a 3.62 ERA.

After the game Maddon said he felt Sandoval’s stuff wasn’t as sharp as usual but that he battled to get to where he did. Sandoval’s average was also down about 2 mph throughout the game but Sandoval said that he physically felt fine.

In addition to Mayers scoreless appearance, the other pitchers out of the bullpen, Quintana, and Cishek, didn’t allow any runs and combined retired 13 of the 14 hitters they faced. Maddon adding that he feels it’s the best he’s seen Quintana and Mayers all year. But the offense could not figure out Greinke (7IP, 0R, 7K, 2H) and finally got into the bullpen facing Graveman in the eighth.

With two on and two out in the eight, Ohtani singled through the shift, scoring the Angels only run along with some heads up base running and he advanced to second.

Ryan Pressly, the Astros closer, came in with a three run lead and protected it by sending the Angels down 1-2-3 to end the game. The Astros continue to play well against AL West opponents improving to 31-14 on the year.

The Angels currently sit 8.5 games back of the second Wild Card position and a game under .500 at 58-59. They look to Jaime Barría to even the series tomorrow in a 6:07 start.

Angels News and Notes:

• If the Angels win tomorrow, they will be back at .500 for the 25th time this season
• Christian Molfetta recorded his first professional hit, an RBI triple for the Double AA Rocket City Trash Pandas