Brandon Drury went 3-for-4 with what proved to be the decisive home run as the Los Angeles Angels edged the Tampa Bay Rays 7-6 on Saturday in the first game of a split doubleheader in Anaheim, Calif.
The game featured a matchup of right-handers with two of the best ERAs since the All-Star break in Tampa Bay’s Tyler Glasnow (1.64) and the Angels’ Chase Silseth (1.59), but both starters struggled.
Silseth lasted just 3 2/3 innings, giving up five runs on five hits with four strikeouts and three walks. Glasnow (6-4) went six innings and was responsible for seven runs (five earned) on eight hits. He struck out seven without a walk despite taking the loss.
The Rays’ Josh Lowe, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs, delivered a two-run single in the first for a 2-0 lead.
The Angels scored six runs across the second and third innings.
Los Angeles scored two in the second to tie the game after a pair of infield singles were converted to runs on an RBI single to right by Mickey Moniak and Randal Grichuk’s sacrifice fly.
In the third, the Angels pushed four across to go up 6-2 after another infield single and an error by Rays first baseman Jonathan Aranda. Two runs came home for Los Angeles on a passed ball by Rays catcher Rene Pinto and a Glasnow wild pitch, and the Angels added on with an RBI single by Matt Thaiss and Grichuk’s run-scoring double to the center field wall.
In the top of the fourth, the Rays pulled to within 6-5 on a solo home run from Lowe, his 16th homer of the season, and a two-run shot to straightaway center from Pinto off Silseth. It was Pinto’s first long ball of the season.
Silseth’s short outing led to Griffin Canning, normally a starting pitcher, coming in to piggyback Silseth as a reliever capable of throwing multiple innings.
The Angels pushed their lead to 7-5 in the fifth when Drury hit his 16th homer of the year, an opposite-field solo shot to right center. But the Rays matched that when Aranda’s first homer of the season, a deep drive to right off Canning, brought Tampa Bay within a run.
Canning (7-4) struck out five over 3 1/3 innings while giving up one run on two hits to earn the win in relief.
Reynaldo Lopez worked around a leadoff single to pitch a scoreless ninth to notch his sixth save of the season, and his second as an Angel.
The split doubleheader was arranged to get the games finished before the arrival in Southern California of Hurricane Hilary, which is expected to deliver heavy wind and rain to the area on Sunday. The first game of the twin bill took the place of Sunday’s rescheduled game.
–Field Level Media
