Angels’ pitchers step up to back Trout, blank Nats
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Mike Trout is in his second decade of delivering clutch hits and catalyzing the Los Angeles Angels’ offense. For most of that first decade, his teammates on the mound weren’t consistently good enough to turn enough of Trout’s big hits into wins.
These Angels just might be different: When Trout came through with his latest huge hit in the fifth inning Friday night, five pitchers comfortably made it stand up yet again.
Trout hit a two-run double and Jhonathan Díaz tossed five spotless innings in his first start of the season, leading the surging Angels to a 3-0 victory over the Washington Nationals.
After Díaz impressed his teammates by winning a key showdown with Juan Soto, the bullpen coolly finished the Angels’ fifth shutout of the year and second in a row — the first back-to-back shutouts for the normally pitching-poor Halos since July 2016.
Raisel Iglesias threw a perfect ninth on six pitches for his seventh save.
Trout loved to see it all.
“You can’t ask for much more than that [from Díaz],” Trout said.
Shohei Ohtani also drove in a run for the Angels in their third consecutive victory and 10th in 13 games, including six straight at Angel Stadium. The AL West leaders opened a six-game homestand by moving eight games above .500 for the first time since June 2018.
Anthony Rendon went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts and grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in his first game against the Nationals since leaving them to sign a seven-year, $245 million free-agent deal with the Angels in December 2019.
The Nationals managed four hits while getting shut out for the second time. They’ve lost three straight and 12 of 15 as they began the final series of their nine-game road trip.
Díaz (1-0) yielded three hits and four walks, striking out four while taking the rotation spot of struggling Jose Suarez, who was sent down to Triple-A Salt Lake.
Joan Adon (1-5) struck out six over five innings of three-hit, three-run ball for the Nats.
“He threw the ball well except for the (five) walks,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “That’s a tough lineup. I told him, ‘(When) you get strike one, you’re nasty.’ ”
Orioles-Royals postponed again:
Saturday night’s game between the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals was postponed because of rain.
The teams also had a game Friday night called off, when six games around the major leagues were rained out, the most in a day because of inclement weather since 2018.
This is Kansas City’s only scheduled visit to Baltimore this season. The Royals and Orioles will try to play a straight doubleheader today, and then another game Monday afternoon on what was a mutual off day.