Cole, Gurriel help Astros blank Angels 4-0
HOUSTON — Yuli Gurriel homered for the fourth straight game and Gerrit Cole pitched seven scoreless innings before two relievers completed the four-hitter, leading the Houston Astros to a 4-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday night.
Gurriel’s solo shot extended Houston’s lead to 3-0 in the sixth and gave him a 10-game hitting streak and the longest stretch of consecutive games with home runs in his career.
Cole (9-5) scattered three hits over seven innings while striking out nine to win his fifth straight decision.
Cole, who leads the American League with 170 strikeouts, started July off strong after going 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA in June to win AL pitcher of the month honors.
Ryan Pressly allowed one hit in the eighth and Collin McHugh struck out the side in the ninth to help Houston to its sixth win in seven games.
For the Angels, Andrew Heaney started for the first time since teammate and best friend Tyler Skaggs was found dead in his hotel room on Monday.
The left-hander took the mound wearing a cap with Skaggs’ initials “TWS” written to the left of the team logo and his No. 45 occupying the right side.
He sported a different look than he had on Friday, as the normally mustachioed Heaney was clean shaven like his pal Skaggs always was.
Heaney crouched down and scribbled what appeared to be Skaggs’ initials in the dirt before rising to begin the game.
His tribute continued touchingly there when he tossed a slow, looping curveball as a nod to Skaggs’ signature pitch for his first throw of the game.
George Springer pulled his bat back and simply watched as the ball sailed into the catcher’s glove.
Heaney (1-3) had a better outing than he did in his last start when he gave up five runs, but allowed five hits and two runs in five innings for his second straight loss.
Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez hit consecutive singles off him with no outs in the fourth before Gurriel grounded into a force out that left Alvarez out at second and sent Bregman to third.
Houston took a 1-0 lead when Josh Reddick singled to right field with two outs in the inning to score Bregman.
Springer walked with one out in the fifth before Bregman clanged a doubled off the wall in left field with two out to score Springer and make it 2-0.
Trevor Cahill took over for the sixth inning and Gurriel sent his second pitch over the low wall in right field for his homer. Eight of Gurriel’s 13 home runs this season have come in his last 10 games, which marks the first time an Astro has homered eight times in 10 games since Morgan Ensberg did it in April 2006.
Shohei Ohtani doubled with two outs in the first before Kole Calhoun walked, but Cole retired Andrelton Simmons to end the inning and the Angels didn’t have more than one baserunner in an inning against Cole after that.
He got stronger as the game went on, retiring 14 of the last 15 batters he faced, with eight strikeouts, capped when he fanned Jarrett Parker on a 101.1 mph fastball on his 110th pitch.
The Astros loaded the bases on a walk by Mike Trout with one out in the eighth, but Pressly sat down the next two batters to end the threat.