Santiago operates on wild side
Left-hander throws 119 pitches and walks six in five innings but keeps Red Sox at bay.
Hector Santiago took the mound at Angel Stadium at 6:07 p.m. Saturday. His name having swirled in trade rumors for weeks, it would not have been a surprise had he exited prematurely, before his allotment of pitches ran out.
Ultimately, the Angels’ penultimate game before Monday’s trade deadline concluded without any real resolution — but with a victory. They beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-2, after a serviceable start from Santiago and a balanced effort from their offense.
As wild as ever, Santiago began the game with two fastballs that missed. His third fastball was over the plate, and it was whacked into the visiting bullpen by Boston’s Mookie Betts. Santiago would walk three men and throw 35 more pitches in the inning. Somehow only one more run scored.
And no more runs scored thereafter, although Santiago continued to throw wildly. He needed 119 pitches to finish five innings, the secondmost any major leaguer has used in as short a span this season. Tim Lincecum also issued six walks Friday night. It had been 15 years since Angels starting pitchers had walked six men in consecutive games.
Manager Mike Scioscia called in a parade of relievers behind his starting pitcher. First was Fernando Salas for the first four batters of the sixth, then Joe Smith after two men reached base. He induced a hard groundout from Xander Bogaerts; Yunel Escobar snagged it and stepped on third, ending the inning.
Smith, considered the Angel most likely to be dealt by Monday’s 1 p.m. PDT nonwaiver trade deadline, stayed in for the seventh and retired the side in order. Cam Bedrosian struck out the side in a scoreless eighth, lowering his earned-run average to 0.92 in 39 innings this season. In perhaps the most surprising performance by an Angel this season, he has struck out 48 men and walked just 11.
New Red Sox acquisition Drew Pomeranz did not display the dominant stuff that enticed Boston into ceding one of baseball’s premier prospects for him earlier this month. Mike Trout notched a one-out single in the first inning, moved to second when an Albert Pujols blooper fell for a hit, and came around to score on a wild pitch and groundout. In the third, Pujols hit a two-run home run, the 580th of his career.
Johnny Giavotella’s runscoring single in the fourth and Jett Bandy’s run-scoring double in the sixth capped the Angels’ output.