ANDREW HEANEY’S
Slam in ninth ends a wild game featuring 10 homers. Pujols’ 609th ties Sosa. Heaney is uneven in return.
first big league start since April 2016 yielded mixed results — he gave up five runs and Angels lost 9-7 on a grand slam in ninth.
BALTIMORE — The Angels and the Baltimore Orioles spent the night launching baseballs over the outfield wall, combining for 10 home runs in a game decided by the grandest hit of all.
Manny Machado capped his three-homer night with a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning, providing the Orioles with a 9-7 victory Friday night.
“It’s like a game where everybody’s dunking,” Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said. “No [jump] shots tonight.”
Machado finished with seven runs batted in, the first three of those coming on a pair of home runs against Angels left-hander Andrew Heaney, who was making his first start since April 2016.
Machado’s seventh career slam came off of Keynan Middleton (4-1), who entered with two on and one out in the ninth. After Tim Beckham singled to load the bases, Machado hit a drive far over the center-field wall to give Baltimore its first lead.
Machado also hit a tworun homer in the third and a solo shot in the fifth off of Heaney, who gave up five runs and seven hits (including four home runs) in five innings — although he left with a 7-5 lead and would have been the winning pitcher if the Angels had hung on in the ninth.
“I just never really got into a rhythm. My tempo was pretty terrible,” said Heaney, who had elbow ligament replacement surgery in July 2016. “All those things lead to bad pitches and big innings. That’s on me.”
Still, Angels manager Mike Scioscia said, “It was good to see him out there. As he gets into his next start he’ll get better.”
Albert Pujols set the tone for the game in the first inning with a milestone homer off Jeremy Hellickson. There would be plenty more long balls on a steamy night at Camden Yards.
“Obviously, a good hitters’ park,” Scioscia said. “We hit the ball good tonight; they did too. They got the last big hit.”
Machado’s third slam of the year came on a fastball that caught way too much of the plate.
“I was looking for a pitch and I got it,” he said. “I made a good swing. Off the bat, I knew it was going to go far.”
Said Middleton: “I was trying to go fastball away, and I left the fastball over the middle.”
Pujols’ two-run drive was the 609th of his career, tied with Sammy Sosa for eighth on the all-time list. Pujols and Sosa, both from the Dominican Republic, share the distinction of hitting more home runs than any other foreign-born player.
After Pujols and Kole Calhoun connected in succession in the first inning, C.J. Cron and Kaleb Cowart homered in the second for a 5-0 lead. The Orioles used homers by Mark Trumbo, Machado and Caleb Joseph and cut the gap to a run before a two-run drive by Mike Trout made it 7-4 in the fifth.
All five Angels home runs came off Hellickson, the first time the right-hander had yielded more than three in a game.
But his slugging teammates made up the deficit.
“It’s going to make my night a little better,” Hellickson said. “It would still have been nice to do my part in that win.”