Angels’ rally goes to waste in loss
Newcomers Upton and Phillips prove to be assets on offense, but Skaggs struggles.
ARLINGTON, Texas — It was one of the longest nine-inning games ever played, replete with twists, controversial challenges and a lot of participants.
Ultimately, the Angels lost 10-9 to Texas on Friday night at Globe Life Park.
At 4 hours, 33 minutes, their disheartening defeat was the third-longest nineinning game in the history of baseball. Two mid-2000s games between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox were the only ones to last longer.
So much earlier, Rangers starter Cole Hamels walked both Brandon Phillips and Mike Trout to begin. Justin Upton lost a hit on a sharp play by Joey Gallo at third base, but Albert Pujols doubled into right field to score Phillips and Trout.
The Angels introduced both Phillips, hitting leadoff, and Upton, hitting third. into their lineup. They were surprise acquisitions made ahead of Thursday's deadline to add playoff-eligible players, and they paid off offensively Friday, but not defensively.
Taking a 2-0 lead to the mound, Angels left-hander Tyler Skaggs induced a ground ball from Delino DeShields. But Phillips took his time fielding it and threw late to first base. DeShields then stole second, and Skaggs walked Shin-Soo Choo. As Elvis Andrus batted, both men stole another Debut performances Brandon Phillips batted leadoff and Justin Upton hit third in their Angels debuts:
base, and DeShields scored when Andrus grounded out to shortstop. Choo jogged home when Nomar Mazara laced a double into center field.
Skaggs found more trouble in the second. He issued a leadoff walk to Mike Napoli, earned one popout, and allowed a double and another walk to load the bases. Choo then lofted a routine fly ball into left field, where Upton jogged to it but could not field it. The ball glanced off of his glove, allowing the go-ahead run to score. Next, Andrus blooped a single into short right field, where three pursuing Angels could not reach it. That scored two more runs.
Joey Gallo’s massive home run to begin the third made the score 6-2 and forced Skaggs’ exit.
“This loss is on me,” Skaggs said. “I can't shy away from it.”
Angels manager Mike Scioscia turned first to Fernando Salas, then Jason Gurka, then Blake Wood, then Keynan Middleton, then Jose Alvarez, then Noe Ramirez. On Sept. 1, bullpens run amok. Both teams boasted 10-man bullpens, and the Angels used nine relievers, including Troy Scribner, who started for them Tuesday.
The first three Angels to emerge from the bullpen threw well. Middleton struggled in the sixth, serving up three consecutive hard-hit balls to begin the inning. The first went as a triple, the second a 447-foot home run. After a lineout and a groundout, Carlos Gomez launched a home run to left off a hanging slider.
In the Angels’ half of the third, Trout stole second despite being picked off. Pujols nearly brought him in with a 399-foot drive to center field, caught on the warning track. Two innings later, Pujols successfully drove home Trout and Upton, singling to center after both men had notched two-out hits. The Angels then extended the rally with an error and a hits batsman, loading the bases for C.J. Cron, who ripped a ball to third base, right at Gallo. He slammed his helmet to the dirt in anger.
A bases-loaded situation came to Cron again in the seventh, this time without an out. He drilled a double to the right-field wall, scoring two. Up next, Martin Maldonado battled left-hander Jake Diekman to eight pitches but struck out swinging while chasing a slider. Cliff Pennington notched a sacrifice fly to score a run before the inning ended.
When Trout popped out to start the eighth, it snapped his career-high streak of reaching base in 11 plate appearances, one short of the franchise record set by Bobby Grich in 1984. Justin Upton followed Trout’s out with a single to left, and Pujols next sprayed a single to center for his fourth hit of the night. Andrelton Simmons’ tapper back to the mound scored Upton, and Kole Calhoun’s sacrifice fly scored Eric Young Jr., who pinch-ran for Pujols and stole second base.
That tied the game 9-9. Texas quickly untied it in the bottom of the eighth, scoring the go-ahead run on a Cam Bedrosian wild pitch.
In the top of the ninth, down the one run, the Angels again rallied, loading the bases with two outs on two singles and an intentional walk.
A controversial call at second base, confirmed after replay review, hampered their chances. Brandon Phillips appeared safe at second, but umpire Mike Estabrook ruled him out.
“I think he was safe,” Scioscia said.
Batting in Pujols’ spot, Young stepped up and grounded into a game-ending forceout.