The Angels were well on their way to their seventh consecutive loss Friday night, trailing 5-1 after six innings with just three measly hits to their name. But then a funny thing happened: They didn’t lose.
The offense came to life in the seventh, erupting for 10 hits and six runs over the final three innings and securing the club’s third win of the month. C.J. Cron led the surprise attack with a solo home run and the go-ahead single in the ninth, but the comeback was a true team effort: All nine batters reached based safely at least once from the seventh inning on.
Run Expectancy Rundown
Cron now has extra-base hits in each of his last three games and has now raised his SLG above .400 for the first time since opening day—he’s also 20-for-45 over the last two weeks. Jefry Marte continued the trend of strong Angel debuts from early-season call-ups, doubling twice. Albert Pujols tallied two more hits, hopping his batting average (.201) up over the Mendoza Line for the third time this month. Mike Trout reached base thrice and actually stole a base.
Chris Iannetta did a bunch of the damage against his former club, homering, singling, and walking twice. Nori Aoki and Ketel Marte each notched a triple thanks to their speed and less than stellar defending in the outfield. Nelson Cruz launched his seventh home run of the year.
Starting Pitcher Scores
Nick Tropeano‘s penchant for not quite going six innings in his starts was a cute idiosyncrasy in April, but now it’s become something much more vexing. After Friday’s two-run, five-inning outing, he’s now made seven starts this season and not once completed the sixth inning. Just once in his last three starts has he even come out for the sixth. Dude needs to really work on his pitch efficiency.
Nate Karns was absolutely cruising through six innings but then ran into a wall, allowing hits to three of the last four batters he faced. His final two runs were let in by the Mariners bullpen.
Bullpen Battle
Jose Alvarez has had the weirdest year thus far. He’s now allowed runs in just three of his 19 outings on the season, but all three times he’s been knocked around for three runs. Greg Mahle gave up the first dinger of his big-league career. Joe Smith escaped another hairy situation to collect the win, while Fernando Salas got his first save since 2011.
The Mariners bullpen came apart at the seams: Joel Peralta got tagged for a homer and two doubles in the eighth; Steve Cishek blew it the rest of the way by allowing three singles and a walk in the ninth. Entering the game, Cishek had a sparkling 0.98 ERA.
Game Flow
That’s what the biggest comeback of the year looks like in graph form. The Angels had just a 7% chance of winning entering the seventh.
Halo Hero
The big man is hitting like his roster spot depends on it. Amazing how well the offense can do when the Nos. 4 and 5 spots aren’t massive black holes.
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