Schoop hit a two-run homer in the fourth, but Los Angeles evened it later in the inning with Murphy’s first RBI for the Angels and Giavotella’s tying double.
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The Halos got it back, though, in the bottom of the fourth, when new guy David Murphy singled in Mike Trout, and then Johnny Giavotella further solidified his clutch status by hitting an RBI double.
The Angels used their third win in four games to move within 1 1/2 games of the first-place Houston Astros in the American League West.
Jonathan Schoop and Matt Wieters homered for the Orioles.
Kevin Gausman’s last two starts were okay, but tonight he didn’t have his fastball command and the Angels made him pay for it. After a fairly quiet top of the first, Gausman struck out David DeJesus and Kole Calhoun before surrendering a solo shot to Mike Trout (on his birthday no less!) to make it 1-0 Angels.
Trout came up as a 19-year old with the Los Angeles Angels in 2011, but didn’t play his first full season with the club until the following year in 2012. Friday was a balanced effort with five players besides Trout driving in a run, including three RBIs and two doubles between Nos. Salas (2-1) pitched only one-third of an inning and struck out the only batter he faced. The ball was hit so well, Jones probably thought had a homer and didn’t run as fast as he usually does.
Facing a struggling Ubaldo Jimenez could be conducive for another big offensive performance Saturday night against the Baltimore Orioles at Angel Stadium.
“We didn’t pitch very well out of the bullpen”, Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said.
22 teams could have drafted Trout before the Angels did, as Stephen Strasburg, Dustin Ackley, Zach Wheeler, Mike Leake, Shelby Miller, A. J Pollock and Drew Storen all heard their names called before Trout did in 2009.
Andrew Heaney, who has been so good, started for the Angels. He hasn’t allowed more than two runs in any of his seven big-league outings and gave up two runs and four hits in 5 1/3 innings against the Dodgers.
Trout also hit home runs on his birthday in 2012 and 2013.
Anyway, Nolan Reimold singled against Heaney to lead off the third inning.
Trout gave the Angels a 1-0 lead in the first. After starting the inning with an infield single, Reimold tried to take third base on a single by right fielder Gerardo Parra.
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Parra reached second on Calhoun’s throw, then tied the score when center fielder Adam Jones lined a single off the center-field wall.
