“We’re not ideal”, Houston manager A.J. Hinch said. Cron said. “We’re not just going to push over and let them take the series”. “We were one game short of ideal, and we’re really taking this one game at a time, which is the worst cliche you can use this time of year, but it’s the reality of how we show up every day in trying to win today’s game”. Cron followed with a bloop single to score Trout and put the Angels on top. Giles then uncorked a wild pitch and walked Andrelton Simmons to load the bases before being pulled.
Advertisement
“Just a tough loss for this time of the year (in) that fashion”, Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “For a lot of reasons”. Los Angeles manager Mike Scioscia was impressed with his team’s comeback. “We want to win the games”.
The Angels have had a hard time stringing wins together and the Astros have played some of their best ball of the second half recently. The Angels have allowed 12 runs in their last three games and four or more runs in seven of their last 12 games. Gregerson allowed a run on two hits in the eighth inning; Giles blew his fifth save by coming apart at the seams in the ninth.
“I didn’t do my job”, Giles said. “He’s symptom free, but we are going to obviously be very conservative where his treatment is now to make sure that this doesn’t re-occur or turn into anything bigger”, Scioscia said.
Marwin Gonzalez hit a two-run single in the sixth that tied it before pinch-hitter Tyler White laced an RBI single to center field to make it 4-3. Jose Altuve leads Houston with 206 hits, George Springer has 78 RBI and Carlos Correa has 20 home runs.
Advertisement
Right-handers Luke Gregerson and Ken Giles, half of the Astros’ quartet of rock-solid relief pitchers (a group that also includes right-handers Chris Devenski and Will Harris) combined to cough up a three-run lead in a 10-6 loss that severely damaged the Astros’ playoff aspirations. Nolasco, 5-1 with a 4.38 ERA against the Astros over eight career games (seven starts), recorded scoreless outings in his two wins with the Angels, twirling a shutout against the Cincinnati Reds and working six scoreless innings against the Blue Jays on September 17 in his most recent start. Gonzalez drove home Yuli Gurriel and Correa with his hit off right-handed reliever Deolis Guerra.Angels right-hander Meyer had limited the Astros to one run through five innings before allowing three of the four batters he faced in the sixth to reach base. Meyer earned his first career win in his last start Sunday, tossing five shutout innings against Toronto. In his last eight starts Nolasco has a 2.63 ERA in 54.2 innings with a 0.98 WHIP and is 3-5 during that span. A third double, this one by Buss with one out, scored Cron to push the lead to 2-0. “Pujols capitalized on a first-pitch fastball and after that I settled in and got my pitches working and kept them off-balance for the most part”.
