Angels avoid Astros sweep as Shohei Ohtani drives in tie-breaking run
HOUSTON — Carlos Estevez spent the first three games of this four-game series sitting idle in the bullpen, waiting for the Angels to get a ninth-inning lead for their closer. He’d watched his teammates play three mistake-filled games on their way to three losses.
They were certainly disappointed, but not discouraged, Estévez said after the Angels stopped the bleeding with a 2-1 victory over the Houston Astros in the series finale on Sunday.
“We’re going to show ’em we’re good enough,” Estévez said. “Come on. Let’s clean it up. Whatever happened in the past happened. Let’s turn the page and keep going.”
The Angels got excellent pitching from starter Griffin Canning and relievers Chris Devenski and Estévez, with a homer from Luis Rengifo and a go-ahead RBI double from Shohei Ohtani in the eighth inning. Third baseman Gio Urshela made a diving stop to save a run while Devenski was on the mound in the seventh, a welcome sight after poor infield defense contributed to losses on Friday and Saturday.
Manager Phil Nevin had watched the Astros make one excellent defensive play after another, and come up with a string of clutch hits, to win the first three games.
“Those guys have been places we haven’t, and it’s where we want to go,” Nevin said. “That’s a good team over there. It’s a nice to get a win on the day out of here.”
The Angels didn’t have a lead until two outs in the top of the eighth. Urshela led off with a single. After a flyout and a forceout, the Angels still had a runner at first with Ohtani at the plate. He worked a full count against right-hander Phil Maton, eventually yanking a curveball at the knees off the fence in right, driving in the go-ahead run.
Devenski, who had worked a scoreless seventh with the help of Urshela’s diving stop, picked up the first two outs of the eighth, and then Estevez got the final out of the eighth and three in the ninth. He’s been perfect in 14 save opportunities this year.
The Angels (31-30) avoided their first four-game losing streak of the season, mostly thanks to a strong performance from starter Canning.
“After the first few games you want to try and put a stop to things,” Canning said. “I was just on a really good page with (Matt) Thaiss behind the plate. Got some timely hitting and the bullpen came in and shut it down.”
Canning gave up one run in six innings, his third straight quality start. Canning has a 2.59 ERA in his last four starts.
The only run he allowed was a homer by Yainer Diaz, who swung at a fastball well above the strike zone and pounded it 414 feet.
“That’s three or four inches above the zone on the inner rail,” Nevin said. “Diaz put a good swing on it. You don’t see many balls hit out in that spot.”
Otherwise, the Astros did not get a runner into scoring position against Canning. Canning struck out four and walked one, on 87 pitches.
He left in a 1-1 tie because the Angels did little against Houston right-hander J.P. France.
The Angels didn’t have a baserunner until Mike Trout walked in the fourth and they didn’t have a hit until Luis Rengifo homered in the sixth, tying the game.
From there, Ohtani and Urshela created the only run the Angels would need, thanks to the defense and relief pitching.
“It feels really good,” Estévez said. “We grind through this game. We came on top and everyone did what they had to do. It feels good to get a team win like this, playing really well against the Astros. It’s pretty cool.”