Thompson’s 2 HRs aren’t enough in Freeway opener

553x0-cd42f0739fea7c21f316d7b3d966951d

LOS ANGELES — Mike Trout and Albert Pujols combined for five hits and five RBIs as the Angels got production from up and down the lineup in a 7-6 victory over the Dodgers to open the Freeway Series on Monday night at Dodger Stadium. It was their fourth straight win.

Only Daniel Nava, who left the game in the sixth, and Matt Shoemaker, the starting pitcher, failed to register either a run or RBI for the Angels, as a litany of singles and walks wore down the Dodgers. A four-run rally in the third that featured five straight men reaching base played a big part in forcing out L.A. rookie Kenta Maeda after four innings, the shortest start of his Major League career.

Another rally in the seventh gave the Angels three more runs and enough cushion to survive Trayce Thompson’s second home run of the game, which made it 7-6 in the eighth. After Fernando Salas came on in the ninth and worked a perfect inning, Shoemaker got the win with a five-inning, three-run outing to snap a streak of four straight losses.

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDOffensive surge: The Angels have scored 36 runs over their last five games, after totaling only 24 runs in their previous eight. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, they rallied in the ninth inning, with two of those surges resulting in victories. On Monday, they went 6-for-16 with runners in scoring position and totaled 12 hits, with Trout, Pujols, Yunel Escobar and Carlos Perez registering multi-hit games.

Thompson strikes twice: Thompson entered Monday’s game slugging .783 in May and still managed to improve that mark …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *