Brandon Drury hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly to cap a two-run, ninth-inning rally that lifted the visiting Los Angeles Angels to a 5-4 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Friday in the opener of a three-game series.
After Cleveland’s Josh Naylor broke a 3-3 tie in the eighth with a solo home run to right-center, Mike Trout doubled to lead off the ninth and advanced to third on Anthony Rendon’s one-out single.
Hunter Renfroe hit a chopper to Guardians second baseman Andres Gimenez, who fired home to try to cut down Trout. But Gimenez’s throw was off, and the ball hit off catcher Cam Gallagher’s glove, rolled away and allowed Brett Phillips, who pinch-ran for Renfroe, to advance to third.
Drury then sent a ball to center, allowing Phillips to score the winning run.
Cleveland loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but Carlos Estevez escaped the jam to record his ninth save. Matt Moore (3-1) earned the win with two innings of one-run relief.
Angels starter Tyler Anderson logged six innings, allowing three runs on six hits. He walked three and fanned one. Rendon finished 3-for-5 for Los Angeles, which won for just the second time in six games.
Amed Rosario and Gimenez each had three hits for the Guardians, who are 3-4 on their nine-game homestand. Emmanuel Clase (1-3) endured his fourth blown save and took the loss.
Cleveland struck first, scoring a run in each of the first two innings thanks to sacrifice flies from Jose Ramirez and Myles Straw.
Run-scoring singles from Drury and Zach Neto and Gio Urshela’s RBI double staked the Angels to a 3-2 lead in the fourth.
After loading the bases with no outs in the fifth, Los Angeles looked poised to blow the game open, but Drury struck out and Nick Sandlin came on in relief to get Urshela to ground into a double play.
Sandlin took over for Guardians starter Logan Allen, who allowed three runs on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out five.
The wasted opportunity proved to be costly, as Steven Kwan scored when Josh Bell grounded into a forceout in the home half of the fifth to make it 3-3.
–Field Level Media
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