HALOS WIN 10TH STRAIGHT, KEEP PACE WITH A’S
Santiago Wins for 11th Time in Last 12 Decisions
ANAHEIM, Cal., Sept. 14 (AP) – Hector Santiago won for the 11th time in his last 12 decisions holding the Houston Astros to two hits over five scoreless innings, leading Los Angeles to a 1-0 victory at Angel Stadium. It was the Angels 10th consecutive win, the club’s longest streak of the season, surpassing a nine-game winning streak the team ran off in late August. The Angels are now one win away from tying the major league season high (11) for consecutive victories, set by the Seattle Mariners in mid-June. The win finished off a three-game sweep of the Astros, and continues Los Angeles’ torrid pace since the All-Star break. The Angels have, easily, the best record in the American League since the mid-summer classic, at 40-15 (.727).
The contest was a pitcher’s duel between Santiago and Houston starter Dallas Keuchel. The two lefties matched zeroes for the first three innings but, after Santiago kept the Astros off the scoreboard in the top of the fourth, the Angels broke the scoreless tie in the bottom half of the inning. Howie Kendrick led off with a base hit to right-center and David Freese followed with a double to the gap in left-center, putting runners on second and third. Erik Aybar then lifted a fly ball to center that Dexter Fowler caught just shy of the warning track. Kendrick tagged and scored and Freese moved to third. Houston manager Bo Porter, sensing that runs were going to be hard to come by, pulled the infield in and Keuchel retired Chris Ianetta on a soft grounder to Matt Dominguez at third, with Freese holding, then got C.J. Cron on a ground ball to short to end the inning. But the Angels now led, 1-0.
Santiago pitched around four walks, and a pair of his own errors, to keep the Astros scoreless through five innings, but with his pitch count in the mid-90s and a well-rested bullpen after Jered Weaver tossed eight shutout innings the previous day, Angels manager Mike Scioscia went to his bullpen to begin the sixth. Five different Los Angeles relievers combined to hold the Astros to just one hit, issuing now walk and striking out six, over the final four scoreless innings to preserve the shutout. The only baserunner Houston managed off the Angels bullpen was when Dexter Fowler led off the top of the eighth with a single off Vinnie Pestano. Pestano then struck out Chris Carter and Jake Marisnick before giving way to Jason Grilli who fanned Carlos Corporan to end the inning.
The nearly flawless performance of the Los Angeles bullpen was necessary because, after Freese’s double in the fourth, the Angels only managed one baserunner of their own for the duration of the game. Keuchel yielded a one-out base hit to Kole Calhoun in the fifth and then immediately erased him by inducing Mike Trout to ground into a double play. He went on to set down the final seven batters he faced before being replaced, entering the eighth inning, by Darin Downs. Downs tossed a perfect bottom of the eighth inning. But Huston Street retired the Astros in order in the top of the ninth to earn the save.
The Angels tied the Oakland Athletics for first place in the AL West following play on September 11, when Los Angeles completed a sweep of the Texas Rangers at the same time that the A’s were dropping their third straight contest to the Chicago White Sox. The Angels have kept right on winning, but the A’s pivoted from their slump and went on to sweep a three-game series with the Mariners, at Safeco Field. The A’s and Angels are now tied for first place with exactly two weeks left in the regular season. A three-game series between the two clubs, to be played in the first half of the final week of the season, looms.
9/14/2014, Hou14-LAA14, Angel Stadium
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP
2014 Astros 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 9 2
2014 Angels 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 x 1 4 2 4 0
Astros AB R H BI AVG Angels AB R H BI AVG
Grossman lf 4 0 0 0 .227 Calhoun rf 2 0 1 0 .249
Altuve 2b 3 0 0 0 .358 Trout cf 4 0 0 0 .310
Fowler cf 3 0 2 0 .279 Pujols dh 3 0 0 0 .280
Carter dh 4 0 0 0 .221 Kendrick,H 2b 3 1 2 0 .299
Marisnick rf 3 0 0 0 .301 Freese 3b 2 0 1 0 .233
Corporan c 4 0 1 0 .253 McDonald 3b 0 0 0 0 .203
Guzman 1b 2 0 0 0 .150 Aybar ss 2 0 0 1 .292
Singleton ph 1 0 0 0 .152 Iannetta c 3 0 0 0 .229
Villar ph 1 0 0 0 .195 Cron 1b 3 0 0 0 .273
Dominguez,M 3b 2 0 0 0 .214 Navarro,E 1b 0 0 0 0 .305
Gonzalez,Ma ph 1 0 0 0 .275 Cowgill lf 2 0 0 0 .217
Petit,G ss 3 0 0 0 .358 Green ph 1 0 0 0 .303
Presley ph 1 0 0 0 .220 25 1 4 1
32 0 3 0
Astros INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Keuchel L 15-10 7.0 4 1 1 1 6 95 59 2.28
Downs,D 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 8 6 4.64
8.0 4 1 1 1 6 103 65
Angels INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Santiago,H W 12-4 5.0 2 0 0 4 4 95 56 2.95
Salas H 12 1.0 0 0 0 0 3 14 9 1.90
Jepsen H 21 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 7 6 2.27
Pestano H 7 0.2 1 0 0 0 2 15 9 4.40
Grilli H 13 0.1 0 0 0 0 1 6 3 3.51
Street S 38 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 10 7 2.61
9.0 3 0 0 4 10 147 90
Hou: Singleton batted for Guzman in the 6th
Singleton moved to 1b in the 6th
Villar batted for Singleton in the 9th
Gonzalez,Ma batted for Dominguez,M in the 9th
Presley batted for Petit,G in the 9th
LAA: Navarro,E inserted at 1b in the 8th
Green batted for Cowgill in the 8th
Green moved to lf in the 9th
McDonald inserted at 3b in the 9th
E-Santiago,H 2. 2B-Freese(24). RBI-Aybar(43). SB-Altuve(46). K-Grossman,
Carter 2, Marisnick, Corporan 2, Guzman, Dominguez,M, Petit,G, Singleton,
Pujols, Kendrick,H, Aybar, Iannetta, Cron, Cowgill. BB-Altuve, Fowler,
Marisnick, Dominguez,M, Freese. SF-Aybar. HBP-Calhoun 2. HB-Keuchel 2.
GWRBI: Aybar
Temperature: 65, Sky: clear, Wind: out to center at 5 MPH.
Attendance: 45,577
Game Time: 2:29