Jo Adell’s late homer lifts Angels to comeback victory over Rockies
Adell’s 16th homer of the season snaps a tie in the seventh inning and the Angels hold on for a 10-7 win. The Angels trailed by four runs in the second inning, but starter Griffin Canning then retired 17 in a row to get through the sixth and give them a chance to win.
ANAHEIM — A fairly somber day for Angels fans at least ended with a victory.
On a day when the Angels didn’t make enough trades to suit many of their fans and got disappointing injury news on Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon and even Chase Silseth, the good news came in the form of a come-from-behind 10-7 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night.
Jo Adell snapped a tie with a seventh-inning homer, the third time in the last two weeks he put the Angels ahead late in a victory. Matt Thaiss also had a career-high five RBIs.
While the larger stories all point to a miserable season, the Angels can take some solace in the fact that they’ve now been holding their own for two months. The Angels (47-60) are 26-22 since June 2.
They’ve overcome deficits of at least four runs in each of their last two games.
Griffin Canning put them in a 6-2 hole by the second inning, but the Angels took a one-run lead by the fourth. After the Rockies tied it in the seventh, Adell put them back on top with his 16th homer in the bottom of the inning.
After Adell’s homer, Ben Joyce pitched a perfect eighth. Joyce is going to get some save opportunities now that both Carlos Estévez and Luis Garcia have been traded, but this time Manager Ron Washington had him set up right-hander Hunter Strickland.
The Angels had added two insurance runs before Strickland then worked the ninth, finishing off a game they seemed destined to lose in the second inning.
Canning gave up six runs within the first 12 batters of the game. He allowed two runs in the first and then four in the second, three on a Ryan McMahon homer just inside the left field pole.
Canning got out of that inning, and then Washington was prepared to pull him, but Canning talked his way back into the game, saying he wanted to save the bullpen.
Canning retired all 12 hitters he faced in the third through sixth innings, retiring 14 in a row overall.
“I can’t say enough about how he stood out there and kept that ball game there for us,” Washington said. “Especially after the second, it looked like it was no chance for him to do nothing for the rest of the night. But he showed you he’s got courage.”
Canning said he felt as good as he has all season during those final three innings.
“I think there’s something to be said about doing it for the greater good, and kind of doing it for the team,” Canning said. “It probably would have been pretty easy to feel sorry for myself in that moment. Sometimes it’s hard not to, in that moment. I was just trying to do it for the team.”
That gave the Angels time to erase the early 6-2 deficit.
Thaiss drove in two with a double in the third, including Neto coming home on a nice head-first slide.
In the fourth, Nolan Schanuel was able to extend the rally with an athletic “swim move” to get around a tag as he slid into third. Schanuel had led off the inning with a single, and the Angels followed with three more hits and a hit batter.
The final two runs came home on a Thaiss two-out single. His RBI in the eighth gave him a career-high. Thaiss also stole two bases, making him the first catcher since Hall of Famer Mickey Cochrane in 1934 to have five RBIs and two stolen bases in the same game.
As reporters crowded around the backup catcher who has barely played this year – much to the amusement of his teammates – he was all about deflecting the praise.
“A lot of fun to be down like we were and to claw back and fight back,” Thaiss said. “It was really cool, and a big part of that was what Griff did from innings three to six. We don’t win that game if he doesn’t step up right there and do what he did.”