The big news may have been the debut of Mike Trout, but Mark Trumbo and Hank Conger weren’t going to let fans forget about a couple of other Angel rookies. Conger hit a 2-out bomb to right field to tie Friday night’s game against Seattle, and two innings later, Mark Trumbo hit a monster shot to straight-away center field to win it 4-3.
The Halos muscled up on Seattle, scoring all of their runs on solo home runs. Erick Aybar opened the game with a homer to right, Vernon Wells led-off the 4th with his 13th home run of the season, and Conger and Trumbo tied it and won it with their dingers. Trumbo’s blast was his team leading 15th of the season and was the Angels first walk-off home run of the season.
The Angels’ struggles with the bases loaded continued Friday when they failed to score in the 8th inning with a Halo over each base. Howie Kendrick grounded into a force out at home and Alberto Callaspo grounded weakly to short to end the inning. The Angels have just 10 hits in 53 bases loaded opportunities.
Kendrick extended his hitting streak to 17 games with a first inning single.
Jordan Walden (2-2) picked up the win in relief after pitching a perfect 9th. Ervin Santana left with the score tied after pitching 7 innings, allowing 3 runs on 6 hits, while striking out 6 and walking one. Santana, who is second in the AL in home runs allowed, was able to keep the ball in the yard as he pitched better than the score indicated. The Seattle runs were scored on a ground out and two sacrifice flies.
Although he didn’t get a hit in his major league debut, number one ranked prospect Mike Trout made a spectacular running catch to rob Franklin Gutierrez of extra bases and ending any threat in the Mariner ninth.
The Angels are now 9-2 on their current home stand, and have won 14 of their last 18.