ANAHEIM — The Angels’ late-inning magic continued for a second straight night.
The Angels scored three runs on Jorge Soler’s bases-loaded double in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-4, on Wednesday night.
The ninth-inning rally lifted the Angels (15-20) to their first consecutive victories since they won three in a row from April 5-8.
It came a night after they overcome an eighth-inning deficit to win, scoring six runs in the eighth.
The Angels again got to Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman.
Kyren Paris, who an inning earlier hit his first home run since April 9, led off the ninth by drawing a walk. Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel then singled, loading the bases.
After Taylor Ward struck out, Soler pulled a double down the left field line. Third base coach Eric Young Sr. was already waving Schanuel around, but he scored easily when the ball got away from left fielder Jonathan Clase in the corner.
The story prior that was a strong start from Yusei Kikuchi, who gave up one run in six innings, and an offense that couldn’t find a big hit.
The Angels struck out five times with a runner at third and less than two outs, including four times in the first five innings.
The lack of early run support meant that Kikuchi would remain winless through his first eight starts with his new team, even though he has pitched well.
Kikuchi now has a 3.83 ERA, including allowing three runs in 11 innings in his past two starts. Those came on the heels of a game in which he gave up four runs on nine hits without making it out of the third inning.
“He’s willing to be open to getting better,” Washington said before Wednesday’s game. “And we’ve got the people around here to help him to get better, and it’s nice that he has an open dialogue with us.”
In this game, Kikuchi was particularly effective pounding the strike zone. He threw 76.9% of his pitches for strikes, which was one of the highest rates of his career.
Just after Kikuchi left, the Angels sent Reid Detmers to the mound in a tie game, and it didn’t stay tied for long.
Detmers gave up a leadoff double and then two singles, and was then pulled. One of the singles was a bunt hit from Andres Gimenez, who was clearly trying to give the Angels an out with a sacrifice. Detmers fielded the ball, but wasn’t quick enough with his throw to first.
That was all for Detmers. Both runners he left on base came around to score when Ryan Zeferjahn gave up a Bo Bichette single.
In Detmers’ last three games, he’s faced 13 batters and 12 of them have scored. His ERA in those games has gone from 2.57 to 10.05.
More to come on this story.
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