ANAHEIM — Maybe the Angels just needed to start with something totally out of the box in order to snap out of their funk.
Zach Neto, in just his second major league start in the No. 3 hole, dropped down a surprising bunt in the first inning.
Although baseball analysts would say that was the wrong move, it nonetheless led to the Angels scoring the first three runs of their season-high scoring output in a 12-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night.
It was the first time since 2011 that the Angels got a sacrifice bunt out of the No. 3 spot, which illustrates just how unorthodox of a move that was.
The bunt, however, might have been a sign that the Angels were starting fresh after playing a debacle of a game fundamentally the night before.
The Angels, who ended up with a season-high 17 hits, had hit .192 over the previous 20 games, with much of their damage coming on the home runs that they sprinkled between strikeouts.
This was the first time since Aug. 4 that the Angels had more hits than strikeouts (seven).
They went 8 for 17 with runners in scoring position, including 8 for 12 with two outs. The Angels scored all 12 of their runs with two outs.
Luis Rengifo got the scoring going with a two-out, two-run single in the first. In the fifth, Chris Taylor and Rengifo drove in runs.
Taylor Ward’s hit in the sixth drove in his 96th run of the season. Taylor followed with a three-run homer. In the seventh, Yoán Moncada hit a three-run homer.
Mike Trout, who had two singles and a walk, scored three times. Although Trout was a key cog in the Angels’ run-production on Tuesday night, he did not hit a homer.
Trout extended his streak to a career-long 119 consecutive plate appearances without a homer.
He went 117 straight plate appearances without a homer in 2015, a drought that spanned 27 games. Tuesday was his 27th straight game without a homer.
Trout hit his 398th career homer on Aug. 6, and since then he’s been stuck on the edge of a milestone.
The Angels (68-77) could get by without a Trout homer because the whole team contributed to a rare comfortable victory.
Starter Kyle Hendricks pitched one of his best games of the season, working seven scoreless innings and allowing four hits. Hendricks walked just one. He threw only 80 pitches, and 58 of them were strikes.
More to come on this story.
