On their final Friday night game of the season, the “Los Angeles” Angels hosted the Houston Astros, who are desperately hanging on for dear life in the American League playoff chase. A game that the Astros needed to win so badly ended up being a fun and epic comeback for the Halos, who had lost eight consecutive games on Friday nights entering this game. Looking to avoid a 90-loss season for the second year in a row(99 was their loss total in 2024), the Angels definitely did well against Houston in looking to take a step in winning their first home series against the Astros in five years(not since Sept 2020, when there were no fans in attendance at Angel Stadium due to COVID-19 restrictions). They have struggled against Houston over the years, but more so at home than on the road and the home fans in Anaheim were hungry to see the Halos knock out the Astros from the playoffs. So, that kind of contributed to a playoff-like atmosphere on Friday night’s game along with the intense booing towards Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa, who continue to wear the chain of alleged cheating in the 2017 season when the entire Astros team was accused of sign-stealing from opponents by using a trash can to bang on. It was also the final start of the season for Kyle Hendricks, who has had to deal with rumors that this might be his final season pitching in the big leagues. Pitching for his boyhood team after playing for a decade in Chicago with the Cubs, Hendricks has had an up-and-down season, with performances that have shown what he can be at his best and ugly showings of giving up too many extra-base hits to opposing batters. Hendricks was coming off a solid start against the Colorado Rockies on the road for his eighth win of the season with seven shutdown innings. So, he was looking to have a good home finale in Anaheim.

Hendricks started the game out strong in striking out Altuve and Isaac Paredes, then he gave up a two-single single to Correa. But he got Christian Walker to fly out to end the first inning. The starter for Houston in this game was Jason Alexander, a 32-year old right-handed hurler who spent some time pitching in the Angels’ organization some years ago for the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees. Alexander had a good first few innings in the game, only giving up a two-out single to Bryce Teodosio in the third inning. Meanwhile, Hendricks gave up a lead off double to catcher Yanier Diaz in the top of the second, but struck out the side swinging to end the inning. Hendricks had a 1-2-3 third inning, so the game was scoreless entering the fourth inning. Unfortunately, Kyle faced some trouble in the fourth when he gave up a solo home run to Walker that gave the Astros the first run in this game and then back-to-back doubles by Diaz and center fielder Zach Cole put another run on the board for Houston. A throwing error by Denzer Guzman(who was called up to make his big-league debut two weeks prior) on a ground ball that pulled Nolan Schanuel off the bag allowed for the Astros to score a run on a double-steal attempt of second base by Ramon Urías that allowed Cole to steal home plate. But Hendricks closed out the inning strong by striking out Mauricio Dubón and that strikeout had him pass Mark Gubicza on the all-time strikeouts list. Being the lead broadcast analyst for the Angels on the TV side since 2010, Gubie gave Kyle a salute and Hendricks looked up to the broadcast booth to thank Gubie. Just like Gubicza, Hendricks pitched the majority of his career for another team before coming over to the Angels(and just like Gubie, or not like Gubie, Hendricks will close out his career in a Halos uniform). That was definitely a cool moment.

Something just as awesome occurred in the bottom of the fourth inning when Mike Trout swung at the first pitch thrown by Alexander and blasted it to deep center field for a lead off solo shot. Trout had hit his 24th home run of the season and the 402nd of his career(he hit number 401 the night before against the Kansas City Royals) as the Angels were on the board against the Astros. Hendricks would have no other run support, as in spite of a pitch count in the 80s(when he’s usually been removed from games this year) he came back out to pitch. He got Altuve to strike out and Paredes to fly out to center field for the first two outs. Approaching 100 pitches, Hendricks looked to finish off his potential last start on a high note. But Correa would reach after a fielding error by Guzman, who was not having a good night at shortstop in filling in for Zach Neto, whose season ended after a hand injury suffered on Sept 11. Ray Montgomery came out to the mound and that usually means that a pitcher is done for the night. But in a break from tradition(something that Ron Washington has done plenty of during his time as manager of the team), Montgomery asked Hendricks if he wanted to face Christian Walker, who had hit a home run in the fourth inning. Hendricks smiled and said that he wanted to get Walker out, so Montgomery walked off the mound and gave number 28 one last batter to face. Hendricks successfully got Walker out to end the inning with no damage incurred. A good way to close out a season where he made more than 30 starts and didn’t throw a single wild pitch. Very impressive indeed for Kyle Hendricks.

Some more run support occurred in the bottom of the 5th when Christian Moore hit a double down the right-field line and Guzman redeemed himself with an RBI double to left. The Angels were now down by a run and after striking out Teodosio, Alexander was done for the night. Joe Espada brought in Steven Okert to close out the inning in a lefty-lefty matchup against Schanuel, who flew out to center field to end the inning. Chase Silseth came in to pitch in the top of the sixth and he got all the three batters he faced out. The Halos were unable to get a hit in the bottom of the sixth, leaving them down by a run against Houston. José Fermin had a solid seventh inning in keeping the Astros bats from getting an add-on run. Jayden Murray was the pitcher in the game for Houston in the bottom of the seventh and he was brought into the game in the bottom of the sixth, where he forced a couple of groundouts to end the inning. After nearly giving up a potential solo home run to Logan O’Hoppe to start out the inning, Murray walked Moore and then Guzman came up and hit a sinker fast up the middle to center field. Moore rounded second base and sprinted to get to third base, but Zach Cole threw a gem of a ball from center field to third base, where Urías tagged out Moore as he dove for the base. The glove of Urías hit Moore’s hand before it could make contact with the base and a clutch defensive play occurred for Houston. With two outs and Guzman at second base(a good move there following the throw to third), Espada went back to his bullpen and brought in another lefty in Bryan King. This forced the Angels, who had Yóan Moncada in the on-deck circle to pinch-hit for Teodosio, to use another pinch-hitter in Chris Taylor, who would naturally take Teodosio’s spot in center field. On the second pitch he saw, Taylor hit the ball to right field and it landed down in fair territory well in front of Cam Smith. Guzman raced to home plate and scored, with Taylor showing his clutch hitting ability that he had harbored for years with the Los Angeles Dodgers. A fielder’s choice ended the seventh inning, but the Halos had tied the game at three. The pressure was really on the Astros now to score.

Brock Burke entered to pitch in his team-leading 69th appearance of the season in looking to keep the game tied. Correa hit a leadoff single to start the inning, but then Walker hit a fast ball up the middle that hit Burke in the hip. In spite of getting hit by a 100+ mph ball, Burke managed to recover and throw Walker out at first base, with Correa advancing to second. One of the team’s trainers went out to check on Burke, who was feeling some pain but he threw a solid warmup pitch and he was fine to continue his outing. Burke managed to tough it out and got Diaz to ground out to Luis Rengifo at third base and then got pinch-hitter Victor Caratini to fly out to Taylor to end the inning. The game was still tied and immediately to lead off the bottom of the eight, it would be untied as Trout hit a ball out to right-center field. The ball cleared the right-field pavilion wall for a true Big A homer, as Trout had his second one of the night, the 25th of his 2025 season and the 403rd of his illustrious career. Trout had also achieved his 30th multi-home run game of his career, setting a new Angels franchise record. Trout also surpassed Tim Salmon on the Halos’ all-time RBIs list with 1,017 career runs batted in after the game on Friday. Only Garret Anderson has more career RBIs in an Angels jersey with 1,297. So, that was an incredible moment for Trout, who continues to show that he still has a knack for being clutch when the moment demands it. The Halos were unable to add on to their one-run lead, but it didn’t change the fact that Kenley Jansen was coming in to close out this game in the top of the ninth.

With Houston desperate to score, they had Jesús Sánchez pinch-hit for Cam Smith to start the inning, but Sánchez struck out swinging. The same thing happened to Urías and then Dubón came up and had a long at-bat in fouling off cutters thrown by Jansen. But Kenley finished him off on a check-swing to end the game and have the Angels win their 72nd game of the season. Jansen got his 476th career save, putting him two behind Lee Smith for the third-most saves in MLB history. Kyle Hendricks had a no-decision in the potential final start of his career, having eight strikeouts and no walks while only surrendering two hits and three runs. The Astros had lost a huge game that could prove to eliminate them from playoff contention. Thankfully for them, the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians both lost earlier in the evening, so they remain one game back of both those teams jockeying for the AL Central division title. But if both those teams win out or Houston loses one more game, then they are eliminated. So, it felt good for the Halos to potentially play a role in eliminating a division rival that didn’t enter the AL West until 2013. The Astros’ reign of terror is coming to an end, or least it has hit a temporary, well-overdue pause for now.