Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Tue, Sept 15, the Los Angeles Angels played against the Seattle Mariners in the second game of a three-game series. After winning the first game 6-4, the Halos were seeking a series win over an AL West division foe whose playoff chances were sinking like the Titanic entering the game. This game was played on Roberto Clemente Day and to honor the humanitarian efforts of the late Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder, each team in MLB had a couple of its players wear number 21. The nominees for the Roberto Clemente Award wore number 21 and one of them was Zach Neto, whose efforts with helping military families were honored before the first pitch. Along with Mike Trout as a previous nominee of the Clemente award, Neto wore number 21 for the Angels in this game. Ryan Johnson was the starter in this game and he was seeking to continue his good stretch of pitching that he has been in since August. Seattle countered with Logan Gilbert in trying to even up the series.

The game was filled with multiple opportunities for both teams to score early on. After Johnson pitched a clean first inning, in the bottom half of the frame, Wade Meckler got a two-out single against Gilbert. Meckler then stole second base when Vaughn Grissom was up to bat and Grissom got hit on a 1-2 splitter from Gilbert. While facing Moisés Ballesteros, Gilbert threw a wild pitch that advanced both runners into scoring position. But Gilbert got Ballesteros to fly out to Randy Arozarena to end the threat.

Both pitchers threw clean second innings, but in the top of the third, the Mariners started getting to Johnson as Lazaro Montes hit an infield single and Johnson hit J.P Crawford with a cutter with two outs. Arozarena came up and hit a ball at a high velocity to Denzer Guzman, who couldn’t handle the ball in the hot corner. Every runner was safe and the bases were loaded for Dominic Canzone, who Johnson got to pop out to Neto in the shallow outfield to end the inning with the sacks full. In the bottom of the third, Neto and Trout both walked against Gilbert, who got Meckler and Grissom both out on one pitch each. Another missed chance with a lot of runners left on base early on.

In the top of the fourth, Johnson gave up a couple of two-out singles to Josh Naylor and Cole Young. But he struck out Montes on a cutter to end another scoring chance for the Mariners. In the bottom of the fourth, Ballesteros got a leadoff single and Josh Lowe hit a one-out single to left field. But Gilbert struck out Christian Moore and got Tyler Heineman to ground out to end another threat for the Halos, who left six men on base in the first four innings of the game.

In the fifth inning, Johnson pitched a clean 1-2-3 and in the bottom of the fifth, Gilbert got Neto and Trout out to start the inning. But Meckler hit a full count fastball out to center field and Grissom came up in trying to deliver a big hit. On a 2-1 slider, Grissom hit a ball down the third base line and it was fair. The ball trickled into the left field corner and Meckler raced around third base as Arozarena tried to get the ball. Meckler scored as the Angels were finally on the board, with Grissom having an RBI double. Gilbert recovered to strike out Ballesteros, but the Halos had given Johnson an important run of support heading into the sixth inning.

In the top of the sixth, Johnson faced Canzone to start the inning, but Canzone hit a ball out to deep center field and Trout was unable to make the catch as the ball went off the wall. Canzone raced all the way to third base for a huge leadoff triple. Johnson got Cal Raleigh to pop out to Neto, but gave up an RBI double to Julio Rodriguez to score Canzone. Johnson recovered to get Naylor to fly out and then got Young to ground out to Grissom to end the inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, Gilbert remained in and struck out Guzman to begin the inning. Lowe came up next and won an ABS challenge at the beginning of his at-bat. On a 1-2 count, Lowe hit a changeup from Gilbert out to right center field. The ball went over the yellow line on the bullseye for a huge solo home run. Lowe had his 12th homer of the season and the Angels had retaken the lead for Johnson, who was done after six stellar innings of work.

In the top of the seventh, Tayler Saucedo came in and got Taylor Ward to ground out as a pinch-hitter and then got another pinch-hitter in Michael Arroyo to strike out. Saucedo then got Crawford to fly out to Lowe to end the inning. In the eighth inning, José Fermin entered and got Arozarena to ground out and then Canzone hit the ball up the middle. The ball hit off of Fermin’s foot and rolled forward enough for Heineman to field it and throw it down to Grissom for the out. It was the second such out that the Halos had recorded with a ball going off the pitcher as Johnson had the same thing happen to him against Rodriguez in the top of the second. Both pitchers were checked by Mike Frostad and they were both fine to stay in the game. Fermin then struck out Raleigh to end the top of the eighth in style.

After the Angels failed to get an add-on run against Gabe Speier, the top of the ninth came and Ryan Watson entered to get the save. Watson faced Rodriguez first and got him to line out to Trout in center. Then, Watson took on Naylor, who hit a chopper towards first that went off Grissom’s glove and into right field. With the game-tying run on base, Watson faced Young as the go-ahead run at the plate. On a full count curveball, Young hit the ball up the middle and Neto fielded it to step on second base and then threw it to Grissom at first to get the game-ending double play.

The Halos had won the series against Seattle and Johnson got his fifth win of the season with seven strikeouts and no walks given up. With the two clutch hits by Grissom and Lowe off Gilbert, the Angels had gotten enough runs to win their 58th game of the season. Watson got his third save of the season in joining a group of six relievers who have pitched for the Halos this season with three saves or more. Going for the sweep over the Mariners, the Angels are now just five wins away from avoiding their first 100-loss record in franchise history. They sure played well on the pitching and defensive end on Roberto Clemente Day at the Big A.