Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Sat, Sept 19, the Los Angeles Angels faced the Minnesota Twins in the third game of a four-game series at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif. The Twins had won the second game of the series 3-0 the night before and the Halos were looking for a bounce-back victory. Reid Detmers was making his final home start of the season and was seeking a third consecutive win on the mound after only getting three wins for the entire season beforehand. Minnesota countered with Joe Ryan, who has a dominant edge over the Angels in his career.

The game started with Detmers pitching a good first inning and in the bottom of the first, the Halos got a scoring chance when Mike Trout hit a bloop single to right field and Wade Meckler got hit by a pitch. But Ryan got Vaughn Grissom to hit into a force out and got Moisés Ballesteros to fly out to left field to end the inning. In the second inning, Detmers gave up a two-out double to Royce Lewis, but struck out Victor Caratini.

In the top of the third, the Twins made their move against Detmers as Walker Jenkins hit a single and advanced to second base on a groundout. Luke Keaschall then hit a ball on a line drive to left field that scored Jenkins and he hustled into second base after a poorly judged throw by Meckler. Keaschall used his speed to steal third base and scored on an RBI groundout by Austin Martin. The Halos couldn’t score much in this game with runners in scoring position as they missed a chance with Zach Neto and Trout on base in the bottom of the third. Minnesota got another run in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Caratini with two outs.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Angels had a chance with Denzer Guzman hitting a one-out single and José Siri came up with two outs. On the second pitch thrown by Ryan, Siri hit the ball out to right center field and the ball went off the bullseye for a two-run shot. Siri had his ninth home run of the season and the Halos were down by one run now. In the top of the fifth, the Twins got one of the runs back on a leadoff homer by Ryan Krielder to left field. Detmers got through the rest of the Minnesota hitters in the inning and was done after five. In the bottom of the fifth, the Halos got another chance with Trout walking against Ryan, who gave up a single to Meckler. But Ryan struck out Grissom and then got Ballesteros to fly out to right field. Guzman got jammed on a sweeper and flew out to Keaschall to end another inning with the Halos coming up empty-handed on the offensive end.

In the sixth inning, Blake Weiman pitched his way through the Twins and the Halos couldn’t do anything in response. Sam Bachman entered to pitch in his first appearance in a month in the seventh inning and he got into a jam with the first two batters reaching. Bachman got Keaschall to ground out to him and then Emmanuel Rodriguez entered to pinch-hit. Bachman struck him out and then he got Ryan Jeffers to line out to Josh Lowe to end the inning.

In the eighth inning, Ryan Watson entered to pitch and he gave up a couple of singles to Josh Bell and Lewis. Ben Ross entered to pinch-run for Bell and Caratini came up and hit an 0-2 fastball out to right field, with Ross scoring and Minnesota reclaiming a three-run lead. Watson remained in and walked Jenkins to load up the bases, but he got Krielder and Keaschall to strike out swinging to escape the jam.

In the bottom of the 8th, the Halos were seeking to rally against Yoendrys Gómez, who they rallied against in the bottom of the tenth of the Thursday night walk-off win. Guzman drew a leadoff walk and Lowe hit a line drive double to left field. With two runners in scoring position, the Angels had a golden chance to score but Siri struck out on a full count for the first out. Adam Frazier then entered the game as a pinch-hitter for Tyler Heineman and on the first pitch he saw from Gómez, he hit a line drive down the right field line. The ball landed fair as both Guzman and Lowe scored. It was a clutch two-run double by Frazier and Neto was up next. Neto worked a walk against Gómez, who was taken out by Derek Shelton. Cody Funderburk then entered the game and he was the one who gave up the walk-off hit to Meckler in the opening game of the series. Funderburk faced Trout with two runners on and one out. Trout was unable to deliver as he hit a changeup to Brooks Lee, who turned a double play in a 5-4-3 fashion to end the inning. A big missed chance for the Halos, who were only down 5-4 but could have tied it up or taken the lead.

Defensive changes were made for the Angels entering the ninth inning as Grissom shifted over from second base to first base, with Frazier taking over at second base and Ballesteros moving behind the plate. Mitch Farris entered to pitch and he got the three batters due up for Minnesota out in order. In the bottom of the ninth, A.J Minter entered to get the save for the Twins. Meckler came up first and he grounded out to start the inning. Grissom was up next and he swung at the first pitch he saw from Minter. The ball was hit high towards right center field and it traveled over the wall for a solo home run. Grissom had tied the game with his 12th homer of the season and had his second ninth inning home run in as many weeks. With the scored tied at five, Minter got Ballesteros and Guzman out to force the game into extra innings. But Grissom’s clutch swing and Frazier’s two-run double had helped propel this game to the tenth inning.

In the top of the tenth, Ben Joyce entered to pitch in seeking to contain Minnesota, whose automatic runner at second was Ross. Joyce faced Lee first and Lee hit the ball on a line drive to Lowe for the out. But Ross advanced to third base and was ninety feet away from giving the Twins the lead back. Joyce faced Lewis next and on a 2-2 count, Lewis hit a fly ball to shallow right field, where Lowe made the catch. Ross then attempted to run home for the score, but Lowe threw the ball in and Ballesteros was able to secure the ball in his mitt and tag a sliding Ross out at the plate. It was a huge double play to end the top of the tenth and a big missed chance for Minnesota to bring their toast runner home.

The bottom of the tenth came with the Angels having a chance to win it with one hit. Bryce Teodosio entered to pinch-run for Guzman as the automatic runner and Taylor Rogers entered to pitch for the Twins. Lowe was up first and he tried to put down a bunt that would advance Teodosio to third. But Lowe failed to do that as he bunted a two-strike pitch foul for an out. Shelton then intentionally walked Siri and Oswald Peraza was brought in to pinch-hit for Frazier. During the at-bat for Peraza, Teodosio and Siri both stole a base and the game-winning run was ninety feet away from the Halos. But Rogers locked in and struck out Peraza on a sweeper. Neto then came up looking to deliver a walk-off hit, but Rogers struck him out looking on a sinker to force the game into the 11th inning. A huge missed chance for the Angels to walk it off.

In the top of the 11th, Tayler Saucedo entered to pitch and Christian Moore came in to play at second base while Peraza was inserted as the third baseman. The “toast runner” for Minnesota was Lewis and Caratini came up first in having two RBIs for the game. Saucedo struck out Caratini and then faced Jenkins, who grounded out to Moore at second base. Lewis advanced to third base, but Saucedo stayed focused and struck out Kreidler to end the inning. With the Twins missing out on another chance with their toast runner, they were in serious danger of being walked-off on by the Halos.

Rogers came back in to pitch in the bottom of the 11th as Neto was the toast runner for the Angels. Trout was due up first, but Shelton intentionally walked him and Meckler came up with a chance to walk-off the game for the second time in three nights. But Meckler swung at the first pitch he saw and flew out to Keaschall in right field. Neto was unable to advance to third, with Grissom coming up with a chance to be a hero after he tied the game in the ninth. Rogers threw the first two pitches for strikes against Grissom, but on 0-2, Rogers threw a sinker that hit Grissom on his elbow pad. The bases were loaded as Neto was ninety feet away from scoring. Shelton then made an odd defensive change as he brought in Kody Clemens to replace Jenkins as a fifth infielder. With this odd shift being only legal in walk-off situations, Shelton took advantage of it and Ballesteros would have to deal with an infield with three fielders on the right side and two on the left. Rogers managed to strike out Ballesteros on a 2-2 sinker, with Moore coming up in being the Halos’ last hope to win the game in the 11th. On the first pitch Rogers threw, Moore hit the ball up the middle and it went off Rogers’ backside. The ball kicked away from the mound on the third base side and Rogers had no time to pick up the ball as Moore raced to first and Neto raced home. The Angels had walked off Minnesota for the second straight game. An incredible ending to a thrilling 11-inning game. It was the ninth walk-off victory for the Halos this season and nine was the total number of walk-offs that the team had last season. Moore had his second walk-off hit of his big league career and delivered a clutch hit when it was needed the most.

With 60 wins on the season, the Halos are only three victories away from avoiding their first 100-loss season in franchise history. After the home finale against the Twins, the Angels will play six more games on the road against the Athletics and Seattle Mariners. The Halos also have a chance to avoid finishing in last place in the AL West, with the A’s only being one game ahead of them in the standings. Having those opportunities to avoid multiple futility marks, the Angels are definitely putting on a show in front of their home crowd in clinching a winning homestand with a 4-2 record in this final home stretch. Even though they only have 34 wins at home this season and a lot of them have been by close margins, the Halos are glad to finish this rough season strong in whichever fashion they can do so. Two walk-off wins in three games is a nice treat for the fans at the Big A to conclude this crazy season.