Angels eliminated in slugfest vs. Dodgers
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LOS ANGELES -- Everything looked like it was coming together for the Angels to keep their slim postseason hopes alive.
With the Angels needing a combination of three wins and three Astros losses this weekend, Houston slipped up, giving up a game-tying homer with two outs in the ninth and eventually losing to the Rangers in extra innings. The Angels were leading at the time against Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, but ultimately their night ended in disappointment.
The Angels’ 9-5 loss to the Dodgers on Friday night at Dodger Stadium officially kept them out of the postseason for the sixth straight year.
“It's upsetting,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said. “We gave it a nice run. Texas really helped us out tonight. We had a nice thing going on. We grabbed a lead but just could not hold onto it. The Dodgers did their thing, hitting home runs. Overall, we played a good game, but we just came up short."
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The Angels turned it around this month, going 14-8 in September, but it just wasn’t enough to overcome their slow start to the season. They saw the Blue Jays clinch the final American League Wild Card spot on Thursday, and the results Friday allowed the Astros to punch their ticket to the postseason as the second-place team in the AL West.
"I'm really proud of the guys to fight back to this point,” Maddon said. “Under the circumstances, if you did not get off to a good start, the threat was the team would fold and just go away. Our team did not."
Just like in their win over the Padres on Wednesday, the Angels smacked three homers, including a three-run blast from three-time AL MVP Mike Trout off Kershaw, who has won three NL Cy Young Awards and one NL MVP.
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It was the first homer for Trout off Kershaw, as he entered the game just 2-for-16 against him in his career. Trout’s 17th blast of the year came on a 3-2 curveball and gave the Angels a 3-1 lead in the third inning. It was absolutely crushed, leaving the bat at 111.4 mph and went a projected 407 feet, per Statcast.
But Trout will again miss the postseason. He has made it only once during his 10 years with the club. Trout will be 30 by the time the 2021 postseason begins, meaning he made the playoffs once during his 20s.
Justin Upton hit a solo homer off Kershaw in the fourth inning on an 0-1 fastball to give the Angels a 4-2 lead, and Jared Walsh stayed hot with a solo blast off reliever Brusdar Graterol to make it 5-3 in the fifth.
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Lefty Andrew Heaney, though, couldn’t keep the Dodgers in the ballpark, surrendering two homers by Justin Turner and a solo blast by AJ Pollock. Turner's solo homers came in the third and fifth innings. All told, the Dodgers hit five home runs in the game.
The big blow came on a two-run shot from Will Smith to give the Dodgers the lead in the fifth. Heaney was removed after Turner’s second homer and a single to Max Muncy to open the frame. Right-hander Matt Andriese came in but promptly gave up the homer to Smith on a changeup on the ninth pitch of the at-bat.
Heaney went four-plus innings, allowing five runs on eight hits, to finish his season with a 4.46 ERA in 12 starts. He said he'll take time to analyze his own season over the next few days but was proud of the way his team fought to the end this season.
“Obviously, we ended up falling short, but I don't think anybody in our clubhouse was ever going to give up on the season, was ever going to give up on this team,” Heaney said. “That's all you can ask for. For guys to come in, put in the work, put in the effort and do what you can to win ballgames and keep it rolling. I'm proud to be on this team.”
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The Angels also were hurt by a pair of pitching changes with two outs. Felix Peña replaced Cam Bedrosian with two outs in the seventh but walked two and gave up an RBI single to Joc Pederson. Mike Mayers also came in with two outs in the eighth and walked a batter before serving up a two-run homer by Edwin Ríos.
“Bedrosian is really good on left-handers and Peña is really good against right-handers, but it just didn’t work out,” Maddon said. “I wanted to keep it at two runs and brought in Mayers. He gave up the homer to a lefty, which caught us all by surprise. They just got us; they beat us. It happens.”