Luck, strong bullpen lead Angels to twin-bill split

ANAHEIM -- The Angels won’t apologize for any good luck that comes their way.

Benefiting from well-placed hits and poor Rays defense, Los Angeles got to Tyler Glasnow for six runs through three innings on Saturday in Game 1 of a doubleheader necessitated by the incoming weather.

Griffin Canning relieved Chase Silseth after a rare poor outing and helped prevent Tampa Bay from a second straight four-run comeback. Canning, Matt Moore and Reynaldo López combined to work 5 1/3 innings and preserve a 7-6 victory.

But hopes for getting to .500 took one step forward, one step back. The second game was one they would just as soon forget. An 18-4 drubbing marked the most runs the Angels have allowed all season.

“Your day ends with a sour taste,” manager Phil Nevin said. “It changes the whole complexion of the day.”

López earned the save in the opener, but Randal Grichuk deserved a share -- especially after what he did to end the top of the second.

Yandy Díaz drove a Silseth pitch into left-center. Grichuk tracked it, timed his jump and reached over the fence to pull the would-be homer back in with his glove.

“[That] was phenomenal,” Nevin said. “He’s a good outfielder. He goes and gets it. He makes the right routes.”

Los Angeles then capitalized. The bottom of the second began with two mis-hits by left-handed batters -- two balls each struck with a 66.4 mph exit velocity. Mike Moustakas softly hit one into the vacated area where the third baseman would normally be. Then Matt Thaiss made enough contact on his check swing to hug the third-base line and go past the bag in fair territory.

More conventional plays produced the Angels’ runs: Mickey Moniak smacked a single 105 mph past second baseman Brandon Lowe followed by a deep sacrifice fly from Grichuk.

The second career hit for Nolan Schanuel -- a leadoff single off the glove of Glasnow -- paved the way for a four-run third. Brandon Drury’s hit to center traveled 70.4 mph, part of a three-hit day that included a fifth-inning home run. He went deep again in the nightcap, a three-run shot, for his 17th of the season.

Moustakas’ grounder in the third was mishandled by first baseman Jonathan Aranda. Two pitches that went past Tampa Bay catcher René Pinto -- one a passed ball and the other a wild pitch -- were sandwiched around an RBI single from Thaiss and preceded Grichuk’s two-out double.

“We’ve certainly had it happen to us quite a bit,” Nevin said, referring to the Rays' mistakes. “That’s what good teams do.”

Grichuk wound up driving in more runs than he saved, but his robbery of Díaz prevented a 2-0 deficit from being worse.

The defensive gem greatly helped Silseth, who for the first time since May 16 had an outing in which he allowed more than two runs.

Silseth’s main issue early on was location, one of the contributing factors in a four-start stretch that saw him give up a total of four runs and five walks.

In the first, he hit a batter and walked a pair -- setting up a two-out, two-run single by Josh Lowe.

“It was a battle for him from the beginning,” Nevin said. “Those are things he’s going to have to learn from.”

Lowe got him again in the fourth with a home run, part of a 32-pitch frame that Silseth couldn’t escape. Pinto, the No. 9 hitter in the Rays' lineup, blasted a two-run homer to straightaway center.

Silseth’s struggles were, according to his self-assessment, a product of mechanics.

“I don’t think I was using my lower half very well,” he said. “Fastball was up, slider was up … these games are going to happen. But at the end of the day we got a win.”

Canning entered to get the final out of the fourth frame and hold the slim lead. He also helped out the bullpen, going 3 1/3 innings allowing two hits, one walk and a run. A 430-foot homer in the top of the sixth by Aranda was his only costly mistake.