Halos fall despite big days from Richards, Trout

ANAHEIM -- Mike Trout's 3-for-5 night -- he hit his 19th homer and fell a double short of a cycle -- and a stellar outing by Garrett Richards were not enough for the Angels, who lost in 10 innings to the Rangers, 3-2, on Saturday night at Angel Stadium.
By the 10th, however, the game had already ended once -- and with a Halos victory. In the top of the ninth, with runners on first and third, Rangers slugger Adrián Beltré flied out to Justin Upton in deep left field. Upton didn't have a play at the plate, so he fired to second to nab Carlos Tocci, who had tagged up at first base. The ruling on the field was that Tocci was tagged out at second before the runner from third, Jurickson Profar, could reach home, and the Angels walked off with a 2-1 victory.
But after review, it was determined that Profar had touched home before Tocci was tagged out at second. That ended the half-inning, but with the game tied at 2.

"They got the call right," manager Mike Scioscia said.
"It was close, for sure," said Trout. "I didn't really look at the replay as much. The one on the board was tough to see. After coming down, I saw that he might have beaten it. It was bang-bang."
In the 10th, Ronald Guzmán's one-out single brought home Rougned Odor to give the Rangers their first lead of the night, then Keone Kela shut down the Angels in the bottom of the frame.
Richards was lights-out, giving up just one hit, a single to Shin-Soo Choo on the first pitch of the game, over his seven innings. He hurled perhaps his finest start of the year, allowing just an unearned run in seven-plus innings, with nine strikeouts and one walk.
"No doubt," said Scioscia, when asked whether it was Richards' best outing of the year. "Garrett had great stuff in the first inning, maintained it till his 100th pitch. … That's as well as you can throw the ball. That was terrific."

The effectiveness of his slider and curveball proved lethal; they accounted for eight of his nine strikeouts and a total of 22 swinging strikes, the second-highest mark in his career.
"Richards, he was nails," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. "I mean, the combination of pitches he threw out there tonight made it extremely challenging for all of our hitters."
After Richards pitched just 2 1/3 innings in his last start vs. the Yankees, Saturday's performance proved hopeful for what has been an up-and-down season for the right-hander. He credits his conversations with pitching coach Charles Nagy in helping him find his focus.
"Yeah, it was a good one to build off of, especially with what happened in New York," Richards said. "That's just conversations Nagy and I have had in between, just going back to doing some basic, simple stuff again."
Though the majority of the offense was in a rut, Trout's bat was on full display on Saturday, starting with a towering solo shot in the opening frame that gave him the tie for the MLB lead in home runs.

Trout's homer was his seventh in the past 15 games, and his 19 homers in the Angels' first 59 games is a club record.
He followed that at-bat with a triple in the third inning, then notched a single in the sixth, putting him a two-bagger away from a cycle. He popped out in his fourth at-bat and flied out in the 10th to end the game.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Odor and Simmons at it again: On the game-ending play in the Angels' 6-0 win Friday, Odor slid into Andrelton Simmons at second base in an attempt to break up a double play, which led to a dustup between the two teams.
On Saturday, the roles were reversed. With Simmons at first base in the fourth inning, Shohei Ohtani grounded a ball up the middle. The Rangers' shortstop, Profar, snagged it and flipped the ball to Odor the force. Odor then fired to first, but was too late to catch the blazing Ohtai, who was running at 27.8 feet/second up the line.
However, Simmons slid past the bag at second, making contact with Odor in the process, forcing the umpires to call Ohtani out at first to end the inning.

Anderson gets out of jam in the eighth: After entering in the eighth with a runner on and walking his first batter on four pitches, Justin Anderson was in a jam. Be he bounced back to retire the side, ending the threat with a strikeout of Delino DeShields.

MITEL REPLAY OF THE DAY
After leading off the sixth with a single, Trout attempted to steal second on a Cole Hamels throw to first.
Guzman's throw from first arrived in plenty of time for what was initially ruled as an out, but after review, the call was overturned. Trout put on a swim move for the ages, evading a sure out and creating a run-scoring opportunity.

"I just knew that if I slide regularly, I'm gonna be out by a lot," Trout said. "Just told myself I gotta avoid a tag somehow. As soon as the ball beat me there, I knew that I had to kinda trick him a bit. It was a tough play. [I was] just trying to be safe."
SOUND SMART
Trout set or extended a number of other franchise records. He extended his club record for most games in which he has recorded both a homer and a triple with 10 (the second-most in franchise history is five). Trout's 37 extra-base hits tied Troy Glaus (2000) for most in club history through the team's first 59 games. And his third-inning triple was his 1,104 hit, passing Bobby Grich for 8th all-time in Halos history.
UP NEXT
Tyler Skaggs will toe the rubber for the Angels in Sunday's finale against the Rangers. Skaggs is 3-2 with a 6.00 ERA over nine career starts against Texas, the highest ERA he has against any American League opponent. It will be his second start of the season versus the Rangers; in his first, he allowed one earned run on five hits and four walks in five innings, with seven K's. Doug Fister is set to start for the Rangers for the 1:07 p.m. PT game.