Angels crumble in the ninth inning, giving up lead in loss to Astros
LaMonte Wade Jr. drew a bases-loaded walk that forced home the go-ahead run in a four-run ninth inning, and the Houston Astros came back to beat the Angels 6-4 on Monday night.
The Astros rallied on a hit, two walks, two errors and two hit batters to hand the Angels (42-65) their ninth loss this season when leading after eight innings.
Houston (53-55) trailed 4-0 after three, but Taylor Trammell homered for a second straight game and the fifth time this season to cut it to 4-1 in the fourth.
Jeremy Peña doubled leading off the eighth against Ryan Zeferjahn, extending his hitting streak to nine games. Yordan Alvarez hit an RBI single to make it 4-2.
José Fermin (3-2) hit Trammell with a pitch leading off the ninth. Christian Walker singled and Trammell scored to make it 4-3 when second baseman Vaughn Grissom let Lucas Spence’s potential double-play grounder go through his legs for a costly error.
Sam Bachman entered and got an out before walking Alvarez intentionally to load the bases. Bachman grazed Isaac Paredes with a pitch to tie it, and Wade walked to give Houston the lead. Alvarez scored the final run when Jose Altuve reached on a fielding error by Bachman.
Tatsuya Imai didn’t make it out of the first inning for the third time this season in a start for Houston. He gave up a sacrifice fly to Nolan Schanuel and an RBI single to Grissom before AJ Blubaugh came in to get the final out of the inning.
Grissom hit his seventh homer — off Blubaugh — and Jo Adell blooped an RBI double to make it 4-0 in the third.
Cristian Javier (1-1) followed Blubaugh and struck out seven over five shutout innings for the win. Josh Hader walked two in the ninth before earning his 13th save.
Angels starter Walbert Ureña gave up a run on two hits in six innings and left with a 4-1 lead. Fermin got one out and was charged with three runs — one earned.
Up next: Astros RHP Peter Lambert (8-5, 3.03 ERA) starts Tuesday against Angels LHP Reid Detmers (3-7, 4.05).