Luis Rengifo hit two of Los Angeles' four home runs as the Angels beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-5 in the rubber match of a three-game series on Sunday in Anaheim, Calif.
Rengifo and Andrew Velazquez hit back-to-back homers during a four-run fifth inning for the Angels, who concluded a nine-game homestand with a 6-3 mark. Shohei Ohtani added his major league-leading 36th homer of the season.
Tyler Anderson (5-2) allowed four runs with five strikeouts over six innings against his former team. Carlos Estevez worked around a two-out walk in the ninth for his 23rd save.
Pittsburgh trailed 7-1 before Carlos Santana capped a four-run seventh inning with a two-run double off Jacob Webb. The Pirates were held to a pair of baserunners in the final two innings and lost for the seventh time in their last nine games.
The Pirates claimed a brief lead on Bryan Reynolds' solo homer in the first inning. Ohtani answered with a solo blast in the bottom half of the inning off Mitch Keller (9-6).
Los Angeles appeared primed for a big inning after Eduardo Escobar doubled in a run with no outs in the second, but Keller escaped further damage by retiring the next three batters in order.
The Angels moved ahead 4-1 when Velazquez and Rengifo began the fifth inning with back-to-back homers. After the next two batters reached base safely, Taylor Ward singled in a run and Matt Thaiss capped the outburst with a run-scoring sacrifice fly.
Keller was lifted after giving up six runs on nine hits over five innings. He walked one and struck out seven while throwing 101 pitches.
Rengifo hit a two-out homer in the sixth inning before Pittsburgh responded with four runs in the seventh. Liover Peguero doubled in a run with one out before Webb replaced Anderson. Peguero scored on a throwing error and Santana doubled in two runs to cut the lead to 7-5.
Angels center fielder Mickey Moniak singled in the fifth inning to extend his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games. Moniak is hitting .379 (22-for-58) during his streak.
--Field Level Media
Pittsburgh | LA Angels | |
Mitch Keller | Player | Tyler Anderson |
Loss | W/L | Win |
5.0 | IP | 6.0 |
7 | Strikeouts | 5 |
9 | Hits | 8 |
10.80 | ERA | 6.00 |
Pittsburgh | LA Angels | |
Bryan Reynolds | Player | Luis Rengifo |
2 | Hits | 2 |
1 | RBI | 2 |
1 | HR | 2 |
5 | TB | 8 |
.400 | Avg | .500 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Pittsburgh | 10 | 1 | 16 | .270 | 21 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
LA Angels | 10 | 4 | 24 | .303 | 10 | 13 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 |