ANAHEIM — Perfection took a pounding on Sunday, the Houston Astros soiling Angels reliever Hunter Strickland’s previously unblemished ERA during a four-run, sixth-inning rally that propelled them to an 8-7 come-from-behind victory in Angel Stadium.
Strickland had not allowed an earned run in 15⅔ innings of his first 14 appearances when he replaced starter Kyle Hendricks with no outs, a runner on first base and the Angels leading 5-4 on the strength of Nolan Schanuel’s three-run homer in the fifth.
Seven batters, three hits, two walks, 30 pitches and four runs later, Strickland stormed off the mound with a 1.62 ERA, and the first-place Astros were on their way to a series win that pushed them 7½ games ahead of the fourth-place Angels in the American League West.
“A little bit,” acting manager Ray Montgomery said, when asked if he sensed Strickland’s frustration build as the inning went on. “We haven’t seen that from him all year, so I can certainly understand why. Obviously, the execution part wasn’t what he wanted. It was a little out of character for him, and the timing of it was unfortunate.”
Mauricio Dubón greeted Strickland with a 402-foot, two-run home run to left-center field, the infielder’s second homer of the game, to give Houston a 6-5 lead. No. 9 hitter Luis Guillorme singled to right and scored on Jeremy Pena’s RBI double to left for a 7-5 lead.
Pena took third on the throw home and scored on Jake Meyers’ sacrifice fly to right for an 8-5 lead. Jose Altuve walked and was picked off first, and Cam Smith walked before Strickland struck out Christian Walker with a 94-mph slider to end the inning.
The Angels rallied in the bottom of the seventh on Schanuel’s two-out RBI single to left off to cut the deficit to 8-6, and they had two on with two outs for Mike Trout. But Astros right-hander Bryan Abreu replaced left-hander Bryan King and struck out Trout with three straight sliders to end the inning.
The Angels rallied again off Astros closer Josh Hader in the ninth, Zach Neto leading off with the first pinch-hit homer of his career to cut the deficit to 8-7, and Schanuel doubling off the right-field wall with two outs. But Hader got Trout to line out sharply to center field to convert his 19th save in 19 chances.
“I thought it had a chance to drop, but It kind of hung up a little longer than I thought,” Trout said of his 103-mph line drive. “I had a chance in the seventh, got a little jumpy and tried to do too much. That last at-bat, I was trying to get a good pitch and put a good swing on the ball. They just caught it.”
The way the ball shot off Trout’s bat in the ninth, Montgomery thought the ball might go over the head of Meyers in center field.
“Yeah, unfortunately, only in my heart and hope,” Montgomery said. “That guy (Hader) is pretty good out there. That’s all you can do if you’re Mike, right? Hit the ball right on the screws. Bad aim.”
The Angels took a 2-0 lead in the fourth when Taylor Ward hit a two-out double to left field and Logan O’Hoppe poked a two-run home run over the short wall in left, the 17th homer of the season and the third in two games for the Angels catcher.
But Hendricks and the Angels defense combined to cough up that lead–and then some–in a four-run fifth inning in which only two of Houston’s runs were earned.
Dubón led off with a homer, somehow getting enough of the barrel to an 87-mph sinker that was way inside to send a 378-foot drive to left. One out later, Pena crushed a fat changeup 423 feet over the left-center field wall for his 11th homer and a 2-2 tie.
“That was actually a pretty good pitch–that’s what I was trying to do with it–just have to tip your hat on that one,” Hendricks said of Dubón’s homer. “Really good swing by him. He’s a really good hitter, though, and he can do that to you on the inside of the plate, but then the Pena one was a really bad changeup.”
Meyers then grounded a hard single past third baseman Luis Rengifo, stole second and scored when Rengifo booted Smith’s two-out grounder for his eighth error of the season. Walker pushed the lead to 4-2 with an RBI double to right-center.
The Angels counter-punched with three runs in the bottom of the fifth for a 5-4 lead, LaMonte Wade Jr. and Christian Moore hitting singles and Schanuel walloping a 94-mph Ryan Gusto fastball that was above the zone for a two-out, three-run homer to right, his sixth of the season.
But Hendricks walked Cooper Hummel to open the sixth and handed the ball to Strickland, who coughed up the lead.
“Unbelievable job by the boys just fighting to stay in that game,” Hendricks said. “We get a lead, and I give it up–just a momentum-killer there.”