ANAHEIM — The Angels needed that one.
After losing their previous three games and facing the specter of a sweep at the hands of the team with the worst record in the American League, the Angels rallied from a five-run deficit to beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-5, on Sunday afternoon.
Taylor Ward hit a walk-off three-run homer to end it, his career-high 26th homer of the season.
With one out in the ninth, Nolan Schanuel yanked a double into right field. Mike Trout was then walked intentionally, setting the stage for Ward, who had struck out with a chance to knock in the go-ahead run in the seventh.
This time, he got a 3-and-2 sweeper at his knees and he lifted it over the left-field fence.
“We definitely needed it,” Ward said. “The first two games were rough, but we didn’t stop fighting and got the win today.”
The Angels (54-58) had lost the first two games of the series, just after general manager Perry Minasian said he chose not to make forward-looking trades so he could keep this roster intact to experience “meaningful” games in August and September.
Those words hung over the Angels when they were down 5-0 in the sixth inning, thanks to a rough start from right-hander Jack Kochanowicz.
“When you get down early like that, it can put you in a funk,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “And guys were obviously not pumped about that. Jack gave us five innings after that, and then have Wardo, who had a chance earlier, to come back and do that, was awesome.”
As they came to bat in the sixth, they had only two hits and were showing no signs of doing what it took to avoid a sweep.
Zach Neto led off the inning with a homer, accompanied by a bat flip that seemed to have some frustration behind it. Neto hadn’t homered since July 11.
“It’s about time I get one in the air,” Neto said. “I really needed that one. And it kind of sparked the team a little bit. We needed that one.”
Schanuel followed with a walk, and then Trout doubled. Ward dropped a single into left to drive in one run. Trout then scored on a wild pitch, cutting the deficit to 5-3.
An inning later, Christian Moore and pinch-hitter Yoán Moncada led off with consecutive singles, and then Neto completed the comeback with a game-tying two-run double.
That took Kochanowicz off the hook for a loss on a day he gave up four runs in the first three, three on a Colson Montgomery homer.
After the first inning, Kochanowicz managed to get through the next five with only one more run scoring, which helped the bullpen and provided some hope for him going forward.
“I thought he got off to a terrible start, and then I thought he regrouped well,” Montgomery said. “We did some stuff. (Pitching coach Barry Enright) talked to him in the dugout, and just kind of settled him down a little bit and talked to him about the importance of, ‘Hey, you’ve got to learn from this. You’ve got to make some adjustments mid-game.’ And I thought he did a good job.”
Kochanowicz said the lesson was not to put too much pressure on himself when things are going wrong.
“I think when things are going sideways, you just tend to try to try harder and literally sometimes you just need to take a step back and relax,” Kochanowicz said. “I think he just kind of told me just to be a little smoother out there. And I kind of know where I need to get to be at eventually in my head. So I had a good idea, but that was really it. Just just slow things down a little bit.”
Kochanowicz now has a 5.85 ERA in 21 starts this season. He was struggling enough that he was sent to Triple-A a month ago, only to return to the big leagues after one minor league start.
Kochanowicz did not allow an earned run in 4⅔ innings in his previous start. This one was a step back. He gave up nine hits and he walked two, with just two strikeouts.
“I really was just trying to find the depth of my pitches in the first,” Kochanowicz said. “It wasn’t just one pitch. It was kind of just all around. Wasn’t where I was at, where I needed to be at start the game. I don’t think it’s a day game thing. I think it’s just kind of getting your body moving, getting myself moving how I need to. Once I did that, the ball is coming out how I wanted it to. So happy we got the win.”