Mike Trout homered and drove in three runs, and Patrick Sandoval pitched seven innings of two-hit ball as the surging Angels defeated the Cleveland Guardians 4-1 Tuesday night.
Trout drove a slider from Triston McKenzie (0-2) into the bullpens in left field for a two-run shot in the third inning to give the Angels a 3-0 lead. He was inches from a second home run in the fifth, but the ball hit the wall in the left-field corner for an RBI double to score Shohei Ohtani.
The Guardians have dropped all five games on their road trip but averted a second consecutive shutout in Anaheim when Straw began the ninth inning with a base hit and scored on José Ramírez’s one-out double off Jimmy Herget.
Raisel Iglesias came in after Ramírez’s extra-base hit and struck out Franmil Reyes and Miller for his fourth save.
McKenzie allowed four runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out six. The right-hander retired the first four Angels batters before Anthony Rendon hit a one-out double in the second and scored on Brandon Marsh‘s base hit up the middle.
“He threw a ton of strikes,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said of McKenzie. “He started the game off 18 of 19 (pitches for strikes). That’s maybe too many to start if you want to be too picky. When he made a mistake it was right over the middle of the plate and it ended up hurting him.”