ANAHEIM — The Angels’ late-inning magic continued for a second straight night.
The Angels scored three runs on Jorge Soler’s bases-loaded double in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-4, on Wednesday night.
The ninth-inning rally lifted the Angels (15-20) to their first consecutive victories since they won three in a row from April 5-8.
Including Jo Adell’s game-winning three-run double on April 20, the Angels have had two bases-loaded, three-run walk off hits this season, after not having any since 2008.
“It feels great,” Soler said through an interpreter. “It feels great for the team… The team feels great, especially since we were facing one of the best closers in the big leagues.”
The Angels were facing Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman, a former All-Star who had a 1.10 ERA coming into this series. He had allowed only two earned runs before the Angels tagged him for three on Tuesday night, and then three more on Wednesday.
“He’s a quality closer,” Manager Ron Washington said. “We got him one night. Usually when those guys come back the next night, they’re on a vengeance. But we were on a vengeance too.”
The rally began with Kyren Paris drawing a walk. Paris, who an inning earlier hit his first homer since April 9, is gradually emerging from a three-week slump, just like the rest of the team.
Zach Neto then singed — running his hitting streak to 12 games — and Nolan Schanuel followed with a single to load the bases.
After Taylor Ward struck out, Soler pulled a double down the left field line. Third base coach Eric Young Sr. was already waving Schanuel around, but he scored easily when the ball got away from left fielder Jonathan Clase in the corner.
The story prior that was a strong start from Yusei Kikuchi, who gave up one run in six innings, and an offense that couldn’t find a big hit.
The Angels struck out five times with a runner at third and less than two outs, including four times in the first five innings.
The lack of early run support meant that Kikuchi would remain winless through his first eight starts with his new team, even though he has pitched well.
Kikuchi now has a 3.83 ERA, including allowing three runs in 11 innings in his past two starts. Those came on the heels of a game in which he gave up four runs on nine hits without making it out of the third inning.
“The last two games I’ve pitched, getting my feeling back,” Kikuchi said through his interpreter. “Definitely throwing more strikes. I feel like I’m being myself.”
Kikuchi threw 76.9% of his pitches for strikes, which was one of the highest rates of his career.
Just after Kikuchi left, the Angels sent Reid Detmers to the mound in a tie game, and it didn’t stay tied for long.
Detmers gave up a leadoff double and then two singles, and was then pulled. One of the singles was a bunt hit from Andres Gimenez, who was clearly trying to give the Angels an out with a sacrifice. Detmers fielded the ball, but wasn’t quick enough with his throw to first.
That was all for Detmers. Both runners he left on base came around to score when Ryan Zeferjahn gave up a Bo Bichette single.
In Detmers’ last three games, he’s faced 13 batters and 12 of them have scored. His ERA in those games has gone from 2.57 to 10.05.
Aside from Detmers’ performance and the early offensive failures, the other negative on this night for the Angels was second baseman Luis Rengifo losing track of the outs in the seventh inning. With one out and runners at first and second, Rengifo fielded a routine ground ball. He didn’t even attempt to get a double play — or at least get the force at second to prevent a runner from getting into scoring position. He casually flipped the ball to first for the second out.
After the inning, Washington removed Rengifo from the game.
“We can’t have that,” Washington said. “Things have been going bad enough for us, if you look at wins and loses. You just can’t have that mental lapse. I just walked up to him and told him he was out of the game.”
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