Maldonado forces extras, but Angels fall in 10

Newly acquired Robles gives up deciding homer to former Angel Morales

June 24th, 2018

ANAHEIM -- For the second consecutive day, the Angels' offense mounted a late-inning rally to tie the game. For the second consecutive day, the Angels' bullpen couldn't hold it.
After the Angels erased a pair of three-run deficits to force extra innings, newly acquired reliever yielded a go-ahead, pinch-hit home run to that lifted the Blue Jays to a 7-6 win in 10 innings in Sunday's series finale at Angel Stadium.
Robles, who was claimed off waivers from the Mets on Saturday, made his Angels debut by coming in to pitch the 10th with the game tied, 6-6, and retired the first two batters he faced before hanging a slider to Morales, who pummeled it to right field for the game-winning hit.

Robles' misstep came after rookie Justin Anderson gave up a tie-breaking, three-run home run to Steve Pearce in the ninth inning to seal a 4-1 defeat on Saturday. The back-to-back losses secured a series split with the Blue Jays, dropping the Angels to 41-37 on the season and 1-7 in extra innings.
"I think the long short of it is we battled back, we just didn't do enough in some situations to get the game on our terms," manager Mike Scioscia said. "We were chasing the whole afternoon and didn't quite get there."
The Angels trailed, 6-3, in the eighth, but they rallied to tie the game behind sloppy defense from the Blue Jays and 's two-out, bases-clearing double. After and reached on throwing errors by and , respectively, drew a two-out walk off to load the bases for Maldonado, who promptly lined a three-run double to left field.
"I think we battled on every pitch," said Maldonado, who went 2-for-4 with four RBIs. "It's a game that we wanted to win and we ended up losing. I wouldn't say frustration because at least we showed we can come back."
The Blue Jays got on the board after Travis crushed a three-run home run off in the second inning, but the Angels came back to tie it after homered in the fourth and Maldonado and produced RBI singles in the fifth.

Still, the Blue Jays regained a 5-3 lead in the sixth after and launched solo shots off reliever .
Weakened by the injuries to , and Jim Johnson, the Angels' bullpen has been prone to spottiness and is tied for the Major League lead with 15 blown saves this season, amplifying calls for the club to seek out reinforcements ahead of the non-waiver Trade Deadline.
"Nobody is trying to give up those runs, man," Ramirez said. "We're out there working hard every day, so when you see a team, especially this offense, going off, fighting hard, we're obviously out there trying to keep that lead. We've hit a rough patch, but I think we'll bounce back pretty good. We've got a pretty good squad, so just going to keep rolling."
Pena, a converted reliever who was thrust into the Angels' rotation following the injuries to and Nick Tropeano, gave up three runs on eight hits over five innings in his second career MLB start. The 28-year-old right-hander walked one and struck out six while throwing 83 pitches.
"I think he competed," Maldonado said. "A couple mistakes, but it's a learning process for him."

Pena worked around a two-out single to post a scoreless first inning, but he fell into trouble in the second, yielding a leadoff walk to and an infield single to Diaz. After striking out for the second out of the inning, Pena misplaced a fastball to Travis, who hit it out to right-center field to give the Blue Jays a 3-0 lead.
Blue Jays right-hander Sam Gaviglio retired the first 11 batters he faced before surrendering a solo shot to Upton with two outs in the fourth. Upton deposited a sinker into the Angels' bullpen in left field to collect his 17th home run of the season, trimming the Blue Jays' lead to 3-1.
The Angels then scored two more runs in the fifth to tie the game and chase Gaviglio. After Simmons and Calhoun led off the inning with back-to-back singles, Maldonado delivered a base hit up the middle to drive in Simmons from second. Calhoun attempted to advance from first to third on the play, but he was thrown out by Maile for the first out of the inning. The Angels challenged the call, but the ruling was upheld following a replay review.

Gaviglio then struck out Chris Young before yielding a game-tying, two-out RBI single to Kinsler. Blue Jays manager John Gibbons subsequently brought in reliever to face , who reached on a broken-bat infield single to keep the Angels' rally alive. Still, Biagini managed to preserve the deadlock by inducing a groundout from Upton to end the inning.
Ramirez replaced Pena in the sixth and promptly surrendered a leadoff home run to Diaz that put the Blue Jays back in front. After striking out Maile and Travis, Ramirez gave up another solo shot to Granderson to put the Angels in a 5-3 hole.
, who was acquired from the Rangers in exchange for cash considerations last week, also made his Angels debut in the eighth and induced a bouncer in front of the plate from Diaz to start the inning, but he made an errant throw to first base, allowing Diaz to advance to third. Diaz subsequently scored on Maile's sacrifice fly to push the Blue Jays' lead to 6-3.
"There's a lot of positives going on," Scioscia said. "But there's some things we know we have to do better and we're going to work hard at."
UP NEXT
The Angels will head to Kansas City to play a makeup game against the Royals on Monday at 1:15 p.m. PT at Kauffman Stadium. Left-hander (6-4, 2.81 ERA), who missed his scheduled start against the Blue Jays on Thursday with right hamstring tightness, will return to the rotation and start opposite right-hander (1-2, 2.63 ERA) on Monday. Skaggs has worked seven scoreless innings in each of his two previous starts against the Royals. The Angels will wear No. 42 jerseys in honor of Jackie Robinson Day, which the club didn't get to celebrate after their April 15 game was postponed because of inclement weather.