The Angels turned to Mitch Farris in the bottom of the third after starter Jack Kochanowicz issued three walks and two singles in the frame. Farris inherited a bases-loaded, one-out situation with the Angels trailing, 3-1, after Jonathan Aranda and Richie Palacios scored in the inning already.
After Farris struck out Hunter Fedduccia, Taylor Walls took the first pitch he saw from Farris -- a 91.4 mph four-seamer middle-up -- and launched it a Statcast-projected 330 feet to left field. The ball looked destined for a grand slam.
With a 46-degree launch angle and a 6.5 second hang time, Siri tracked the ball towards the wall and reached over the fence to bring it back, robbing Walls of the big hit that he has been waiting for all season.
“I think it's something that I have always done,” Siri said in Spanish. "I have good defense and I just [tried] to do what I do in the outfield and at home plate.”
After making the catch, Siri shrugged his shoulders to his teammates and tipped his cap to the crowd as he jogged back to the dugout. Siri spent three seasons with the Rays from 2022-24, making the grab against his former club.
“They were happy, they congratulated me and that it was a tremendous play,” Siri said of his teammates. “I felt good coming back here. I had a good time and I felt the love of a lot of fans, enjoying seeing me.”
Walls has not hit a home run this season, but it would not have been his first grand slam. The shortstop hit one against the Yankees in 2023.
"Off the bat, I knew I squared it up, but I knew I hit it really high,” Walls said. "Honestly, I thought it was probably going to be a flyout to the track, and then as it kept carrying, and where it ended up -- when he started to get to the wall -- I'm like, 'Dang, there's a chance this goes over.' And then he robbed it, and I'm like, 'Dude, you've got to be kidding.'
I'm like, 'Dude, if I had like nine or 10 of them, and you took one away, fine. I've got zero. Like, let me have one,’” he added.
Siri also contributed offensively. In the top of the second, he flared the ball to right field for a single. Siri then advanced to third base after Logan O’Hoppe hit a double on a sharp line drive to left field, later scoring on a wild pitch from Shane McClanahan.
Wade Meckler, who hit a grand slam in the first inning on Saturday, pinch-hit for Siri in the seventh. Siri finished 1-for-2 after striking out in the fourth inning. After Meckler grounded out, O’Hoppe hit a solo homer in the seventh to cut the deficit to 3-2.
That is when Siri found out about the food he saved.
“I saw the [food] after they took me out of the game,” Siri said. “I saw that there were some chicken tenders, they looked good and I saved them.”
Through 18 at-bats this season, Siri owns a .333/.368/.611 slash line with six hits, six runs and two homers. The Angels selected the contract of the outfielder from the Salt Lake Bees on May 16 after signing him to a Minor League contract on Feb. 11.
On Sunday, Siri helped save both the Angels a couple runs and the chicken tenders.
“I thought it was great,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “That was huge. I mean, four runs, they would have turned into a seven to one [ballgame]. It would have made it a lot tougher on us. So, I think that was a huge play in the game.”