ANAHEIM -- After a blistering July that saw him hit .333 with three homers and 16 RBIs in 19 games, Vaughn Grissom fell into a slump in early August. But he has been working his way out of it, and came through in a big way with the first multihomer performance of his career on Tuesday against the Guardians.
Grissom crushed a towering two-run blast off right-hander Gavin Williams in the first, and added a go-ahead solo shot in the fifth off lefty reliever Logan Allen in an eventual 8-6 loss in 10 innings at Angel Stadium. Grissom has nine homers in 90 games this season, but had never gone deep more than once in any of his 184 career games before Tuesday.
“I've been scuffling a little bit lately,” Grissom said. “I'm just trying to put the barrel on the ball, catch it out front.”
Grissom started the month by hitting .161 with no homers and one RBI through the first 15 games, but broke out for three hits and three RBIs in Houston on Thursday, and has started to swing the bat better recently. He said he’s hopeful this will continue to get him going to finish the year strong.
The 25-year-old is slashing .248/.309/.390 this season after he was acquired in an offseason trade with the Red Sox.
“Any time you do something like that, it's something good to build off of,” Grissom said. “Hopefully just keep that trending.”
The Angels faced a tough task going up against Williams, who came into the start with a 3.72 ERA and a whopping 201 strikeouts in 154 2/3 innings this year. But Mike Trout reached on an infield single in the first before Grissom jumped all over a 2-2 curveball that Williams left up in the zone. It just stayed fair down the left-field line to give the Angels an early lead.
They tacked on three more runs in the second, keyed by a solo homer from Christian Moore and an RBI double from Denzer Guzman to knock Williams from the game after just 1 1/3 innings.
“It was nice to get him out of the game early and try to capitalize,” Grissom said. “That’s what we're trying to do -- to get to the bullpen -- and it felt good. We put some runs on him and set ourselves up for a good game.”
But rookie right-hander Walbert Ureña had a rare rough start, as he was in trouble most of his outing, but was helped by a strong defensive play from Grissom at first base in the second inning. Ureña got into a jam with the bases loaded and nobody out, but Grissom started a 3-2-3 double play to help escape the trouble.
“It meant a lot,” Ureña said of Grissom’s play. “I was trying to get a grounder, and he made a really good play.”
Ureña, though, wasn’t as fortunate in the fourth, when he gave up three runs, keyed by back-to-back doubles with two outs. He lasted just 3 2/3 innings, with a short bullpen because the Angels currently have six starting pitchers on their roster.
Right-hander José Fermin gave up two runs in the fifth to tie the game, but Grissom again delivered a go-ahead homer in the fifth. Allen threw a 2-1 cutter on the inner half of the zone that Grissom was able to keep fair to become the first Angels player to hit two go-ahead homers in a game since Luis Rengifo on Aug. 29, 2023, at Philadelphia.
“It was great,” manager Kurt Suzuki said of Grissom’s performance. “He had a really good night. I think the swings were better, the strike zone discipline in those first few at-bats was a lot better. He put some good swings on it, and hit the ball good tonight.”
But again, it wasn’t enough, as reliever Ryan Watson gave up a game-tying RBI double to José Ramírez in the eighth. And after Trout was robbed of a potential go-ahead homer by center fielder Angel Martínez in the eighth, reliever Blake Weiman gave up a two-run double to Ramírez in the 10th. The Angels had runners at second and third with one out in the bottom of the 10th, but failed to score to end the game.
“We swung and missed and struck out a lot, which is something we’re working on,” Suzuki said. “We had good at-bats against Williams, and had tough ones later in the game.”