Wells’ hit, Mathis’ sacrifice fly help Angels beat Indians, 4-3, in 12 innings
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Vernon Wells sparked a 12th-inning rally with a rare hit and Jeff Mathis drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly to center field as the Angels beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3, at Angel Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Wells started the winning rally with a one-out single off shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera’s glove for only his second hit in his last 31 at-bats. Alberto Callaspo walked, and both runners advance on reliever Chad Durbin’s wild pitch.
Mark Trumbo was walked intentionally to load the bases, and Mathis drove a fly ball to medium center that was deep enough to score Wells, giving the Angels catcher his third career walk-off run batted in.
Left-hander Hisanori Takahashi threw two innings of perfect relief to get the win as the Angels took two of three from the Indians, who entered the series with a seven-game winning streak.
Trailing, 3-2, Everett opened the Cleveland eighth with a single off Angels starter Ervin Santana. Angels Manager Mike Scioscia summoned left-hander Scott Downs, who gave up a single to Michael Brantley that advanced Everett to third.
Asdrubal Cabrera grounded to Callaspo at third, and Everett was tagged out in a rundown between third and home, the runners holding at first and second.
But a wild pitch that allowed Brantley and Cabrera to advance was costly, as Brantley scored on Shin-Soo Choo’s groundout to second to tie the score, 3-3. Right-hander Fernando Rodney replaced Downs and struck out Carlos Santana to end the inning.
The Angels had taken the lead in the fourth, an inning that began with Howie Kendrick’s double to left-center and aggressive turn at second.
Indians shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera took the relay from the outfield and fired a throw over the head of first baseman Matt LaPorta, who was covering second. The ball rolled all the way into the Cleveland dugout, allowing Kendrick to score. Bobby Abreu walked, and Torii Hunter lined a two-run homer to left-center field, his third of the season, for a 3-1 lead.
Santana gave up a run in the first when Asdrubal Cabrera tripled to the gap in left off Wells’ glove and scored on Choo’s sacrifice fly and another in the fourth on Everett’s infield single and Brantley’s RBI double to right-center.
But Santana, with the help of three superb defensive plays, prevented further damage in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
With two on and no outs in the fourth, Santana struck out Travis Hafner and got just enough of Orlando Cabrera’s hard grounder up the middle to deflect it to Kendrick, who started an inning-ending double play.
Austin Kearns opened the fifth with a shot toward center, but Kendrick made a diving, back-hand stop, scrambled to his feet and rifled a throw to first for the out.
Choo walked to open the sixth, stole second and took third on Carlos Santana’s groundout to first. Hafner struck out, and catcher Hank Conger rifled a throw to third in time to pick off Choo, who drifted too far off the bag.
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