Mike Trout homers twice as Angels push Astros to brink of playoff elimination
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Mike Trout hit two home runs, including a tiebreaking shot in the eighth inning, Kenley Jansen got his 29th save, and the Angels pushed the Houston Astros to the brink of playoff elimination with a 4-3 victory on Friday night.
Trout broke a 3-3 tie with a leadoff homer to right-center field off Astros reliever Bryan King (5-4) in the eighth.
Jansen struck out the side in the ninth, winning a 10-pitch duel with Mauricio Dubón to end the game, for the 476th save of his career, moving the 37-year-old right-hander to within two saves of Lee Smith for third on baseball’s career list.
Cal Raleigh’s historic 60th home run ball made it back to the Mariners star after the fan who caught it gave it to a child he’d never met. Raleigh met the fan Thursday.
Angels left-hander Brock Burke (7-1) threw a scoreless eighth for the win.
The Astros, who blew a 3-0 lead, are one game behind Cleveland and Detroit for the final AL wild card, though either the Guardians or Tigers will advance to the playoffs as AL Central champion.
Cleveland and Detroit also hold tiebreakers over Houston, so the Astros will have to win their final two games and the non-division-winning Central team will have to lose twice for the Astros to reach the playoffs for the ninth straight year.
The Astros’ Christian Walker sparked a three-run fourth-inning rally with a solo homer.
Trout led off the bottom of the fourth with his 24th homer. Back-to-back doubles by Christian Moore and Denzer Guzman pulled the Angels to within 3-2 in the fifth, and Chris Taylor’s RBI single in the seventh made it 3-3.
Key moment: The Angels tied the score in the seventh, but the rally may have been bigger had Astros’ center fielder Zach Cole not thrown out Moore attempting to go from first to third on Guzman’s single.
Key stat: Trout’s 30th career multihomer game gave him 1,017 career RBIs, moving him past Tim Salmon for second on the franchise’s career list behind Garret Anderson (1,292).
Up next: Angels RHP Caden Dana (0-3, 6.39 ERA) will start against Astros RHP AJ Blubaugh (3-1, 1.93) on Saturday.
