ANAHEIM — Perfection took a pounding on Sunday, the Houston Astros soiling Angels reliever Hunter Strickland’s previously unblemished ERA during a four-run, sixth-inning rally that propelled them to an 8-7 come-from-behind victory in Angel Stadium.
Strickland had not allowed an earned run in 15⅔ innings of his first 14 appearances when he replaced starter Kyle Hendricks with no outs, a runner on first base and the Angels leading 5-4 on the strength of Nolan Schanuel’s three-run homer in the fifth.
Seven batters, three hits, two walks, 30 pitches and four runs later, Strickland stormed off the mound with a 1.62 ERA, and the first-place Astros were on their way to a series win that pushed them 7½ games ahead of the fourth-place Angels in the American League West.
Mauricio Dubón greeted Strickland with a 402-foot, two-run home run to left-center field, the infielder’s second homer of the game, to give Houston a 6-5 lead. No. 9 hitter Luis Guillorme singled to right and scored on Jeremy Pena’s RBI double to left for a 7-5 lead.
Pena took third on the throw home and scored on Jake Meyers’ sacrifice fly to right for an 8-5 lead. Jose Altuve walked and was picked off first, and Cam Smith walked before Strickland struck out Christian Walker with a 94-mph slider to end the inning.
The Angels rallied in the bottom of the seventh on Schanuel’s two-out RBI single to left off to cut the deficit to 8-6, and they had two on with two outs for Mike Trout. But Astros right-hander Bryan Abreu replaced left-hander Bryan King and struck out Trout with three straight sliders to end the inning.
The Angels rallied again off Astros closer Josh Hader in the ninth, Zach Neto leading off with the first pinch-hit homer of his career to cut the deficit to 8-7, and Schanuel doubling off the right-field wall with two outs. But Hader got Trout to line out sharply to center field to convert his 19th save in 19 chances.
The Angels took a 2-0 lead in the fourth when Taylor Ward hit a two-out double to left field and Logan O’Hoppe poked a two-run home run over the short wall in left, the 17th homer of the season and the third in two games for the Angels catcher.
But Hendricks and the Angels defense combined to cough up that lead–and then some–in a four-run fifth inning in which only two of Houston’s runs were earned.
Dubón led off with a homer, somehow getting enough of the barrel to an 87-mph sinker that was way inside to send a 378-foot drive to left. One out later, Pena crushed a changeup 423 feet over the left-center field wall for his 11th homer and a 2-2 tie.
Meyers grounded a hard single past third baseman Luis Rengifo, stole second and scored when Rengifo booted Smith’s two-out grounder for his eighth error of the season. Walker pushed the lead to 4-2 with an RBI double to right-center.
The Angels counter-punched with three runs in the bottom of the fifth for a 5-4 lead, LaMonte Wade Jr. and Christian Moore hitting singles and Schanuel walloping a 94-mph Ryan Gusto fastball that was above the zone for a two-out, three-run homer to right, his sixth of the season.
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