Carlos Estévez has rough ninth inning as Phillies rally to beat Angels
Johan Rojas hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the ninth inning moments after Nick Castellanos’ tying shot, sending the Philadelphia Phillies to a 7-5 victory over the Angels on Tuesday night at Angel Stadium.
Trailing 5-4 with one out and nobody on base in the ninth, the Phillies avoided only their second back-to-back losses since March with three extra-base hits in five pitches from Angels closer Carlos Estévez (0-1), who blew his second save of the season in spectacular fashion.
After Castellanos hit a solo shot to right, Bryson Stott doubled and scored on Rojas’ first homer of the season.
“Huge, man, just to be able to come through, because I feel like there’s so many spots this season where I haven’t,” said Castellanos, who had three hits to end his 3-for-27 skid over his past seven games. “So just to be able to pick them up, it feels great.”
Luis Rengifo hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning for the Angels, who began another chapter of life without Mike Trout with an appropriately gut-wrenching defeat. The Angels (11-19) have lost 10 of 12.
Before the game, the Angels announced Trout would undergo surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. The three-time AL MVP outfielder is out indefinitely because of a major injury for the fourth consecutive season, and the surprising news had Trout holding back tears as he discussed it before the game.
Any chance the Angels had of postseason contention this season depended on a healthy Mike Trout and a healthy Anthony Rendon,
Rengifo had three hits, Zach Neto also homered and Mickey Moniak had an RBI single for the Angels.
“We squandered some opportunities early in the game, and then we came to life right there,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “(Rengifo) got us a three-run homer, put us ahead. We got to the position we wanted to be in. Just needed to get two more outs. We didn’t get it.”
Kyle Schwarber hit an early three-run homer for the Phillies (20-11), who have won 12 of 15. José Alvarado (1-1) pitched the eighth and Jeff Hoffman earned his second save.
“I thought that was one of the better wins of the year, really,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “When you’re winning games, it seems like it’s a different guy every night, and that’s a little bit of what we’re getting. Everybody is contributing.”
Tyler Anderson gave up three runs and five hits over six innings, striking out six for the Angels. Schwarber put Philadelphia up 3-0 in the second with his eighth homer that traveled 421 feet into the elevated right-field stands.
Neto hit a solo shot in the third, but Phillies starter Spencer Turnbull largely stayed out of trouble until Taylor Ward’s one-out single in the sixth chased him.
Trea Turner then booted Brandon Drury’s grounder to shortstop instead of turning a fairly easy double play, and Rengifo crushed the next pitch by reliever Yunior Marte.
Cole Tucker doubled and scored on Moniak’s single to put the Angels ahead 5-3. Moniak, the No. 1 overall draft pick by Philadelphia in 2016, is replacing Trout as the Angels’ center fielder.
Turnbull yielded four hits and one earned run with six strikeouts.
Angels star Mike Trout will have surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee, sidelining him indefinitely.
Turner singled, stole second and scored on Alec Bohm’s two-out single off Matt Moore in the eighth, but Estévez struck out J.T. Realmuto to end the rally.
Nolan Schanuel of the Angels went 0 for 5, ending the AL’s longest current hitting streak at 10 games.
Trout went on the 10-day injured list, while infielder Michael Stefanic and pitcher Chase Silseth were moved to the 60-day IL to clear roster spots for 35-year-old veteran outfielder Kevin Pillar and left-hander Amir Garrett.
Up next
Patrick Sandoval (1-4, 6.33 ERA) looks to turn around his poor start in the series finale. Philadelphia sends out Zack Wheeler (2-3, 1.93), who has thrown 13 1/3 scoreless innings of two-hit ball in his last two starts.
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