Luis Rengifo hit two of Los Angeles’ four home runs as the Angels beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-5 in the rubber match of a three-game series on Sunday in Anaheim, Calif.
Rengifo and Andrew Velazquez hit back-to-back homers during a four-run fifth inning for the Angels, who concluded a nine-game homestand with a 6-3 mark. Shohei Ohtani added his major league-leading 36th homer of the season.
Tyler Anderson (5-2) allowed four runs with five strikeouts over six innings against his former team. Carlos Estevez worked around a two-out walk in the ninth for his 23rd save.
Pittsburgh trailed 7-1 before Carlos Santana capped a four-run seventh inning with a two-run double off Jacob Webb. The Pirates were held to a pair of baserunners in the final two innings and lost for the seventh time in their last nine games.
The Pirates claimed a brief lead on Bryan Reynolds’ solo homer in the first inning. Ohtani answered with a solo blast in the bottom half of the inning off Mitch Keller (9-6).
Los Angeles appeared primed for a big inning after Eduardo Escobar doubled in a run with no outs in the second, but Keller escaped further damage by retiring the next three batters in order.
The Angels moved ahead 4-1 when Velazquez and Rengifo began the fifth inning with back-to-back homers. After the next two batters reached base safely, Taylor Ward singled in a run and Matt Thaiss capped the outburst with a run-scoring sacrifice fly.
Keller was lifted after giving up six runs on nine hits over five innings. He walked one and struck out seven while throwing 101 pitches.
Rengifo hit a two-out homer in the sixth inning before Pittsburgh responded with four runs in the seventh. Liover Peguero doubled in a run with one out before Webb replaced Anderson. Peguero scored on a throwing error and Santana doubled in two runs to cut the lead to 7-5.
Angels center fielder Mickey Moniak singled in the fifth inning to extend his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games. Moniak is hitting .379 (22-for-58) during his streak.
–Field Level Media
