Luis Rengifo homered twice and Reid Detmers threw six effective innings to lead the Los Angeles Angels to a 5-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Sunday afternoon in Anaheim, Calif.
Rengifo also homered twice in Friday’s series opener, going deep from each side of the plate. Both homers Sunday came from the right side against Mariners lefty Marco Gonzales.
The Angels also got an impressive performance from shortstop Livan Soto, just called up Saturday from Double-A Rocket City (Ala.). Soto made his major league debut Saturday, entering as a pinch runner and later grounding out in his first at-bat.
On Sunday, Soto got his first career major league hit, a single in the third, then hit his first home run, a two-run blast just inside the right-field foul pole in the seventh.
Mike Ford added two hits for the Angels, all in support of Detmers (6-5), who gave up one run on four hits and two walks in six innings, striking out four and making 103 pitches.
Jimmy Herget, Ryan Tepera and Jose Quijada each threw a scoreless inning of relief to seal the victory.
The loss for the Mariners was their third in a row, leaving them in the third American League Wild
Card spot, trailing Toronto by two games and Tampa Bay by 1 1/2.
Rengifo got the Angels going immediately, hitting Gonzales’ second pitch of the game for a homer.
The Mariners responded against Detmers in the second, starting a two-out rally with the bases empty. Dylan Moore doubled and scored on a single by Adam Frazier, tying the game at 1.
It stayed that way only until Rengifo came to the plate in the third. Soto led off with a single and scored on Rengifo’s two-run homer.
That spelled the end of the day for Gonzales, who gave up five runs on seven hits and two walks in 6 1/3 innings, striking out four and throwing 95 pitches.
–Field Level Media
