Luis Guillorme’s pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the eighth inning snapped a tie and lifted the Los Angeles Angels to a 2-1 victory over the San Diego Padres on Monday in Anaheim, Calif.
The Angels ended a five-game losing streak by taking the opener of a three-game series. The Padres dropped their second game in a row after a 5-1 stretch.
Jo Adell began the winning rally with a double to right field off Adrian Morejon (1-1), then tagged and went to third on Zach Neto’s fly to right-center. Padres manager Mike Shildt brought in reliever Jeremiah Estrada to pitch to Kyren Paris, but Angels manager Ron Washington countered and sent up Guillorme to pinch-hit.
After swinging and missing on the first pitch of the at-bat, Guillorme drove an 84 mph splitter up in the zone to medium-deep center field, easily scoring Adell for what turned out to be the game-winner.
Angels closer Carlos Estevez threw a perfect ninth inning to finish it off for his ninth save.
Los Angeles reliever Hunter Strickland (2-1) threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings to earn the win.
The Padres took a 1-0 lead against Angels starter Tyler Anderson in the first after the left-hander retired the first two batters of the inning. Anderson got ahead in the count against Manny Machado but left a fastball up on a 1-2 pitch, and Machado hit it over the fence in left-center for his sixth homer of the season.
The Angels got even in the fourth inning against Padres starter Matt Waldron after Luis Rengifo singled and stole second with one out. After a flyout, Willie Calhoun singled home Rengifo to tie the game at 1-1.
Anderson left the game with two on and two outs in the seventh, but Strickland retired pinch hitter David Peralta on a fly ball to deep right-center, ending the inning.
Anderson wound up yielding one run on five hits and three walks. He struck out two.
Waldron, a knuckleballer, gave up one run on two hits and no walks with four strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings.
–Field Level Media