Colin Poche (1-1, 5.68 ERA) picked up his first big league win working two innings in relief as the Tampa Bay Rays defeat the Los Angeles Angels 6-5.
“For the pitching side, he was probably the highlight of the day.” Manager Kevin Cash said. “He throws the fastball, has a lot of life, lot of carry to it. Can do some things at the top of the zone with it.”
The Rays finish with just their second losing home stand this season going 3-4 but do earn a split with the Angels and improve to 43-28 on the season.
Channing Griffin (2-3, 3.93 ERA) worked six innings for the Angels allowing four runs on six hits while striking out seven and walking none. With the loss, the Angels fall back to .500 at 36-36 on the season.
“When things went wrong. I was just behind in the count.” Channing said. “Obviously in teh first inning I was 3-0 to Lowe and was just trying to get a strike in there and he hit it and we paid for that.”
Manager Brad Ausmus was impressed by his starters performance going six innings without his best command. “If you don’t have your best stuff or your best command and you’re still able to get into the second half of the game that’s a good thing.”
Ryne Stanek worked 1.1-innings allowing the one unearned run on a hit and a walk before turning the ball over to Jalen Beeks.
Beeks who worked three innings allowing two runs on four hits while striking out two and walking two. He struggled putting hitters away as he allowed six full counts against him driving up his pitch count. He only had three swinging strikes in 69 pitches.
Emilio Pagan retired the final two batters in the fifth allowing one inherited runner to score.
Colin Poche entered in the sixth and worked two scoreless innings retiring all six batters he faced including four by strikeout.
Adam Kolarek allowed a pair of hits in the eighth inning. Diego Castillo worked the ninth inning and allowed a 2-run homer to Mike Trout and a single to Shohei Ohtani before striking out Kole Calhoun looking to end the game and pick up his seventh save of the season.
In the first inning, Angels leadoff hitter Tommy La Stella reached base on an error by Ji-Man Choi, advanced to second on a Mike Trout single, and to third walk to Shohei Ohtani. Albert Pujols followed with a deep sacrifice fly to right to give the Angles a 1-0 lead. Ryne Stanek limited the damage by getting Cesar Puello to ground into a 6-4-3 double play.
Tampa Bay responded in the home half of the first when Brandon Lowe swung away at a 3-0 pitch and hit his 15th homer to the opposite field in left. It was the first time Lowe has homered on a 3-0 pitch in his career and is just the 12th player (19 times) to do it in franchise history.
The Rays scored twice in the second inning to take a 3-1 lead. Yandy Diaz singled to open the inning and scored on a Kevin Kiermaier triple. Kiermaier scored on a Avisail Garcia foul out to first baseman Albert Pujols.
The Angels answered the Rays in the top of the third. Mike Trout walked to open the inning and with one out moved to third on a single by Albert Pujols. Beeks walked Cesar Puello to load the bases for David Fletcher who delivered a sacrifice fly to cut the Rays lead to 3-2.
The Angels tied the game in the fifth inning on a perfectly placed groundball to third by David Fletcher that scored Shohei Ohtani.
The Rays regained the lead in the sixth inning on Tommy Pham‘s 10th home run of the season. The hit extended his batting streak to six straight games. He has reached base om 13 of his last 23 plate appearances.
Tampa Bay added two runs in the bottom of the eighth on a Yandy Diaz single scoring Tommy Pham who had opened the inning with a walk and a wild pitch that scored Brandon Lowe.
The Angels answered the Rays in the top of the ninth inning when Mike Trout delivered a 1-out 2-run homer off Diego Castillo to draw the Angels to within a run at 6-5.
Up Next:
The Tampa Bay Rays will head on the road for a three city 10-game road trip spanning three time zones. They open the road trip in New York Monday night against the Yankees. After three in New York they head to Oakland to take on the Athletics for three and finish the road trip with three in Minnesota against the Twins.
The Yankees are expected to have newly acquired Edwin Encarnacion available as well as Giancarlo Stanton who will be activated from the injured list prior to Tuesday’s game.
 picked up his first big league win working two innings in relief as the Rays defeat the Angels 6-5.){kind=link}