ANAHEIM — Anyone who has spent any time around Angels manager Ron Washington knew that the way the team scored the go-ahead run on Monday night – a double and two fly balls – was much more pleasing to him than a solo homer.
“No doubt about it,” Washington said after the Angels’ 2-1 victory over the San Diego Padres. “That was fundamentally sound execution on the offensive side.”
Jo Adell led off the eighth with a double off the right field fence. He wisely stopped at second, even though he might have had a shot at a triple, and then the Angels drove him in with a pair of fly balls from Zach Neto and pinch-hitter Luis Guillorme.
“The situational hitting, especially late in a close game, has been kind of our Kryptonite a little bit,” Adell said.
The Angels (22-38) are now 9-21 in games decided by one or two runs, and the poor record in close games is largely because of their situational hitting, defense and bullpen.
In this game, though, it all worked.
Adell’s at-bat was a good one simply because he went to right field, which he said is a sign that he might be pulling out of his current slump. Neto then hit a fly ball to deep center, and Guillorme followed with another to drive in the run.
Closer Carlos Estévez, who has struggled this season, then worked a perfect ninth to pick up the save. Right-hander Hunter Strickland escaped jams in the seventh and eighth to preserve the tie.
The defense also helped bail out Angels starter Tyler Anderson, who gave up one run on a Manny Machado homer in 6⅔ innings.
The Angels threw out Ha-Seong Kim trying to stretch a double into a triple in the second inning. In the third, Jurickson Profar tried to score from first on a double and he was thrown out at the plate. Both times the relay came from left fielder Taylor Ward to Neto.
“Well-executed,” Washington said. “You couldn’t have drawn it up any better.”
Washington said Neto even did the right thing by bouncing his throw to catcher Logan…
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