ANAHEIM — In the penultimate home game of a miserable season, the Angels gave the Fan Appreciation Night crowd something to celebrate.
Down by three runs in the eighth inning, the Angels scored the winning run on Christian Moore’s infield hit to beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-5, in 11 innings on Saturday night.
The Angels scored two in the eighth on an Adam Frazier pinch-hit double, and then Vaughn Grissom tied the game in the ninth with a one-out homer.
In the 11th, the Angels had the bases loaded with two outs. Moore, who had just entered the game in the previous inning, swung at the first pitch he saw and hit a 102 mph liner that deflected off the back of the leg of pitcher Taylor Rogers. It rolled too far from Rogers for him to have a play, and the Angels celebrated the walk-off victory.
Moore, who had not started the game because he was having a “work day” to spend with the coaches, had been slumping lately.
“I’ve had a couple moments like that now, and I think whenever I can come in late in the game or even be in the game to start and have a chance up there to to win a ballgame or tie the game up, I always want to be in that spot,” Moore said. “I was grateful enough that Skip called my number there and grateful that I got the at-bat there in that last inning. Just wanted to do my job.”
The Angels were able to get to the game to the 11th because right fielder Josh Lowe threw out a runner at the plate in the top of the 10th. With one out, Ben Ross tried to tag up on a fly ball to shallow right field, and Lowe threw him out to retire the side.
Left-hander Tayler Saucedo retired all three hitters he faced in the top of the 11th, setting up the Angels for the winning rally.
The Angels (60-95), who need three more victories in their final seven games to avoid the first 100-loss season in franchise history, spent most of the night wasting opportunities. They didn’t have a hit with a runner in scoring position until the eighth, leaving at least one runner on base in each of the first seven innings.
“You put yourself in those situations enough, eventually you’ll come through,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “Credit to those guys. They kept fighting. They kept putting guys on, putting us in positions to win the game.”
In the eighth, Denzer Guzman led off with a walk and then Lowe doubled. An out later, Frazier pulled a double down the right field line, scoring two. A Zach Neto walk brought Mike Trout to the plate with the tying and go-ahead runs on base, but Trout grounded into a double play.
Grissom, who had come up empty with six runners on in his first three trips, then tied the game in the ninth with his 12th homer of the season. He hit the first pitch.
“I knew (A.J. Minter) is in the zone pretty good, so I figured he wanted to get ahead,” Moore said. “I was trying to just jump something up.”
The rally spared starter Reid Detmers a loss. Detmers recorded his 200th strikeout of the season, but saw his streak of seven straight quality starts come to an end.
Detmers gave up four runs in five innings. Detmers had not allowed more than three runs in any of his previous 11 starts since the All-Star break.
When he struck out Austin Martin in the first inning, though, he reached a milestone that no Angels pitcher had reached since Shohei Ohtani in 2022. No Angels lefty had done it since Chuck Finley in 1999.
After he retired six of seven hitters in the first two innings, Detmers started giving up hits.
In the third, he gave up two runs on two hits. An inning later, he gave up another run on two more hits.
And in the fifth — just after a José Siri two-run homer brought the Angels within a run — Detmers gave up a first-pitch homer to No. 9 hitter Ryan Kreidler.
Kreidler hit a 92 mph fastball, which was a couple ticks slower than his normal velocity.
Detmers got through his 179th inning of the year, and then his night was over after five. He is scheduled for one more start, next weekend in Seattle. He’ll have a chance to become the Angels’ first pitcher to reach 180 innings since Andrew Heaney in 2018.
“I didn’t really have a great feel of anything to be honest with you,” Detmers said. “Was able to get through five. Give credit to the hitters, obviously. They came back and were able to put some runs up on the board. Griss hitting the homer in the ninth was huge, and C-Mo up in the 11th getting him in. It was a good team win.”