HOUSTON — Everything good that happened during the Angels’ 3-0 victory over the Houston Astros on Sunday seemed much less significant in an instant.
The entire direction of the day changed the moment that Taylor Ward crashed into the left-field fence at Daikin Park, suffering injuries that resulted in him being carted off the field and into an ambulance.
There was no immediate word on Ward’s condition.
The right side of his head hit the metal out-of-town scoreboard, which contains a grid of small windows with hanging numbers. He was bleeding enough that as soon as he got up he walked toward to the Angels bullpen for a towel to put on his face.
It was reminiscent of 2023, when Ward was hit in the face by a fastball in Toronto, suffering injuries that cost him the final two months of the season.
Ward’s injury cast a shadow over what was an otherwise very positive day for the Angels on the field.
Starter José Soriano pitched the best game of his career, holding the Astros to one hit in seven innings.
Mike Trout had two doubles, including a 404-foot blast off the wall in left center. Trout’s home run drought extended to 20 games, his longest in 10 years.
Oswald Peraza hit a homer against Astros ace Hunter Brown to put the Angels on the board in the fifth inning of the pitchers’ duel. Peraza had driven in two runs to snap a tie in the ninth inning of Saturday’s victory.
The Angels (64-72) won consecutive games for the first time since they swept the Dodgers from Aug. 11-13. They also exceeded last season’s victory total on the final day of August.
Soriano was in an early jam, issuing a walk and giving up a single to the first two batters of the game. He got the next three hitters, two with strikeouts, and then did not allow another hit.
Soriano has now had back-to-back scoreless outings, including a 5 ⅔-inning outing on Monday against the Texas Rangers. It’s the first time in his two seasons as a starter that he’s pitched consecutive games without allowing a run.
It was also his third scoreless outing in the last four starts. Two of them have been against first-place teams: the Dodgers and Astros.
The Angels added some insurance with two runs in the eighth, sparked by Trout’s double.
It was the first time since Aug. 20 that Trout had two hits in a game and the first time since July 9 that he had two extra-base hits in a game.
More to come on this story.