ANAHEIM, Calif. _ As Friday night morphed into Saturday morning, Los Angeles Angels right-hander Jesse Chavez jogged from the dugout to the bullpen at Angel Stadium to warm up. After exhausting its standard configuration of relievers, his team needed him late in its extra-innings loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Angels needed him again Monday, to start against the Blue Jays, who a year ago deemed him unfit to start a single game. He held them down for six innings in a 2-1 Angels victory.
"It's obviously a weird situation to come in and pitch against a team in the 13th inning, like he did, and then come in and start against them a couple days later," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said before the game. "But that's where we are."
Where they are is in survival mode while their projected pitching staff recovers from injury. The four men who pitched for them Monday were Chavez, Yusmeiro Petit, David Hernandez and Bud Norris. All veterans, they were acquired, in order, in November, in January, in February and on Monday.
Exemplars of the organization's player-development process, they are not. But they helped the Angels secure their 12th victory in 21 games and a split of a four-game series against the Blue Jays.
Before his starts, Chavez likes to sit silently and observe his teammates go through infield drills and batting practice.
"I just like to watch them work," he says.
He believes it offers him perspective about how to handle pressure-packed situations later in the evening. His fellow players deserve his best effort. On Monday night, at least, he continuously pitched out of trouble.
Chavez worked through two first-inning walks, helped by Martin Maldonado's throwing out Kevin Pillar trying to steal second. He allowed baserunners in every inning but survived unscathed until the fourth, when Russell Martin clobbered a fastball over the wall in left-center field.
The Angels responded in the bottom half of the inning, when Mike Trout knocked a pitch down the right-field line and Jose Bautista mishandled the ball, turning a probable double into a triple. Albert Pujols then singled to score Trout.
In the fifth, Scioscia orchestrated the manufacturing of the winning run.
Cameron Maybin singled, Danny Espinosa walked and Martin Maldonado laid down a sacrifice bunt before Maybin, with a tricky slide, scored on a contact-play grounder by Yunel Escobar.
In the sixth, the Angels loaded the bases with one out but netted no runs.
To conclude Toronto's half of the sixth, Russell Martin was called out on strikes on a pitch that did not cross the plate. He complained to home-plate umpire Toby Basner. In the middle of the inning, Basner ejected Jays manager John Gibbons for shouting something from the dugout.
Toronto's interim manager, DeMarlo Hale, appeared close to being ejected in the seventh, when Basner called Devon Travis out for batter's interference. Chris Coghlan led off the inning with a single and stole second but was forced back to first because of the call.
Overall, Basner's performance confounded. Television replays showed his strike zone included pitches that definitively did not catch any part of the plate. He repeatedly angered both teams.
Chavez exited after the sixth. He struck out seven, walked four and fired 101 pitches, his most since Aug. 19, 2015.
He spent last season as a reliever for the Blue Jays and, after a midseason trade, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In Monday's late innings, "Let's go Blue Jays" chants drowned out Angels-centric cheering. Few fans remained. The Angels announced a crowd of 25,304, their least-attended game since April 23, 2015.
Norris handled the ninth inning for his second career save. After the first two runners reached base, he notched a strikeout and induced a game-ending double play.
"That's the style we need," Scioscia said. "We did a pretty good job of that this series."
