Jared Walsh pounded third base with his fist. Justin Upton pounded his forearm on Walsh’s at home plate.
Two of the Angels’ most dangerous hitters from the end of last season were so again in the eighth inning Saturday night. Walsh erased a one-run deficit with an RBI triple, Upton clobbered a go-ahead two-run home run in the next at-bat, and the Angels went on to win 5-3 over the Chicago White Sox at Angel Stadium.
The Angels (2-1) had been playing from behind since the top of the sixth inning, when White Sox rookie Yermin Mercedes broke a 2-2 tie with an RBI double off the wall in left field — his eighth straight hit to begin the season, a major league record since the start of the live-ball era in 1900.
The Angels — who scored their first two runs of the night after center fielder Luis Robert missed a routine two-out fly ball for the White Sox (1-2) that hit off his head in the third inning — had failed to threaten in the bottom of the sixth or seventh and began the eighth with Mike Trout’s third strikeout of the night.
But then Anthony Rendon singled with one out and White Sox reliever Evan Marshall threw Walsh a 1-and-2 changeup over the plate. Walsh crushed it into the right-field corner, scoring Rendon from first and racing all the way to third after outfielder Adam Eaton fumbled the ball near the wall.
Two pitches later, Marshall went back to his changeup again. Upton sent it sailing over the left-field wall.
With Angels closer Raisel Iglesias unavailable after working the previous two nights, the save opportunity went to Junior Guerra, who had pitched a scoreless eighth inning and returned to close out the ninth.
Alex Cobb pitched well in his debut with the Angels, giving up three runs in six innings with seven strikeouts. Other than Mercedes, who had a solo home run, single and RBI double against the right-hander, Cobb had his way with the White Sox’s potent lineup. He leaned heavily on his splitter, throwing it 36 times (more than even his sinker) and inducing 12 swing-and-misses.
The sixth inning was perhaps the most important of Cobb’s outing. After permitting the first three batters to reach base — capped by Mercedes’ go-ahead double — Cobb had runners on second and third with no one out.
But then, he retired three straight White Sox: a popout from Robert, strikeout of Andrew Vaughn and groundout from Leury Garcia. Of the 11 pitches those at-bats required, he threw the splitter 10 times.
