ANAHEIM, Calif. _ It helps to play the teams that aren't trying to win, but the wins count the same. The Los Angeles Angels advanced 5-3 past the tanking Chicago White Sox on Monday night at Angel Stadium, pushed by another home run from Mike Trout and capable pitching from unlikely sources.
Angels starter Jesse Chavez set down a thin White Sox lineup in order the first time he traversed it. The second time, the trouble started.
Leadoff hitter Leury Garcia slapped a single into center field to begin the fourth inning, and Melky Cabrera whipped a liner to center, where Trout caught it. Next, Jose Abreu slammed a two-run homer to right-center. In the fifth, Chavez permitted another run on a single, a stolen base, and a two-out triple.
He worked around a sixth-inning single and retired the bottom of the White Sox order with ease in the seventh. At 95 pitches, manager Mike Scioscia let Chavez begin the eighth, but an eight-pitch leadoff walk to Tyler Saladino promptly forced his exit.
"Jesse, he finished strong," Scioscia said despite that walk.
Through eight starts this season, Chavez has registered a 3.75 earned-run average. He didn't start once last season, but he's now one-quarter through a full year, and two starts from beginning to earn incentives.
After Chavez's exit Monday night, left-hander Jose Alvarez retired the two hitters he faced before Scioscia called in closer Bud Norris for a four-out save.
Norris induced an inning-ending groundout and struck out rookie catcher Kevan Smith with the potential tying run on to record his eighth save of 2017 _ and of his career. He had little relieving experience before this season and arrived in Arizona for spring training thinking he'd be a starting pitcher. Improbably, the Angels have needed him to be their closer, and he has succeeded on all but one of his save attempts.
Faced with the extended absence of leadoff hitter Yunel Escobar because of a hamstring strain, Scioscia inserted Kole Calhoun atop his lineup Monday and stuck Trout second.
Albert Pujols returned to the lineup as the designated hitter after a day away from the team tending to a personal matter. Luis Valbuena manned third base and hit cleanup.
Against journeyman Mike Pelfrey, the Angels failed to generate a baserunner in three of their first four innings. But, in the second, they strung together a walk, a single and a productive out to present two runners in scoring position for Danny Espinosa. He popped out.
In the fifth, Cameron Maybin took a one-strike walk, and Espinosa did the same. After Martin Maldonado flied out, Calhoun took hold of a middling fastball and sent it into the right-field bleachers, 405 feet from home plate.
"Obviously, that's a huge momentum swing right there," Scioscia said.
The game was tied 3-3. It remained that way for four pitches, until Trout sent a 1-and-2 splitter nine feet farther in the opposite direction, for a go-ahead home run into the Angels' bullpen. Trout had homered Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so the shot marked the first time in his career he had registered homers in four consecutive games.
Maldonado, the power-deprived Angels catcher, added a solo shot off of White Sox reliever Tommy Kahnle in the seventh. The three homers represented half of the Angels' hits; two of theirs came on ground balls by Andrelton Simmons. One was an infield single, the other a double down the third-base line. C.J. Cron added an eighth-inning double, after which he was stranded at second base.
The Angels (20-21) remain tied with Texas for second place in the American League West, eight games behind the pacers, the Houston Astros. No major league team owns a larger division lead.
