Angels top Orioles, 5-1, to close productive homestand

ANAHEIM >> The Angels beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-1, on Wednesday afteoon. The announced crowd of 36,202 at Angel Stadium was treated to a big C.J. Cron home run, two hits by Mike Trout, a dashing debut by Cesar Puello and the best of Troy Scribner’s four major league starts.

Add up the individual contributions, and the Angels could fly to Seattle on a high note. They won six of nine games on their latest homestand, ultimately jumping both the Orioles and the Minnesota Twins in the ever-changing American League wild card standings.

At 57-58, the Angels are two games behind the Seattle Mariners (59-56) for the second wild card spot. The Kansas City Royals (57-55) and Tampa Bay Rays (58-56) still lie ahead of them. That could change quickly, with the Angels and Mariners beginning a four-game weekend series Thursday.

Scribner (2-0) allowed only two hits and one run over five innings. He kept Baltimore off-balance effectively with a curveball, changeup and slider – more than enough to counterbalance a fastball that topped out at 90 mph.

Cron and Kole Calhoun had three of the Angels’ 10 hits. Cron’s two-run home run in the sixth inning was his seventh of the season, and it broke open a tense 2-1 game.

In the top of the sixth inning, momentum was still delicate when a seldom-invoked clause in the rule book got the Angels out of a big jam.

Scribner hit Orioles right fielder Joey Rickard in the helmet with an 88-mph fastball with his 67th and final pitch. Rickard left the game and former Angels outfielder Craig Gentry took over as the pinch runner. Reliever Yusmeiro Petit recorded the next two outs.

Baltimore Orioles second baseman Jonathan Schoop is a notoriously hard swinger. One clause in baseball’s official rulebook – an exception to Rule 6.03(a)(4) – seems to be written just for him.

“If a batter strikes at a ball and misses and swings so hard he carries the bat all the way around,” the rule reads, “and in the umpire’s judgment, unintentionally hits the catcher or the ball in back of him on the backswing, it shall be called a strike only (not interference). The ball will be dead, however, and no runner shall advance on the play.”

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Gentry took off running on a 2-and-1 count. Schoop swung and missed at a pitch from Petit so violently that his bat w catcher Juan Graterol’s back as it followed through. Graterol abbreviated his throw. Home plate umpire Ramon De Jesus quickly judged it an act of unintentional interference and Gentry went back to first base.

Schoop smoked the next pitch to center field, a single. Gentry was running on the pitch and attempted to score from first base. Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons caught the relay throw from center fielder Ben Revere and threw a strike to home plate, in plenty of time to retire Gentry.

If Schoop’s swing hadn’t interfered with Graterol – or if De Jesus judged the play differently – Gentry would easily have scored on a single to center field, tying the score.

Instead the stage was set for Cron’s home run off Orioles starter Kevin Gausman (8-8), who allowed four runs in 5⅓ innings.

Cesar Puello, a 26-year-old joueyman making his major league debut, got the start in left field. He contributed an RBI single and two stolen bases, all in the fourth inning.

Simmons drove in the Angels’ first run with a sacrifice fly in the third inning.

Welington Castillo’s home run against Scribner gave Baltimore its only run of the game.

More to come on this story.

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