For three days in a row, the Angels matched stellar starting pitching with big offense to power over the New York Yankees.
It was pitcher Chase Silseth’s turn Wednesday, called back up ahead of the Angels’ 7-3 win. They improved to 49-48 after sweeping New York.
Silseth pitched 5 ⅔ innings, shutting out the Yankees through five until Giancarlo Stanton connected on a solo home run to start the sixth. It was the only run Silseth gave up on the four hits and two walks. He followed the home run by striking out his next two batters, finishing with a career-high 10 strikeouts.
“Just able to pound zone,” Silseth said. “And when you pound the zone and you can mix it up, like offspeed breaking balls in the zone, you can keep hitters off balance. That was the key to the game.”
He was pulled for José Soriano to get the final out of the sixth, having thrown 85 pitches. Silseth last pitched in triple A on July 5, so it had been two weeks since he threw so many.
Soriano gave up one run after hitting a batter and giving up two singles. He walked the bases loaded but escaped the jam by striking out Oswaldo Peraza to get out of the inning. Matt Moore gave up a solo home run to Franchy Cordero in the eighth.
The Angels got their first four runs on two-run home runs in the first two innings, the first hit by Taylor Ward and the second by Luis Rengifo. They added two more runs in the third, Eduardo Escobar and Mickey Moniak driving them in. Ward also hit a ground-rule double to score another run in the eighth.
“I think just moving forward, you just never know,” Ward said. “Hopefully we can have a good off day and keep the foot on the pedal.”
Jacob Webb pitched a scoreless seventh and Aaron Loup pitched a scoreless ninth, securing the Angels’ fourth win in five games.
“We wanted to start off well after the break after struggling before and I would say 4-2 against two teams that are in front of us, it looks good now,” manager Phil Nevin said.
