The Tampa Bay Rays scored three first-inning runs and rode the early lead to a 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday afternoon in Anaheim, Calif., to take two of three in the series.
The Rays jumped on Angels starter Jose Soriano, who was making his first career major league start in place of the injured Chase Silseth (elbow inflammation).
Yandy Diaz led off the game with a single to center, and Randy Arozarena and Richie Palacios followed with infield singles, loading the bases. Arozarena singled off Soriano’s foot on a comebacker, and Palacios singled off Soriano’s glove.
With Isaac Parades at the plate, a wild pitch allowed two runs to score, including Arozarena coming in from second base as catcher Matt Thaiss couldn’t find the baseball initially.
Palacios went first to third on the wild pitch, then scored on a sacrifice fly by Paredes.
Jose Caballero homered off Soriano to lead off the second inning to give the Rays a 4-0 lead, but Soriano was able to get through four innings without allowing another run.
The Angels had their chances against Rays starter Zack Littell and the Rays bullpen but went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position. Angels third baseman Miguel Sano went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts, stranding six baserunners himself.
Rays reliever Kevin Kelly (1-0) got the victory over Soriano (0-2), while Pete Fairbanks pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save.
The Angels threatened in their half of the first inning, loading the bases against Littell on consecutive walks to Mickey Moniak, Mike Trout and Taylor Ward. Littell, though, was able to escape with strikeouts of Sano and Brandon Drury.
The Angels scored against Littell in the fourth inning when Thaiss doubled and scored on a single by Zach Neto. That was the only run allowed by Littell, but having made 60 pitches in the first two innings, he was able to last 4 1/3 innings in all, making a total of 99 pitches.
Jo Adell, making his first start of the season for the Angels, homered in the sixth inning to bring the Angels to within 4-2.
Adell, however, had a potentially costly base running blunder in the eighth inning. Adell singled with two out, and with Thaiss at the plate, Adell attempted to steal second.
He had the base stolen easily but went in standing up and overran the base and was tagged out.
–Field Level Media
