Matt Shoemaker followed up his stellar performance against the Baltimore Orioles May 21 with another strong outing against the Houston Astros as he threw 8.1 innings and allowed just two ninth inning runs in a 7-2 victory May 27 at the Big A.
Shoemaker was consistently in the strike zone all night, and threw over 20 first pitch strikes. He scattered 7 hits, struck out 11 and didn’t walk a batter. He’s lowered his ERA in the past two games from 8.49 to 5.96. He’s also struck out 23 batters along with walking none in his past two starts.
The Angels’ bats backed Shoemaker with an explosive six-run, six-hit bottom of the third inning. It was the most runs the Angels scored in an inning this season.
Astros’ starting pitcher Mike Fiers retired the first six Angels’ batters with ease, but struggled from that point on. Rafael Ortega led off the third inning with a double. A Carlos Perez bloop single and a Gregorio Petit walk loaded the bases. Mike Trout lined a ball off the centerfield wall and promptly cleared the bases. Albert Pujols followed Trout and homered to left-centerfield.
Another rally in the fourth inning knocked Fiers out of the game after 3.2 innings of work. Petit hit a double, and Escobar singled him in to give the Angels a 7-0 lead. Fiers allowed eight hits, seven runs, two walks and one strikeout.
Cam Bedrosian replaced Shoemaker in the ninth inning with one out and runners on first and second. He walked Evan Gattis before striking out Luis Valbuena. With a chance to escape with no runs allowed, Colin Moran knocked a two-RBI single to left field. Bedrosian struck out Jason Castro to end the game.
The Angels’ offense has scored 16 runs in their past two games. They look to keep the offense rolling as Jered Weaver takes the hill tomorrow and faces off against the Astros’ struggling ace Dallas Keuchel at 7:05 p.m.