Blue Jays rally against Angels to collect 3rd straight victory | CBC Sports

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. didn’t have his cleanest fielding performance. He came through at the plate when was needed the most, though.

Gurriel had one of Toronto’s three errors, but his single in the ninth inning helped score Alejandro Kirk with the winning run as the Blue Jays rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

The Angels had only error, but it was costly. Gurriel lined a base hit to right field to move Kirk to third, and he scored when Juan Lagares misplayed the ball and had it bounce off his glove.

“I thought it was gonna be hard for Kirk to score on that, but once I saw that he bobbled it I knew that we had a good chance to score right there,” Gurriel said.

Gurriel had three hits and drove in a run, while Kirk had two hits. Kirk led off the ninth with a single to centre against Raisel Iglesias (1-3) and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, setting the table for Gurriel.

The Blue Jays’ errors included a throwing miscue by Gurriel on a double by Mike Trout, but they were able to get their seventh win in the last 10 games.

“We didn’t play good defence at the beginning, but we made the right moves and the pitching was good,” manager Charlie Montoyo said.

Jared Walsh and Tyler Wade homered for the Angels, who were missing injured Shohei Ohtani and Anthony Rendon from the starting lineup. Wade was in the lineup at third base in Rendon’s absence.

Ohtani came on as a pinch-hitter in the ninth but was struck out by Jordan Romano, who earned his 15th save. Trevor Richards (2-0) got the win.

Toronto starter Alek Manoah struck out a season-high nine but allowed three runs on seven hits, including two home runs. With a fastball-slider combination, the right-hander made Angels’ hitters swing and miss 19 times.

“The game plan past couple outings has been putting guys away with the slider. I yanked a few, but overall the game plan worked,” he said.

Los Angeles’ Chase Silseth went 4 1/3 innings and yielded two runs on six hits. The Angels have dropped three straight.

“We just aren’t hitting up to our standards right now,” manager Joe Maddon said. “They got us at the end and they beat some of our better relief pitchers.”

Toronto’s Bo Bichette led off the second inning with a ground-rule double into the right-field corner. He advanced to third on Teoscar Hernandez’s base hit and scored when Kirk grounded into a double play.

Walsh hit his 10th homer in the third inning when he hit a changeup from Manoah that barely got over the wall in centre. Toronto led off the fifth with three straight hits, including an RBI double from Gurriel to even it at 2-all.

Los Angeles regained the lead in the home half on Wade’s solo shot to right. It was Wade’s first homer since Sept. 26, 2020, when he was with the New York Yankees.

Toronto tied it in the seventh on pinch-hitter Matt Chapman’s RBI single.