September 20 – John Singleton hit a two-out double in the bottom of the eighth inning, and the Houston Astros remained undefeated in nine games with Yusei Kikuchi starting against the Astros on Thursday.
Singleton reached center field on a 1-2 count, ending the deadlock with Angels reliever Ryan Miller (0-1). Yordan Alvarez led off the scoring and Yener Diaz broke the 1-1 deadlock by scoring in the game.
Hector Neris, Bryan Abreu (3-3) and Josh Hader (32nd save) each pitched a scoreless inning as the Astros (83-70) extended their magic and clinched the AL West with five wins.
Troubled by Angels lefty José Suárez’s second home run of the season, the Astros relied on the poor fielding of Angels third baseman Eric Waagman to achieve the upset.
Wagman made three errors, two of which came on Jeremy Pena’s grounders in the bottom of the second inning. Suarez overcame the error, however, Suarez was not so lucky when Diaz took advantage of Wagman’s defensive error to open the fourth. He gave up back-to-back singles to Pena and Victor Caratini and his second hit scored Diaz to tie the game.
Suárez allowed three hits and two runs in five innings, giving up one unearned run and striking out five.
The first inning was ominous for Kikuchi, who gave up his first home run to Angels left fielder Taylor Ward, his fifth in his last 19 A home runs. Ward became the first Angels player since Mike Trout in 2012 to hit five home runs in a season, his 25th homer flying 416 feet to left-center to put the Angels ahead 1–0.
Kikuchi gave up two other baserunners in the first game: a walk to Nolan Sanur and a single to Brandon Drury. But Kikuchi rebounded by striking out Logan Ohop and Wagman in back-to-back innings and also gave up three more hits – all singles.
Kikuchi gave up two singles off Jake Lopez and Jordan Adams in the second and fourth innings and struck out Ohhope and Wagman in consecutive games in the sixth before Sanuel opened the scoring with a single in the position. Kikuchi struck out two in the third and fifth innings as the Angels beat the Angels 62–91, finishing six innings with five hits and one walk. He pitched 54 innings and made nine starts with the Astros, bringing his strikeout total to 68.
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