The Los Angeles Angels leaned on the long ball and just enough late defense to edge the Miami Marlins, 4-3, in the series opener.
Mike Trout set the tone right away, launching his 19th homer of the season in the first inning off Marlins starter Tyler Phillips. The Angels had the early edge, but Miami kept hanging around and eventually pulled even after George Klassen settled in for his third start of the season since rejoining the Halos staff.
Klassen’s outing turned messy in the fourth. He opened the door with a walk to Owen Caissie, then Jakob Marsee dropped down a bunt single.
Esteury Ruiz followed with another walk to load the bases, and Kyle Stowers drew a free pass to force in Miami’s first run. Klassen exited after four innings with that lone run charged to him, plus four hits, four walks and three strikeouts.
Miami pushed ahead in the sixth against Tyler Saucedo. Marsee came through again with a single, moved up on a Joe Mack groundout and scored when Stowers lined another single, giving the Marlins a 2-1 lead.
The Angels answered in the seventh, and the inning started with a break. Josh Ekness committed a throwing error on a play involving Mike Troutt, allowing Josh Lowe to score after Lowe had walked and Tyler Heineman moved him to second with a sacrifice. Then Nolan Schanuel changed the shape of the game with one swing, crushing a two-run homer to put Los Angeles back in front, 4-2.
Miami made things tense in the ninth. Ben Joyce worked a scoreless eighth, and Jose Fermin took over to finish it, but the final inning quickly became a battle. Agustin Ramirez singled, Leo Jiminez followed with another hit that brought in a run, and suddenly it was 4-3.
The Marlins had one more chance when Javier Sanoja doubled, but Jiminez was cut down at the plate on a tag play as left fielder Jose Siri threw him out trying to score. That ended the threat and preserved the Angels’ win.
Shaun Anderson picked up the victory after returning from his latest round of minor league duty, while Trout and Schanuel supplied the damage at the plate. The Angels will go for the series win tomorrow with Walbert Urena facing Sandy Alcantara.
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