It was a halo of a win for the Angels in the outfield.
Mike Trout hit his 17th home run of the season, one of five long balls and a franchise-record 28 hits on Saturday night, as the Los Angeles Angels wrote one for the record books with a historic 25-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.
The Angels run total is a franchise best, and the 24-run differential is the largest win in Major League Baseball since the Texas Rangers defeated the Baltimore Orioles by 27 runs in 2007, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Brandon Drury homered and drove in four runs, matching the RBI total of teammate Hunter Renfroe in the blowout win, which, according to ESPN Stats & Information, tied for the third-largest margin by any team in the live ball era, a period that dates back to more than one hundred years, 1920.
“We were aggressive, we attacked pitches in the zone, and hitting gets contagious sometimes,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “To be honest, we found some holes, and then the big blows added on some runs.”
The Rockies utilized four pitchers in the loss, and all of them gave up at least one run. Chase Anderson (0-2) started the game and surrendered nine earned runs and 10 hits in 2 2/3 innings and got chased from the contest mercifully. Matt Carasiti followed Anderson and allowed six runs on four hits in one-third of an inning.
“Location,” Colorado manager Bud Black said in response to what went wrong with Anderson’s start. “He’ll be the first to tell you, there’s too many balls from the midthigh to the belt. His style of pitching, there has to be balls at the knees and there has to be fastballs at the top of the zone. He has to move the ball in and out. And [tonight], there were just too many balls in the middle.”
David Fletcher, Matt Thaiss and Mickey Moniak also went deep for the Angels, who snapped a three-game losing skid with authority. Trout’s, Drury’s, and Thaiss’ homers came on consecutive pitches in Los Angeles’ 13-run third inning.
“It was fun,” Moniak said in his postgame, on-field interview. “We were putting together good at-bats, and that’s kind of just what we do as a team.”
Every Angels starter had at least one hit, one RBI and one run scored, but surprisingly absent from the party was Shohei Ohtani, who had just an RBI single in seven at-bats.
Griffin Canning (6-2) gave up four hits in six shutout innings of work, while striking out seven in route to the win. He has won his last four decisions, but only this one featured a historic level of run support.
“Today was just one of those days, where everyone was feeling good and we were getting the right pitches to hit,” Moniak said. “And we were able to capitalize on it.”
In his postgame media availability, Nevin confirmed the Angels had acquired veteran corner infielder Mike Moustakas from the Rockies in a rare midseries trade.
Colorado received minor league right-hander Connor Van Scoyoc, who was 4-3 with a 2.76 ERA in 11 starts at Class A Tri-City this season.
Moustakas hit .270 with four home runs and 17 RBIs in 47 games with the Rockies after joining them in spring training.
“We’ll mix and match and work it out,” said Nevin, whose team has lost infielders Anthony Rendon, Gio Urshela and Zach Neto to injuries in the past two weeks. “This week, the lineup hasn’t had the depth we have had all season. We feel like we have that now.”
Moustakas has been on five playoff teams and was the starting third baseman for Kansas City when the Royals won the 2015 World Series.
