EVERYBODY’S HAPPY – including Mike Trout and Mike Scioscia – as the Angels surged back to .500 with four straight wins (Flickr/Keith Allison).

By Pete Zarustica

It has been a long climb, with plenty of slipbacks, but the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have finally clawed their way back to .500. Again going to their recent pattern of big innings, the Halos scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh Friday night in Anaheim to square their record at 55-55 with the 8-6 win over the Oakland Athletics.

Not only did that solidify their hold on third place in the American League West, it moved them to within two games of a wild card berth.

In winning their fourth straight game, the Angels overcame a 6-2 deficit. They had a 13-hit outburst, much of that coming in the sixth and seventh innings where they scored six unanswered runs.

Cliff Pennington smacked a two-run single in the sixth to cut the margin to two. In the seventh, Luis Valbuena had a two-run single which tied the game at 6-all, and Ben Revere raced home with the go-ahead run on an infield single by Yunel Escobar.

“That’s a big hit for us at the time,” manager Mike Scioscia said. “For Luis, it’s great to come off the bench. It’s not one of the easier things to do in our game, but he got a pitch, he hit it hard and tied the game for us.”
Newcomer Troy Scribner had a rough start, giving up two hits but four runs – three of them on a home run by Matt Chapman – over four innings. He walked four batters and struck out three. Only two of those runs were earned.

The win in relief went to Jesse Chavez (6-10), who worked two innings. He was touched for two hits, a walk and one run. He struck out two batters.

Tyler Skaggs (1-10) will make the start for the Angels on Saturday.