ANAHEIM — It’s certainly too late for this year, but the Angels may be figuring out how to win.
Anthony Rendon’s three-run homer in the seventh and final inning gave the Angels the lead on their way to a 7-6 victory over the Houston Astros and a sweep of the doubleheader.
In the first game, the Angels blew a lead in the top of the seventh and then overcame a two-run deficit in the bottom of the inning to rally for a 10-9 victory.
After that game, Manager Joe Maddon said these kind of victories are an important stepping stone for the Angels to get back to contention.
“Once you get the mindset then we’re gonna win this thing somehow as opposed to lose it somehow, then you can get a lot of positive things,” Maddon said.
The Angels have now won four games in a row after the doubleheader, which was scheduled because the Angels and Astros had a game postponed last month in Houston as Hurricane Laura approached.
The Astros were the home team for the second game, so the Angels didn’t get the chance for a second straight walk-off victory.
Rendon, and seemingly a few of the Astros, believed the game was over when he hit his homer.
“Without a doubt,” Rendon said. “As I was rounding the bases I thought, ‘Wait, it’s not over yet.”
Trailing 4-0 after two innings, the Angels tied the game with a pair of runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Albert Pujols drove in three of them.
George Springer then blasted his second homer of the game — despite Jo Adell nearly robbing Springer of a homer for the second time in the day — to put the Astros up 6-4 in the fifth.
In the seventh, Justin Upton lined a one-out single against Humberto Castellanos. Mike Trout followed with a walk, the 12th time in 14 plate appearances in the series that he had reached.
Rendon then yanked a three-run homer down the line, putting the Angels on top.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been a walk off, but this time the Angels still had to finish the bottom of the seventh. They had been unable to close out victories when three outs away in each of the first two games, blowing the leads before coming back to win.
This time, Ty Buttrey — who gave up three runs on Friday night — got the save.
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