Willie Calhoun hits walk-off homer to lead Angels to win over Seattle

ANAHEIM, Calif.— Willie Calhoun has never hit a walk-off home run at any level of professional baseball.

In his 353rd major league game, Calhoun hit a walk-off home run in the 10th inning Friday to give the Angels a 6-5 win over the Mariner in the series-opener.

Calhoun also homered in the first inning to tie the game at the time. Friday was the third multi-home run game in Calhoun's career.

"It's pretty surreal honestly," Calhoun said. "Rounding the bases like that, I kind of blacked out honestly. I guess I've been around for a little bit now so it was a special moment for sure."

The win was the third walk-off home run of the season for the Angels, the first since June 29 when Kevin Pillar had a walk-off hit against Detroit.

"It was really exciting and I'm very happy for Willie," Angels manager Ron Washington said. "Ever since our guys started coming back, he's lost some playing time. But he hasn't lost his work ethic and hasn't lost his confidence."

The Angels did something out of the ordinary during batting practice prior to Friday's game. Instead of taking typical batting practice against the coaches, the Angels used a high-velocity pitching machine to prepare for Mariners' starting pitcher Bryan Woo. 

Calhoun said the team struggled during batting practice, but that it helped them during game time.

"We were grinding during BP, like no one was squaring the ball up," Calhoun said. "We had the motto of 'we'd rather (stink) during BP and smile during the game,' so we think it worked pretty well."

Angels starter Tyler Anderson was making his final start before heading to Arlington, Texas to represent the Angels in the All-Star game. He pitched six innings, allowed four runs, two home runs and had four strikeouts. 

"TA gave us what we needed out of him, he got us six innings," Washington said. "Although he gave up four runs, we didn't stop. We just kept fighting."

He is the first Angels left-handed pitcher to have eight wins and an ERA under 3.00 at the All-Star break since CJ Wilson in 2012.

"I feel like most games I pitch, I gave us a chance to win and that's all I really care about," Anderson said.

The Angels bullpen, which has a 2.25 ERA in its last 22 games, pitched four clean innings without an earned run. 

Ben Joyce, who pitched the eighth inning, threw the fastest pitch in the major leagues this season at 104.5 miles per hour. 

"I've been feeling really good. I didn't really think anything of it at the time. I was just trying to go out there and get some outs," Joyce said. Adding the sinker has been an extra wrinkle in there and I feel like that's been helping the four-seam play a little bit better as well."

Washington agrees that the sinker has been key to Joyce's recent success.

"He has that but since he's gotten that sinker, that's his bread and butter and I don't want him to ever forget that," Washington said. "He can go to his 100 when he has to go to it in certain situations."

Luis Garcia and Carlos Estevez also pitched scoreless innings and Hans Crouse allowed an unearned run in the 10th inning. 

Anderson allowed a two-run home run to Julio Rodriguez in the first inning to put the Angels in an immediate hole.

The Angels responded with a two-run home run of their own in the first inning from Calhoun. 

Anderson allowed another two-run home run, this time to Cal Raleigh, in the third inning.

The Angels tied the game again in the fourth inning with a pair of run-scoring singles from Jo Adell and Nolan Schanuel. 

Mitch Garver hit a run-scoring ground rule double in the 10th off Crouse to give the Mariners a 5-4 lead.

Jose Soriano will start for the Angels Saturday against George Kirby.