Nightmare ninth inning spells defeat for Angels against Astros

ANAHEIM, Calif. - The Houston Astros trailed the Los Angeles Angels for 26 outs, but the 27th was all they needed after a parade of errors and pitching missteps in the top of the ninth left the door open for the Astros to come from behind and beat the Angels 6-4 to start their series. 

The Angels headed into the ninth leading 4-2, carried mostly by a two-RBI day from Vaughn Grissom and another stellar start by rookie Walbert Ureña. With the Angels strapped for fresh pitchers, Suzuki went with José Fermin to close out the game, who hit the first batter he faced and allowed a single to the next one to put Astros at first and third. 

He seemed to catch a break after forcing a ground ball from Lucas Spence that could have turned into a double play, but it slipped right past the glove of Grissom at second base to score the first of two unearned runs for the Astros. 

"I think my message when I talk to Gris is keep your head up, keep working hard doing all the right things to prepare," Angels manager Kurt Suzki said. "Mistakes are part of the game. He does everything right to prepare and he's been playing great. Don't let one one little thing like this, obviously costly, but don't let it define it."

Bachman walks into disaster

Sam Bachman was called in soon after to relieve Fermin and quickly made it a two out inning, but the Angels intentionally walked Houston slugger Yordan Alvarez to load the bases, a risky gamble that did allow for an out at every base and let the Angels avoid pitching to Alvarez, but put them at risk by advancing the go-ahead run into scoring position.

The gamble did not pay off. Bachman hit the next batter he faced in Isaac Paredes after a nine pitch at-bat that featured four-straight foul balls from Paredes, and just like that the Astros tied things up. 

Some circumstances where maybe swings-and-misses, but I just kept making pitches and let one get away from me," Bachman said.

Things got worse from there for Bachman. He walked the next batter he saw to allow the Astros to score again, taking their first lead of the night 5-4.

 He had even worse luck after José Altuve chopped a ball straight back to the mound that could have ended the inning, but he couldn't get a good grasp on it from the ground and Altuve reached base on the error while the Astros scored their fourth run of the inning to pad their lead 6-4, the eventual wining score.

"Definitely a tough one tonight. Tough way to lose," Suzuki said. "Just couldn't make the plays. When the plays were presented to us, we just didn't make it. They put in the work everyday and they put in the work preparation-wise and this is just baseball. Sometimes stuff like this happens and you gotta pick your head up, you gotta move forward, you gotta prepare again tomorrow and come back ready to play."

Grissom's game

For most of the game, Grissom had been riding a hot streak. He drove in a run with a single in his first at-bat and hit his seventh home run of the season in his second and added another single in his third. 

But in a game that was decided by two runs, Grissom was as much a focal point of the loss as he would have been had the Angels won the game.

In the bottom of the seventh, Grissom struck out in a spot where he could have added some insurance with a runner on second base, then when the disastrous ninth inning rolled around Grissom's error at second base kept the Angels from two crucial outs and perpetuated an inning that proved to be the Angels' doom.

Grissom was given one more chance at redemption in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and two runners on. He stepped up to the plate as the go-head run at the plate and one swing of the bat could have erased all his mistakes and swung the narrative back to his big day in the batter's box.

Instead, Grissom broke his bat hitting a soft ground ball to Houston closer Josh Hader to end the game. 

As Grissom put it, sometimes that's how the game of baseball can treat its players.

"I heard someone say the other day, 'Its two type of people in this game: the ones that are humbled and the ones that are about to be humbled.' So, stinks."