Lourdes Gurriel Jr. drove in five runs and hit the go-ahead RBI double that lifted the Toronto Blue Jays to a four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels with an 11-10 win Sunday afternoon in Anaheim, Calif.
The Blue Jays and Angels went back and forth the entire game, which was tied at 2-2, 6-6, 9-9 and 10-10 before Gurriel’s eighth-inning double off Jose Quijada, the fifth of six Angels pitchers in the game, drove in Alejandro Kirk from second base.
Kirk had doubled immediately after Bo Bichette’s solo homer tied the game at 10-10.
Gurriel doubled twice and also drew two bases-loaded walks. He was one of five Blue Jays who had two hits.
The Angels hit four home runs, including two from Shohei Ohtani and one each from Taylor Ward and Max Stassi. Stassi had four hits for Los Angeles, while Ward, Ohtani and Luis Rengifo each had two.
David Phelps, the last of seven Blue Jays pitchers, threw a scoreless ninth for his first save of the season. Adam Cimber (6-2) got two outs in the seventh inning to get the victory over Quijada (0-1).
Ohtani entered the game hitless in the first three games of the series, but broke the string with a home run in the first inning off Blue Jays starter Jose Berrios.
The Blue Jays responded in the top of the second, getting a two-run double from Gurriel to take a 2-1 lead against Angels starter Patrick Sandoval. The Angels tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the second when Rengifo tripled and then scored on a throwing error by second baseman Santiago Espinal.
Sandoval was able to get through the third inning, but not before he surrendered four more runs. Kirk had an RBI single, Gurriel walked with the bases loaded and Raimel Tapia had a two-run single for a 6-2 Toronto lead.
The Angels matched the four runs in their half of the third while knocking Berrios out of the game in the process. Ohtani hit his second homer of the game with a runner on base, and Stassi drove in two with a single, tying the game at 6-6.
Ward’s two-run homer in the fourth put the Angels up 8-6, and he drove in another run in the sixth with a double for a 9-6 Los Angeles advantage.
The Blue Jays battled back, tying the game at 9-9 in the seventh with three runs. Angels reliever Ryan Tepera, though, prevented further damage by getting George Springer to hit into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded.
The Angels went back up 10-9 on Stassi’s solo homer in the bottom of the seventh, and the Blue Jays tied it at 10-10 on Bichette’s homer in the top of the eighth.
–Field Level Media
