After Rain Delay, Adam Jones Leads Orioles Past Angels 4-3
BALTIMORE (AP) — Adam Jones homered and drove in three runs, and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Los Angeles Angels 4-3 Monday night in a game marred by rain.
The teams played with wet baseballs on a muddy field and endured a delay of more than two hours before the final out was recorded shortly before midnight.
Mike Trout and Josh Hamilton homered for the Angels, who have lost three straight to fall 10 games under .500 (27-37).
After Baltimore scored twice in the sixth to take a 4-2 lead, home plate umpire Joe West called for the tarp with two outs. By that time, the field was a sloppy mess and a steady rain had become a full-scale deluge.
Following a delay of 2 hours, 14 minutes, play resumed at 11 p.m.
Los Angeles closed to 4-3 in the seventh on Hamilton's RBI grounder off Tommy Hunter, but Darren O'Day worked a scoreless eighth and Jim Johnson got three straight outs for his 22nd save.
Freddy Garcia (3-3) allowed two runs, six hits and a walk over six innings for the Orioles. The 36-year-old improved to 17-3 lifetime against the Angels, 7-0 since the start of the 2005 season.
Los Angeles tied it in the top of the sixth before Baltimore regained the lead in the bottom half against Jered Weaver (1-2).
Making his fifth start since his recovery from a broken left elbow, Weaver gave up four runs and six hits in 5 2-3 innings. The right-hander was 4-0 with a 1.82 ERA in his previous four starts against Baltimore.
With the grounds crew poised behind the tarp in the bottom of the sixth, Nate McLouth led off with a bunt and promptly stole second. Manny Machado followed with an opposite-field single to right, and when the ball got past Hamilton, McLouth came home with the go-ahead run. Machado took third on a single by Nick Markakis and Jones hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2.
After Chris Davis hit a swishing grounder to shortstop Erick Aybar for a force at second base, umpires finally halted play.
Trout put the Angels up 1-0 in the third inning with his 11th home run, the first in 72 at-bats since May 23. He didn't hit No. 11 last year until July 6.
Weaver retired 10 of the first 11 batters he faced before Markakis drew a one-out walk in the fourth and Jones followed with his second homer in two games.
The downpour intensified as the game entered the fifth inning, and Baltimore needed to get three outs for the game to become official. Markakis took care of the first one with a diving catch of Erick Aybar's liner to right. After Garcia retired Chris Iannetta on a fly ball and Peter Bourjos singled to right, Machado dived to get Trout's grounder to third and threw him out at first.
In the sixth, however, Hamilton tied it with a drive over the right field scoreboard. It was his ninth homer of the season, the first in 13 games.
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