Moniak's two late homers, including walk-off shot, rally Angels past Mariners 5-4
Mickey Moniak hit two home runs over the final three innings, including a game-ending solo shot in the ninth, to rally the Los Angeles Angels past the Seattle Mariners 5-4 on Saturday night.
Jo Adell also homered twice for the Angels, who won for just the second time in 10 games. Ben Joyce (2-0) pitched a scoreless inning to earn the win.
"We had been grinding a little bit of late, so we're going to do our best to lock it in and learn a lot about ourselves over these next four weeks," said Moniak, who has multiple hits in each of his last four games. "Just try to come together, finish strong and have fun."
With two outs in the ninth, Moniak fouled off a pair of 1-2 pitches from All-Star closer Andrés Muñoz (2-6) before driving a slider over the right-field wall.
Moniak has four home runs in his past four games, after his first walk-off drive gave him his first multi-homer game in the majors.
Taylor Ward extended his hitting streak to a career-best 11 games for Los Angeles.
Justin Turner hit two home runs for the Mariners, who fell five games behind the first-place Houston Astros in the AL West and 4 1/2 games out of a wild-card spot.
"It's a tough one to swallow when you play that hard and come up short," manager Dan Wilson said.
Turner, acquired in late July from Toronto, has three homers in 24 games with the Mariners. It was his 17th career multi-homer game and first in a Seattle uniform.
Turner's first home run of the game came in the second inning on a 90 mph fastball from Tyler Anderson to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead.
Adell's first of the night off right-hander Bryan Woo evened the score in the third. The line-drive homer to center came off a sinker.
"Staying through the middle was huge," Adell said. "I was able to stay under that and do some damage with it. The approach was just to hit something hard forward, and good things happen."
The Mariners grabbed a 4-1 lead in the fourth on another solo home run from Turner, this one on a 79 mph changeup from Anderson, and a two-run single from Julio Rodríguez.
Adell hit his second of the game and 20th of the season in the sixth. The Angels got even at 4 in the seventh when Moniak hit a two-run homer to right.
After batting .207 through July, Moniak hit .360 in August with six home runs.
"I think in the beginning, I was dealing with a little bit of an ankle thing, but that's not an excuse," Moniak said. "I definitely feel now like I'm starting to feel better, physically and mentally."
Los Angeles had a chance to take the lead in the eighth but Jack Lopez's squeeze bunt was right in front of the plate, allowing Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh to tag Ward trying to score before throwing to first base to complete the double play.
Anderson gave up four runs and six hits with three walks over four innings in his shortest outing of the season.
Woo allowed four runs and five hits over 6 1/3 innings for Seattle.
Angels shortstop Zach Neto was removed for a pinch hitter in the sixth, one inning after a fielding error on a routine grounder. He was also out of position on a pickoff play in Seattle's three-run fourth. The typically sure-handed fielder has three errors in his past two games.
"I wasn't trying to send a lesson to hurt his feelings, but he wasn't into it," Angels manager Ron Washington said. "Since he wasn't into it, I removed him from the game."
Said a somber Neto: "Me and Wash have a really good relationship and he thought it was best to take me out in that moment. I respect it and just try to be the best teammate."
TRAINER'S ROOM
Angels: RHP Carson Fulmer, placed on the injured list Friday with elbow inflammation, had an MRI that came back clean. He hasn't ruled out pitching again this season.
UP NEXT
Mariners: RHP Bryce Miller (10-7, 3.23 ERA) matched a career high with 10 strikeouts in a win Monday against the Rays.
Angels: RHP Caden Dana, the club's top pitching prospect, will make his major league debut Sunday after compiling a 2.52 ERA in 23 starts at Double-A.
