Hayden Wesneski earned the win in his return from Tommy John surgery, and Houston’s offense answered an early deficit with runs in five different innings as the Astros beat the Los Angeles Angels, 7-4, on Wednesday at Angel Stadium to complete a three-game sweep.
The Angels jumped on Wesneski for three runs in the first inning, capped by a two-run double from Vaughn Grissom and an RBI single from Jo Adell. Houston answered with solo homers from Yainer Diaz in the second and Jeremy Peña in the third, trimming the deficit to 3-2.Â
Wesneski settled in after the rocky start, working 5â…” innings and allowing three runs on seven hits with four strikeouts in his first major-league appearance in more than a year. Houston took its first lead in the sixth, when Cam Smith’s two-run double scored Taylor Trammell and Diaz to make it 4-3, and a bases-loaded walk to Lucas Spence followed by a wild pitch from Angels reliever Mitch Farris pushed the lead to 5-3. Diaz added an RBI single in the seventh to extend it further, and Houston tacked on two more runs in the ninth on a Christian Walker error-aided at-bat and a second RBI single from Diaz, who finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs.
The Angels trimmed the deficit late, scoring on a Jo Adell sacrifice fly in the eighth, but Houston’s bullpen held from there. Bennett Sousa, Steven Okert, and Bryan Abreu each worked at least an inning of relief behind Wesneski.
The win completed a sweep of the Angels and improved Houston to 55-55 on the season, reaching .500 for the first time since April 8. The Astros have now won eight of their last nine games and sit one game behind the first-place Texas Rangers in the AL West after Texas and Seattle both lost Wednesday.
Houston has Thursday off, then opens a three-game series against the Texas Rangers on Friday, July 31, at Daikin Park—first pitch 7:15 p.m. Central. That runs through Sunday, August 2, right before the Astros open a series against Toronto on the August 3 trade deadline. Given Houston sits one game back of Texas, this weekend is a direct chance to pull even or ahead in the division before the deadline hits.
