When you are a perennial MVP candidate, being clutch becomes second nature.
After wrapping up his second consecutive All-Star MVP nod on Tuesday night, Los Angeles Angels suprtstar Mike Trout continued his reign over Major League Baseball Friday night, smashing a solo home run to left center off of Boston Red Sox ace closer Koji Uehara (L, 2-4) with two outs in the ninth inning to break a scoreless tie and seal a victory for the Angels, putting them on top of the A.L. West.
Red Sox starter Wade Miley worked wonders over seven shutout innings, retiring the first 16 batters he faced while yielding just one hit over the course of the outing and striking out six; however, the Boston bats were also quelled by Angels horse C.J. Wilson on the other side of the docket. The Red Sox failed to advance a base runner past second base throughout the contest's entirety, and Wilson allowed just five hits in eight scoreless innings of work, striking out four.
Boston shortstop Xander Bogaerts and designated hitter David Ortiz both mustered two hits; however, that basically summed up the offensive output of the entire squad. The Red Sox' bats have been quite prolific over the past month, having to deal with the inconsistency of the pitching staff; however, on this occasion, the offense was at fault.
The Red Sox had scoring chances in the first inning (Bogaerts doubled with two outs, followed by a line-out by Ortiz), second inning (third baseman Pablo Sandoval walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch with one out, but he was stranded by consecutive strikeouts of first baseman Mike Napoli and right fielder Shane Victorino), and seventh inning (Napoli walked and advanced to second on a passed ball with one out, but he was stranded after consecutive fly-outs by Victorino and catcher Ryan Hanigan). However, none came to fruition.
Meanwhile, Miley (ND) was dealing, failing to yield a single base runner over his first 5.1 innings of work. He also failed to yield a single base hit until the first at-bat of the seventh inning when Angels center fielder Kole Calhoun knocked a double deep into center.
This game marked the first occasion since June 6, 1998, in which the Red Sox failed to capture a victory while allowing two or fewer hits to their opposition.
Boston reliever Junichi Tazawa worked a perfect eight inning, setting the stage for the middle of the Boston order to inflict damage in the top of the ninth. However, Los Angeles relief man Joe Smith (W, 4-2) retired left fielder Hanley Ramirez, Sandoval, and Napoli with ease, setting the stage for Trout's game-winning shot into the artificial rock structure behind the left-center fence in Angel Stadium.
The bomb was Trout's 27th of the season, good for first in the Majors, and the 125th of his career, making him one of six players in league history to reach that milestone at the young age of 23 years old.