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 Five of the extra-base hits came in the first inning as the Angels
jumped all over Mets right-hander Bartolo Colon and went on to take
two of three in the interleague series.
Center fielder Mike Trout, designated hitter Albert Pujols and first
baseman Raul Ibanez hit consecutive homers with one out in the
first, marking the first time the Angels went back-to-back-to-back
since July 27, 2009, when Juan Rivera, Kendrys Morales and Mike
Napoli did it.
Catcher Hank Conger and third baseman Ian Stewart also homered for
the Angels, who got triples from right fielder Kole Calhoun and
shortstop Erick Aybar as well as doubles from shortstop John
McDonald, Conger, Calhoun and Stewart.
"We came out swinging and we never looked back," said Trout, who had
a home run and two singles and scored two runs. "One through nine,
it was going great. ... It's always good to hit three home runs in
the first inning."
With the five homers, the Angels lead the majors with 20 home runs.
"We have an element of power on our team, for sure," Angels manager
Mike Scioscia said. "And it's nice to see it emerge."
Adding to the misery for the Mets was the fact that both second
baseman Daniel Murphy and third baseman David Wright were ejected in
the seventh inning for arguing from the dugout with plate umpire
Toby Basner.
Mets catcher Travis d'Arnaud took a called third strike, prompting
the protests from the bench. Both Murphy and Wright looked at called
third strikes earlier in the game.
"Arguing balls and strikes," Mets manager Terry Collins said when
asked why Murphy and Wright were ejected.
Angels left-hander C.J. Wilson (2-1) was the beneficiary of the
calls, as well as the offense. He struck out nine in seven innings,
five of the nine coming on called third strikes. Wilson allowed two
runs on six hits and three walks.
Colon (1-2) gave up nine earned runs, tying a career-worst, and 11
hits in five innings.
"He was up in the zone," Collins said of Colon. "He lives and dies
with location. He makes mistakes up in the zone, he gets hit. Today
he was up."
The Mets took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on an RBI single by
Wright, but the lead was short-lived.
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After the three consecutive homers in the bottom of the inning,
Stewart hit an RBI double to give the Angels a 4-1 lead. In the fourth, Aybar had a two-run triple, left fielder J.B. Shuck
an RBI single and Conger a two-run homer as the Angels continued
their offensive onslaught for a 9-2 lead, everything coming off
Colon.
"Bartolo's tough," Scioscia said. "If you let him get on a roll, he
can go through four or five innings on 50 pitches. The mistakes he
made early in the game, we didn't miss. Starting with Mike and
Albert and Raul, and it kept going.
"Sometimes Bartolo takes a little time to work into his game,"
Scioscia added. "He settled in the next three innings, but the
mistakes he made early, we didn't miss, we didn't foul them off. We
hit him hard and it gave us a great first inning."
Wilson took it from there.
"He managed the game very well," Scioscia said. "He got in the zone
when he had to, expanded (the zone) when he had to. He had good
stuff and pitched well."
NOTES: Angels DH/1B Raul Ibanez got his 2,000th career hit Saturday,
hitting a two-out, game-tying, three-run homer in the bottom of the
ninth inning. He is one of 12 active players with at least 2,000
hits and 300 RBIs. He is hitting just .205, but he leads the team
with 12 RBIs. ... With his game-winning home run in the top of the
13th inning Saturday, C Anthony Recker became the sixth player in
Mets history to have at least two home runs in the 13th inning or
later. He hit a homer in the 13th inning against the Arizona
Diamondbacks last July 4. The other five are Howard Johnson, Kevin
McReynolds, Tim Harkness, Carlos Beltran and Dave Kingman.
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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