June 6, 2017

Kole Calhoun and CJ Cron hit home runs and the Angels hung on to beat the Tigers 5-3 on Tuesday night at Comerica Park.

Calhoun connected on a solo shot in the 1st inning, while Cron hit a 2-run blast in the 4th.  Both came off of Tigers’ starter Daniel Norris.  That gave the Halos a 3-0 lead.

Calhoun singled again in the 5th inning, scoring Andrelton Simmons after an error by Tigers’ center fielder Alex Presley.  He also delivered a sac fly in the 7th.

“That’s a nice win against a hot team,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “We had some trouble closing out some innings, including the ninth, but we got it done.”

Jesse Chavez got the win, improving to 5-6 on the year.  He pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits before he was pulled.  After giving up a solo homer to Alex Avila and an RBI single to Justin Upton, he was pulled from the game and seen walking off the mound yelling several expletives.  Blake Paker would come in to record the final out of the 6th to end the Tigers threat with J.D. Martinez stranded at 3rd.

Martinez would add a sac fly in the 8th inning to make it 5-3, but that’s as close as the Nationals would get.

Bud Norris pitched the 9th to record his 11th save of the season.  It wasn’t before running into some trouble though.  After recording the first two outs, Presley and Jose Iglesias singled, and both advanced to 2nd and 3rd after a wild pitch.  Ian Kinsler walked to load the bases, but Norris would strike out Avila looking to end the game.

“That was a great job by Bud,” Scioscia said. “He didn’t get a couple calls, but he got back into the at-bat with some great pitches. He knew he was playing with fire if the next guy (Miguel Cabrera) got to the plate.”

Daniel Norris (3-3) took the loss, allowing four runs — three earned — five hits and three walks in six innings.

The second game of the series will be on Wednesday.  The Halos will deploy Alex Meyer (2-2, 4.91 ERA), while the Tigers will go with Buck Farmer, who was just recalled from Triple-A.