SAN FRANCISCO — There are no ugly victories for the Angels this season.
The Angels aren’t about to apologize for their 8-6 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Friday night, even though they had an eight-run lead in the fourth inning.
Relievers Adam Cimber and Roansy Contreras struggled in the eighth inning, allowing five runs. Closer Carlos Estévez then took care of the ninth to pick up a save in a game when he likely didn’t think he’d be needed.
Eight of the Angels’ nine starters had a hit or a walk by third inning, and by the fourth it was 8-0.
A night after the Angels’ offense performed poorly in a blowout loss in Arizona, they came up with plenty of big hits when they needed them at the start of Friday’s game.
The Angels scored a run in the second, three in the third and then four in the fourth, with the bottom half of the order doing all of the damage.
Logan O’Hoppe, Zach Neto and Mickey Moniak – batting fifth through seventh – reached base safely in eight of their nine trips in those three innings. The only out was when Neto dropped down a sacrifice bunt.
Moniak had two doubles and a triple, a night after he drove in the Angels’ only run and walked twice. Moniak now has a hit in his last six games.
Neto hit a two-run homer in the fourth, his ninth of the season and second of the week. He also had a homer overturned on review, settling for a double on Wednesday in Arizona.
Tyler Anderson was the beneficiary of the Angels’ robust offensive performance, and it was on a night when he got by without his best stuff.
Anderson gave up one run in 5⅓ innings, working around five walks and five hits.
Anderson walked two in the first inning, but stranded them. He issued another walk to lead off the second, and then he allowed a bloop single.
In the fourth, just after the Angels took an 8-0 lead, Anderson gave up two straight singles and then a walk to load the bases with no outs. He limited the damage with a double play and a strikeout, allowing only one run.
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Even though it wasn’t one of his better outings, the minimized the damage enough to drop his ERA to 2.58. He’s allowed three earned runs or fewer in 12 of his 14 starts. This was only the fourth start in which he didn’t finish the sixth inning.
Anderson’s relatively early exit and the large cushion provided the perfect spot for the Angels to use Ben Joyce, who has been trying to work through some issues in his first outings of the season.
Joyce pitched 1⅔ scoreless innings, working around two walks.
More to come on this story.