Angels waste early six-run lead but still escape with 7-6 victory over Orioles

Joe Maddon peeked into the interview room late Sunday afternoon, and was surprised to see so many journalists.

“You guys are still here?” the Angels’ manager said.

Maddon would have understood what some of the ball writers and fans at Angel Stadium, 41,984 left early.

That’s how much of a slog their 7-6 victory over the Baltimore Orioles was, the Angels blowing a six-run first-inning lead and enduring a tedious 3-hour, 42-minute marathon that featured 14 walks and three hit batters to salvage the finale of a three-game series.

“I guess that was entertaining to some people,” Maddon said.

What would Maddon call it then?

“A root canal, something like that,” he said. “Definitely, a win is a win, but it wasn’t necessarily pleasurable.”

It seemed fitting that a game so long and grueling was decided by a nine-pitch battle between hard-throwing Orioles right-hander Felix Bautista and the Angels’ Taylor Ward that ended with — what else? — a bases-loaded walk.

This was not your average walk.

The Angels erupted for six runs in the first inning on Jared Walsh’s two-run single and Jo Adell’s grand slam, but starter José Suarez was tagged for three runs in the third and relievers Aaron Loup and Austin Warren combined to give up three runs in the seventh, the Orioles tying the score 6-6.

Shohei Ohtani, who had been hitless with five strikeouts in 10 at-bats in the series and was sporting new-look, slump-busting, high red socks, led off the bottom of the seventh with a single to right field and took second on Mike Trout’s flyout to right.

Anthony Rendon was out of the game, and Walsh was struck in the elbow by a pitch to load bases. Brandon Hyde, Baltimore’s manager, summoned Bautista. Ward fouled off three strike pitches and took a 99-mph fastball in the top of the zone for ball 4, a 7-6 advantage.

“I auto-took it,” Ward said with a straight face when asked how tough it was to lay off that ninth pitch. “I’m not kidding.”

So Ward wasn’t swinging at the pitch, no matter what?

“Yeah,” Ward said. “He could have piped it right down the middle, and I would have let it go. When you’re in the box, sometimes you have these feelings, like, ‘OK, I’m gonna see a fastball here, or the chances that he throws another strike are probably very slim.’

“With that guy, I rolled the dice. I knew the game was up. It is what is. But it was my hunch that he wasn’t going to throw another strike.”

Angels reliever Jimmy Herget retired the side in order in the eighth, and with closer Raisel Iglesias unavailable after pitching Saturday, Archie Bradley, who had an 11.12 ERA in his first five games, replaced Herget after Trey Mancini’s leadoff single in the ninth.

Bradley struck out Anthony Santander at 85 mph with a changeup and Ryan Mountcastle was forced to play into a game-ending double play of 6-4-3 for the save.

“In the ‘pen, you’re gonna give it up sometimes, you’re gonna have your bad days, and all you want to do is get back out there and have a chance to get it again,” Bradley said. “So that’s what that was, a good bounce-back game, and hopefully I can build on it.”

Chris Ellis, an Angels prospect, was traded to Atlanta for shortstop Andrelton Simmons in 2015. He started for the Orioles, and did not retire any of five batters he faced. This was due to shoulder discomfort.

Ohtani walked to start the first inning. Trout was hit with a pitch, Rendon walked and Walsh scored a two-run run to left. Ward walked to load out the bases. Travis Lakins was then designated as the right-hander.

Adell, who was added to the lineup following Brandon Marsh’s stomach bug injury, lined the second grand-slam of his career to right center field for a 6-0 lead.

Suarez made a mistake in the third and gave up a single, a run, and a walk to Mancini. It was 6-3. Loup walked a batter and hit a batter in the seventh, setting the table for Mountcastle’s RBI single and Austin Hays’ tying two-run homer off Warren.

“You score six in the first, I think everyone thinks like, ‘All right, we’re gonna have a big day,’ and that’s baseball, man,” Bradley said. “You’ve got to give the Orioles credit. They made it difficult. Luckily, we were able to squeak one out and avoid getting swept.”

Updates on Injury

David Fletcher (left knee strain) was scheduled for nine innings on Sunday in his third game in a rehabilitation stint at triple-A Salt Lake. Head athletic trainer Mike Frostad said Fletcher has “cleared all of our hurdles, so it’s just a matter of what the baseball department wants to do at this point.” … Marsh was scratched from Sunday’s lineup because of a stomach bug and replaced by Adell. Also, Rendon and Trout have missed games due to stomach bugs this season. … Right-hander Griffin Canning, on the 60-day injured list because of a stress reaction in his lower back, has thrown off a mound twice and should progress to throwing to hitters “in the next few weeks,” Frostad said.