Mike Trout hit a pair of solo homers, including a tiebreaking shot to begin the eighth inning, and the Los Angeles Angels dealt the Houston Astros a critical blow to their playoff hopes with a 4-3 victory in Anaheim, Calif., on Friday night.
Trout has homered three times in his last two games for Los Angeles (72-88), which battled back from an early 3-0 deficit in the opener of a three-game series. Denzer Guzman had two hits, including an RBI double.
Houston (85-75) lost for the sixth time in its last seven games and trails the Detroit Tigers (86-74) by one game for the final American League wild-card spot with two games to play.
The Astros must win both of their final regular season games and have either Detroit or the Cleveland Guardians (86-74) lose their last two games in order to reach the postseason.
Brock Burke (7-1) pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the win. Kenley Jansen struck out the side in the ninth for his 29th save.
Trout gave the Angels their first lead of the night in the eighth with his second leadoff homer of the night. The three-time MVP turned on a 2-0 fastball from Bryan King (5-4) and blasted it over the right-center-field wall for his 25th homer of the season.
Christian Walker broke a scoreless tie with a one-out solo homer in the fourth against Kyle Hendricks. The homer was Walker’s 25th of the season and second in as many games.
Houston tacked on another run in the inning on back-to-back doubles by Yainer Diaz and Zach Cole. With two outs and runners on the corners, the Astros executed a double steal to move ahead 3-0.
Hendricks pitched five innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on five hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.
Trout put the Angels on the board when he deposited Jason Alexander’s first pitch in the bottom of the fourth over the center field wall.
The Angels pulled within 3-2 with one out in the fifth on back-to-back doubles by Christian Moore and Guzman.
Alexander allowed two runs on four hits over 4 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out four.
Los Angeles tied the game with a run in the seventh when Guzman scored from second base on Chris Taylor’s two-out single off King.
