WASHINGTON — Mike Trout’s home run drought ended early in Friday night’s game against the Washington Nationals, but the Angels’ search for their first three-game winning streak on the road in more than a year lives on.
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Trout homered for the first time since Aug. 10, but Washington scored three runs in the eighth inning to send the Angels to a 4-3 loss before an announced crowd of 17,061 at Nationals Park.
The Angels, who defeated the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Tuesday and Wednesday, have not won three consecutive road games since June 16-18, 2025 against the New York Yankees.
Reliever Samy Natera Jr. (1-2) inherited a 2-1 lead to start the eighth inning, only to load the bases with a leadoff walk, a soft single to right and Dylan Crews’ bunt.
Natera induced Yohandy Morales to hit a grounder to shortstop Zach Neto, who promptly threw home for a force out. But pinch hitter Andrew Pinckney tied it on a sacrifice fly, and Jorbit Vivas followed with a two-run double to right to give the Nationals their first lead and help them snap a seven-game losing streak.
“They were having tough at-bats,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “Walks, a blooper and then a sacrifice fly and then obviously the broken-bat hit down the line. Getting that hit for a bunt, that didn’t help. Just a tough eighth inning.”
The Angels nearly rallied against a beleaguered Washington bullpen that set a major league record earlier this week with its 38th blown save of the season. El Toro High product Erik Tolman issued a two-out walk to pinch hitter Oswald Peraza in the ninth before Christian Moore doubled him in. But pinch hitter Kyren Paris flew out to left to end the game as Tolman earned his second career save.
Clayton Beeter (6-5) worked a 1-2-3 eighth for the Nationals.
Things felt congenial when Suzuki and first base coach Adam Eaton, both members of Washington’s 2019 World Series championship team, were cheered after a pregame video tribute. Then Trout settled in, ripping a Cade Cavalli full-count cutter into the seats in left-center in the first inning.
“I was just looking for something out over and he’s got good stuff,” Trout said. “It was my first time facing him, so I saw a lot of pitches.”
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It was Trout’s 21st homer of the season but just his third since the All-Star break, ending a homerless spell of 27 games. It was the second-longest stretch between home runs in his career, behind a 28-game stretch when the three-time American League MVP was approaching his 400th career homer late last season.
“It’s good to see one go out, obviously,” Trout said. “I’ve been battling some stuff since the break.”
The Angels managed only three more base runners through six against Cavalli, who has a 2.05 ERA in 11 starts since the All-Star break. But the right-hander walked the first two batters in the seventh, and Suzuki had Moore – at that point hitting .176 in 24 major league games this season – bunt.
He sandwiched a pair of attempts that went foul around three balls, then laced Cavalli’s sweeper to left to drive in Vaughn Grissom to make it 2-1.
Yusei Kikuchi needed 88 pitches to complete his four innings, his shortest outing in four starts since returning from the injured list on Aug. 23. The left-hander struck out five and wriggled out of frequent trouble, stranding two Nationals in both the first and the third.
He was on the verge of escaping a similar jam in the fourth. After consecutive one-out walks, Kikuchi struck out Jacob Young on the ninth pitch of the at-bat. He got ahead of James Wood, only for the All-Star outfielder to poke an opposite-field single to left to score Harry Ford.
“I think my stuff was good overall today, but having a great pitcher on the other side, I knew it would be a low-scoring game,” Kikuchi said through an interpreter. “I felt like I needed to protect that one-run lead. Some games it comes out great, some games it doesn’t. I feel like I had that coin flip on the other side today.”
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