O'Hoppe's first grand slam not enough for resilient Halos

ANAHEIM -- After the Red Sox made a pair of sloppy defensive plays and hit Miguel Sanó with a pitch to load the bases in the sixth inning, Angels catcher Logan O'Hoppe made them pay.

O’Hoppe connected on his first career grand slam to tie the game at 5, sending the sold-out crowd into a frenzy in the Angels’ home opener on Friday night at Angel Stadium. But it ultimately wasn’t enough, as José Soriano gave up three runs in three innings of relief in an 8-6 loss to Boston that snapped a four-game win streak. But the Angels again showed resiliency and O’Hoppe said he believes it’s part of the club’s makeup.

“We know who we are,” O’Hoppe said. “It's obviously going to take time for everyone else [on the outside] to see it, but we know we’re capable of what we did tonight and we’re capable of finishing the job when we get in situations like that going forward."

O’Hoppe has been off to an incredible start offensively. He went 2-for-4 to extend his hit streak to six games. He’s hitting .450 (9-for-20) with six RBIs in seven games and the 24-year-old has already emerged as a clubhouse leader. But he said his performance is secondary.

“If we’re not winning games, it doesn’t matter,” O’Hoppe said. “Just trying to put up wins on the board.”

O’Hoppe’s grand slam came after the Angels found themselves in a 4-0 hole early after right-hander Griffin Canning served up three homers in the second inning, including back-to-back blasts from Tyler O’Neill and Triston Casas and a two-run shot from Reese McGuire.

The Angels loaded the bases in the fifth against right-hander Kutter Crawford, scoring a run on a Nolan Schanuel walk. At the time, his walk extended his on-base streak to 36 games to open his career. But MLB made a scoring change on his single on March 30 in Baltimore, ending his streak at 30 games.

Schanuel’s walk brought up Mike Trout with two outs and the Red Sox brought in right-hander Greg Weissert to face him. Trout drove one to deep right field but it wasn’t enough, ending the inning. However, it showed the Angels weren’t going to go down easy after the Red Sox scored early.

“The second inning got to us early, but Canning settled down and we showed what we’re made of,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “We played nine innings and the game wasn’t over until the ninth inning was over. And I can guarantee you a lot of people thought it was over after they put the four runs up there. So I'm very proud of the way those guys went out and continued to have good at-bats.”

The Angels benefited from a pair of errors to open the sixth, as Ceddanne Rafaela dropped a routine fly ball in center field from Taylor Ward before Rafael Devers made an errant throw to second on a force play. Sanó was then hit by an 0-1 sinker from Josh Winckowski to set the stage for O’Hoppe’s big moment.

O’Hoppe connected on a 1-1 sinker that caught too much of the plate and drove it a projected 407 feet to left-center. O’Hoppe raised and pumped his fist in celebration as he trotted past first base.

“He’s been swinging the bat extremely well,” Washington said. “And he's been growing behind the plate, getting our pitchers through the innings. He's doing a tremendous job. He really is. And he’s only going to get better going forward.”

The Angels then turned to Soriano for another multi-inning stint after he shined in his season debut against the Orioles on Sunday. But Soriano gave up a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the seventh before the Angels tied it again on an RBI single from Sanó.

Soriano gave up a solo homer to Jarren Duran in the eighth and another to O’Neill in the ninth and the Angels didn’t have another late comeback in them.

“He threw the ball well but threw some fastballs against lefties where they were able to get extended, and then he left one up to O’Neill,” Washington said. “We just wish we could’ve had a shutdown in one of those innings, but we didn’t. They fought over there and scratched and got it done and we didn’t.”