EditorsNote: Adds Walsh 9-game stats in 8th graf
Jared Walsh scored and drove in a run a franchise-record ninth consecutive game Thursday to help the Los Angeles Angels to a 7-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Anaheim, Calif.
David Fletcher and Taylor Ward each had three hits, Anthony Rendon doubled and homered, Mike Trout drove in two runs, and Albert Pujols contributed two hits for the Angels (21-30), who avoided a series sweep.
Angels starter Griffin Canning (1-3) needed a career-high 104 pitches to get through five innings and qualify for his first win in his 10th start of the season. He allowed two runs (one earned), six hits, struck out seven and walked two.
Christian Walker and Pavin Smith each had two hits for the Diamondbacks (19-32). Arizona starter Alex Young (2-4) lasted just 2 2/3 innings, allowing six runs and eight hits, with one walk and two strikeouts.
After falling behind early in the first two games of the series, the Angels led 5-0 after two innings on Thursday.
Following a sacrifice fly by Trout in the first, Rendon slammed a homer to center with Walsh aboard for a 3-0 lead.
Walsh hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the second inning, becoming the first AL player with a run and RBI in nine consecutive games since David Ortiz of the Minnesota Twins in 2002. It is also the longest such streak by a rookie, dating to 1920 when the RBI was made an official statistic.
Starting Sept. 6, Walsh has scored 12 runs and driven in 16 while hitting .405 (17-for-42) in those nine games. The previous Angels record was seven straight games by Fred Lynn (1984) and Wally Joyner (1987).
The Angels made it 6-0 in the third with their third sacrifice fly of the game, this one from Anthony Bemboom.
Nick Ahmed doubled in the fourth to bring home Arizona's first run.
Canning nearly got through the fifth inning unscathed, but a two-out error by shortstop Andrelton Simmons and Walker's RBI single made it 6-2.
Angels reliever Mike Mayers threw two shutout innings to lower his ERA to 1.96.
Simmons added an RBI single in the eighth to stretch the lead to 7-2.
Josh VanMeter had a run-scoring single in the ninth for Arizona.
--Field Level Media
