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Angels rout Astros for 9th straight win

Sep 13, 2014 - 6:30 AM Anaheim, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Kole Calhoun has been the catalyst for the Angels current season-long win streak and he was at it again on Friday, helping Los Angeles to an 11-3 rout of the Houston Astros.

Calhoun extended his hit streak to eight games following a 3-for-4 performance. He also drove in a pair and scored three runs in LA's ninth straight victory.

The Angels have also won 15 of 17 games overall, with the lone losses coming in a two-game road sweep against the Astros on Sept. 2-3. Their magic number to clinch the AL West is five.

Mike Trout and Howie Kendrick each finished with a pair of hits and two runs batted in, and David Freese homered to back five innings by C.J. Wilson (12-9). The southpaw gave up three runs -- two earned -- on seven hits to improve to 4-1 over his last seven outings.

"Right now, these runs we're scoring is taking pressure off our pitchers," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "They cracked the door open for us a little bit and we had good hitting all around. These guys are grinding it out, no doubt about it."

Wilson had 108 pitches through five innings.

"It's never good to throw that many pitches through five innings," Wilson said. "My focus was to throw strikes and get ahead in counts. Our offense has been on a roll."

The Astros were thinking upset early on, as they jumped out to a 3-0 lead through 3 1/2 innings. Jose Altuve raced home on Jake Marisnick's infield single in the first inning, Robbie Grossman plated Jon Singleton with a single in the second and Dexter Fowler doubled home Grossman two innings later.

But no lead is safe against the Angels, who have won nine straight for the first time since 2004 and came from behind in four of those.

Calhoun singled to start the bottom of the fourth and Trout followed by lining an RBI double to right-center. Kendrick then lined out to deep center. Trout tagged to third and scored when the relay got away from shortstop Jonathan Villar.

"They're on a roll, they're a good team," Astros manager Tom Lawless said of the Angels. "They took advantage of our miscues. You can't make mistakes against good teams."

Things got out of hand an inning later, when the Angels put up a seven-spot in an inning for the second time in four games. Erick Aybar scored the tying run on Marisnick's error and Calhoun drove in two with a single to center.

After Jorge De Leon replaced starter Brett Oberholtzer on the mound, Trout tripled in Calhoun and Albert Pujols hit a sac fly to right. Kendrick kept the rally going with a single, setting up Freese's two-run blast that made it 9-3.

Oberholtzer (5-11) was charged with six runs -- four earned -- in 4 1/3 innings.

Kendrick drove in two more runs with a double to the wall in center in the sixth.

"We're playing good baseball and getting timely hits," Calhoun said. "We're playing with confidence right now."

Game Notes

Trout became the first Angel to record 100 RBI and 100 runs scored in the same season since Vladimir Guerrero in 2004. Guerrero won American League MVP that season ... Calhoun has 14 runs scored and nine RBI during his hit streak ... Los Angeles last posted nine consecutive wins Aug. 18-27, 2004.