Halo Highlights-Bad Eighth Inning Costs Angels

A disastrous eighth inning lead to the the series being all knotted up at one going into tonight’s game. Sometimes the calls go your way. Other times they don’t. Let’s take a look at what happened.

Jerome Williams pitched relatively well until the eighth inning. He even brought his bat with him. He started a rally in the top of the third with a double. Torii Hunter walked and Albert Pujols singled to load the bases. The Angels took advantage of Dodger mistakes to score their runs and Adam Kennedy‘s error on a ground ball by Kendrys Morales lead to Williams scoring to give the Halos a 1-0 lead. It stayed that way until the bottom of the fourth when three straight singles by A.J. Ellis, Andre Ethier and Juan Rivera tied the game.

In the sixth, Morales walked and Mark Trumbo singled. Two batters later, Hank Conger singled to load the bases. Williams hit a routine ground ball to second. Kennedy went to throw it to Dee Gordon to get the force, however, Gordon was late in covering and dropped the ball and Morales would score.

Then we get to the eighth inning. After Dee Gordon reached on a force play, he tries to steal second. Conger’s throw appeared to have caught him trying to steal. Joe West called him safe. Looking at all the replay angles, it seemed like he was out, but Cowboy Joe didn’t see it that way. Ellis walked and Andre Ethier tied the game with an RBI single. Juan Rivera then hit a three run home run to ice it for the Dodgers.

The rubber game of the series will take place at 10:05 ET/ 7:05 PT with C.J. Wilson facing Nathan Eovaldi.