The Angels honored late teammate Tyler Skaggs on Friday night, donning no. 45 jerseys and running a special video tribute to Skaggs prior to the game. Then, during a terrific 13-0 rout of the visiting Mariners, they did something even better to honor him: they threw a combined no-hitter.
Rookie right-hander Taylor Cole led the charge, hurling two perfect innings as an opener for fellow righty Félix Peña. Peña stepped in to replace Cole at the top of the third inning and extended the perfecto into the fifth, when he subsequently lost it on a four-pitch walk to Omar Narváez.
Behind Cole and Peña, the Angels lifted the pitching staff to an unbeatable 13-run lead. In an explosive seven-run first inning, Mike Trout was the first to strike, pouncing on a first-pitch sinker from Mike Leake and returning it to center field for a two-run homer -- his 29th of the year.
The home run was followed by a smattering of runs from Andrelton Simmons, Justin Bour, and Dustin Garneau. Trout returned to drive in another two runs on an RBI double, giving the Mariners a substantial seven-run debt to work their way back from. Over the next six innings, Trout accounted for another two runs on a hit-by-pitch and double, while Justin Upton capped the 13-run spread in the seventh with a 388-foot two-RBI blast off of Seattle reliever Parker Markel.
Peña returned in the ninth to finish the no-hitter with just 76 pitches under his belt. He needed just five more pitches to do so, inducing a first-pitch flyout from Mac Williamson and back-to-back two-pitch groundouts from Dee Gordon and Mallex Smith.
The no-hitter is the first in Angels’ history since 2012, when Jered Weaver blanked the Twins 9-0 in May of that season. Coincidentally, 2012 was also the last year the Mariners found themselves on the losing end of a no-no, as then-White Sox starter Philip Humber had completed his first and only perfect game in Seattle the month before.
More than a special franchise moment, however, was the loving way the Angels paid homage to Skaggs throughout the night. Following Cole and Peña’s triumph, the team laid their no. 45 jerseys on the mound in Skaggs’ honor -- a moment that most are calling ‘bigger than baseball,’ and rightfully so.
For #45. pic.twitter.com/RkWyUIehj7
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) July 13, 2019
