WASHINGTON (AP) — Jack Kochanowicz pitched 7 2/3 innings to earn his first major league win, Kevin Pillar hit a three-run double and the Los Angeles Angels beat the Washington Nationals 6-4 on Sunday.
Los Angeles avoided a three-game losing streak in its first visit to Washington since 2017, improving to 3-3 on a road trip that began in New York against the Yankees.
The Nationals issued 13 walks, tying their most since the team moved to Washington in 2005. The Angels converted four of them to score, denying the Nationals their fourth straight win of the season.
Kochanowicz (1-2), making just his third career start, performed much better than his two outings last month, when he gave up a combined 12 runs in seven innings. The right-hander, recalled from Double-A Rocket City on Saturday, struck out the Nationals’ first eight batters before Nasim Nunez reached base on an infield single.
Kochanowicz tossed seven easy innings on 72 pitches before Jacob Young hit a home run to left field to lead off the eighth inning. The rookie was replaced after Luis Garcia Jr. hit a one-run single with two outs. He allowed two runs, six hits and one walk while striking out two.
The Nationals got two runs in the ninth off of Ben Joyce, who ended the comeback by getting Juan Yepes to ground out with the bases loaded and get the game-ending double play.
With the Angels in the fourth inning with no outs and runners on first and third, Jo Adell hit a sharp grounder to third baseman Jose Tena, who appeared to cramp up his right hand. After holding his ground at first, Brandon Drury ran home on an error, forcing Tena, making his Nationals debut, to leave the game a day after hitting the game-winning hit in the 10th inning.
Mackenzie Gore (7-10) walked the bases loaded and then induced a double play on a grounder to score one run. Gore walked two more batters and Pillar hit a three-run double to left field to make the score 5-0.
Los Angeles pulled ahead by another run in the seventh inning when Michael Stefanik caught the last of the Angels’ four walks to Jordan Weems.
Gore gave up five runs (all unearned) in four innings but also allowed a career-high six walks and five hits. The left-hander failed to complete the fifth inning for the fourth time in seven starts since July 6.
Washington allowed 13 walks as a team in a 13-inning loss to Milwaukee on Aug. 10, 2008.
Trainer Room
Nationals: Shortstop C.J. Abrams (upper back spasms) missed his third straight game.
next time
Angels: Los Angeles returns home to open a three-game series against Toronto on Monday, with RHP Davis Daniel (1-3, 6.04 ERA) starting.
Nationals: Washington is off on Monday. The Nationals begin a two-game series at Baltimore on Tuesday, with RHP Jake Irvin (8-10, 3.76 ERA) facing the Orioles for the first time.
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