ANAHEIM, Calif. - Called on to pitch in the ninth after throwing 30 pitches last night, right-hander Mychal Givens could not put up a zero and the Orioles' chance to sweep the four-game series ended in walk-off fashion.
Third baseman Matt Thaiss hit his second homer of the game as the Los Angeles Angels beat the Orioles 5-4. With one out, he drilled a 3-2 fastball out to right-center to end the game with his first career walk-off homer.
Had the Orioles won, they would have had their first series sweep since taking three straight over Toronto on Aug. 27-29, 2018. And first road four-game sweep since since Aug. 22-25, 2011 at Minnesota.
They fall to 35-70 and to 4-3 on this trip. Coming in they had won four of five, seven of 10 and were 13-11 the last 24 games.
Much earlier the Orioles rallied from 2-0 down to lead 4-2 and then were tied 4-4 in the sixth on an Albert Pujols two-run homer.
With two outs and none on in the bottom of the second, Thaiss hit his third homer in his 12th game and second in this series. His two-run shot followed an Andrelton Simmons single and it was 2-0.
Jonathan Villar's big series at the plate continued in the Baltimore third when his RBI double scored Stevie Wilkerson, who walked, and made it 2-1.
Then the O's rallied for three runs in the fifth to lead by two. A walk and error put runners on the corners with two outs. Then Villar came through again with an RBI and it was tied 2-2. With runners on second and third, Trey Mancini's two-run single gave Baltimore the lead.
But the Pujols homer off Dylan Bundy evened the score in the sixth. It was Pujols' 17th of the year and came on a 3-0 pitch, a 90 mph fastball. It was his 650th career homer and made him 6-for-12 with four career homers off the O's right-hander.
The Pujols homer denied Bundy a win and he got a no-decision. Over five-plus he gave up seven hits and four runs with two walks, three strikeouts and two homers. He threw 97 pitches and exited with an ERA of 5.24.