Christian Moore hits 1st career HR, but Angels fall to Astros in 10 innings

ANAHEIM — Christian Moore fulfilled a childhood dream this week when the New York City native got to play in Yankee Stadium for the first time, but the rookie second baseman’s Angel Stadium debut on Friday night was far more memorable.

Moore, the eighth overall pick in the 2024 draft out of Tennessee, hit his first big-league home run, a game-tying solo shot to center field in the seventh inning, and preserved that tie with a superb diving catch of Yainer Diaz’s 109-mph line drive with two runners on to end the top of the eighth.

Moore had a chance to script an even more dramatic finish, but he struck out with the bases loaded to end the eighth, and the Angels ran out of chances – and heroes – in an eventual 3-2, 10-inning loss to the Houston Astros.

The Astros scored the winning run on a wild pitch by Hunter Strickland, who had not allowed a run in 14⅔ innings of his first 13 appearances with the Angels. Jeremy Peña led off the 10th with a single that advanced automatic runner Mauricio Dubon to third.

Houston closer Josh Hader retired the side in order in the bottom of the ninth, and left-hander Bennett Sousa stranded the automatic runner by retiring three straight batters in the bottom of the 10th for the save.

Tempers flared in the bottom of the third when Astros starter Hunter Brown hit Angels shortstop Zach Neto in the right wrist with a 95 mph sinker. Neto took exception, jawing at Brown and pointing two fingers at the pitcher, a reminder that this was the second time Brown had plunked him with a pitch. The first was last June.

“You go back to the history we have – it’s not the first time he’s done it – and for him to go up and in like that again, enough’s enough,” Neto said. “It doesn’t feel great getting hit there, especially by a guy like that who’s dealing, who throws hard. I know he’s not trying to hit me, but it’s definitely frustrating getting hit.”

Brown, who is 8-3 with an American League-best 1.88 ERA this season, said there was no intent with the pitch. In fact, the right-hander thought it was a good pitch.

“Honestly, he almost swung, so I don’t know what he’s talking about,” said Brown, who gave up one run and two hits in five innings. “The guy stands right on top of the plate. If he doesn’t like when he gets hit, that’s his problem.

“I’ve got to command the inside part of the plate, that’s part of my game. And like I said, if you want to stand with your toes on the chalk, you can’t really get that upset when I’m throwing a pitch that you’re almost swinging at. So I stand by what I do.”

Players from both benches and bullpens rushed onto the field after Neto and Brown exchanged angry words. There was a little shoving, but no punches were thrown, and order was quickly restored.

But the Angel Stadium crowd of 29,580 reacted angrily in the sixth when Astros reliever Shawn Dubin hit Mike Trout in the right elbow with a 95 mph fastball. Could this bad blood spill over to the rest of this series between the teams?

“No, no, I wouldn’t take it to the extent of the Dodgers and Padres,” Neto said. “It’s just guys trying to make a pitch, and two pitches got away, and it just so happened to be me and Trouty who got hit today.

“I respect [Brown] a lot. It was just an in-the-moment thing. When you get hit, it doesn’t feel great, the adrenaline starts pumping, and the only thing I could think of was what happened last year.”

While the teams didn’t come to blows, it looked like Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi might get knocked out early when two of his first seven pitches left the park, the left-hander giving up game-opening home runs to Peña and Isaac Paredes for a 2-0 Astros lead.

But Kikuchi blanked the Astros on four hits, striking out nine and walking none, for the rest of his seven-inning, 103-pitch start to give the Angels a chance to come back.

“I thought [Kikuchi] was great, given the fact that we opened the game in a way that wasn’t expected,” said Angels bench coach Ray Montgomery, who is serving as acting manager with Ron Washington sidelined indefinitely because of health issues. “For him to pitch into the seventh inning as strong as he did was all we could ask for.”

Jo Adell trimmed Houston’s lead to 2-1 in the fourth with a 426-foot homer off Brown, Adell’s major league-leading ninth homer of June.

The Angels loaded the bases off Dubin with one out in the sixth, but left-hander Bryan King replaced Dubin and struck out pinch-hitter Logan O’Hoppe with an 81 mph sweeper and Luis Rengifo with a 94 mph fastball to preserve the 2-1 lead.

But King left a 2-and-2 fastball to Moore over the inner half of the plate to open the seventh, and Moore drove a 411-foot homer over the center field wall for a 2-2 tie, Moore avoiding a potential blooper-reel highlight when he nearly tripped over third base coach Bo Porter on his trot home.

“Yeah, we had a mix-up in celebrations,” Moore said. “It was supposed to be a fist-bump type of thing. I think the moment got too big for both of us, honestly, and we kind of forgot it.”

Both teams made spectacular defensive quelled plays in the eighth, Astros center fielder Jake Meyers racing into the left-center field gap to make a full-extension diving catch of Adell’s drive with a runner on first base and one out, and Moore snagging Diaz’s drive to his left.

“Everything he’s done since he’s been here has been as good as we hoped for and probably more,” Montgomery said of Moore’s first week in the big leagues. “And he gave us a great at-bat with the bases loaded [in the eighth]. He just didn’t get the hit.”