(Sports Network) – At 71-54, the Angels have the best interleague road mark all-time. What could be better than having road master Dan Haren on the hill today for a game against the New York Mets?
Haren has fashioned a 4-1 road record and has won his last two such starts. He’s coming off a Monday win at Seattle in which he allowed three runs over six innings. Haren is 1-0 with a 3.89 ERA in six games (5 starts) when facing the Mets.
Mike Pelfrey will try for his first victory in more than a month when he takes the ball for the Mets. The right-hander is 0-2 over his last six appearances with a victory coming May 10 at Colorado. Pelfrey has improved over his last two outings, giving up two runs each time in games against Pittsburgh and Milwaukee.
On the positive side, Pelfrey is 2-0 with a 3.40 ERA in six starts at Citi Field this year. He was lit up for eight hits and six runs in his only showing against the Angels, but the Mets won that game.
Last night, Joel Pineiro finally picked up career win No. 100. Pineiro (3-3) threw 6 1/3 innings and allowed six hits and two runs in Los Angeles’ 4-3 win. The right-hander had been 0-3 over his previous six starts, but he moved to 4-0 lifetime in seven appearances against the Mets.
Peter Bourjos doubled in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning and made a spectacular catch against the fence in the bottom of the frame.
Jordan Walden walked two batters in the bottom of the ninth, but came back to strike out Carlos Beltran, Daniel Murphy and Angel Pagan in order to finish the game and pick up his 16th save of the year.
The Angels, who had 10 hits, are 3-1 on a current 12-game road trip.
“We definitely got some clutch hits tonight and that was good to see,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “It’s been missing in a lot of our baseball so far this season.”
Chris Capuano (5-7) gave up eight hits and three runs — two earned — over six innings. He had won his previous two starts.
“He didn’t have his best stuff, it was quite obvious,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “He got a lot of balls up, even his change-up wasn’t that good.”
This is the Angels’ first trip to Citi Field. They hadn’t visited the Mets since taking two of three at Shea Stadium from June 10-12, 2005. New York prevailed twice in a three-game series when the teams last met at Anaheim in 2008.