Joe Blanton entered in the fifth and worked around a two-out Johnny Giavotella base hit to toss a scoreless inning of relief. Crawford beat the Angels’ shift by slapping a double down the third base line.
Crawford was stranded by A.J. Ellis and Pederson, who flied out to the fence in center field. J.P. Howell retired the first two batters faced, then was removed after hitting Calhoun with a pitch.
Yimi Garcia and Scott Van Slyke entered as part of a double switch, replacing Howell and Pederson. Garcia struck out Cron to keep the Angels’ lead at 2-0. Mike Morin took over the Angels in the bottom of the sixth and set the Dodgers down in order.
Simmonds led off the seventh with a base hit, and he moved into scoring position on Soto’s grounder to first base. Giavotella followed an Ortega walk with an RBI single to right field. Chris Hatcher replaced Garcia and allowed two more runs to come across before recording the third out.
Aside from walking Gonzalez with two outs, Angels reliever Joe Smith kept the Dodgers off the bases to preserve a 5-0 lead. Luis Avilan erased a leadoff base hit by inducing Cron into a 6-4-3 double play. Avilan worked around a two-out walk to pinch-hitter Cliff Pennington and a Charlie Culberson throwing error to get out of the inning unscathed.
Ellis, Trayce Thompson and Seager combined to hit a trio of singles with no outs off Huston Street in the bottom of the eighth. Seager’s scored Ellis to cut the Angels’ lead to 5-1. Culberson drew a two-out walk to load the bases, which led to a pitching change.
Facing Cam Bedrosian, Rob Segedin put a charge into one, but it was caught at the warning track in left field to end the inning. Johan Mieses led off the bottom of the ninth with a double, but the Dodgers never truly threatened to come back and lost to the Angels, 5-1.
