TORONTO -- Jo Adell has been on some kind of a run offensively and is starting to show why he was such a highly regarded prospect before he reached the Majors.
Adell doubled and smacked a game-tying three-run homer in the seventh inning of an eventual 4-3 loss in 10 innings to the Blue Jays in the series opener on Friday night at Rogers Centre. It extended Adell’s hitting streak to 15 games, and the 26-year-old is batting .373/.439/.729 with six homers, three doubles and 16 RBIs over that stretch.
But Adell has been hot for longer than that, as he’s hit .331/.403/.685 with 13 homers, five doubles and 30 RBIs over his last 35 games. The 26-year-old is batting .254/.324/.512 with 19 homers, 10 doubles and 50 RBIs in 80 games this season, which is much better than his career slash line of .220/.280/.408 across 388 games since 2020.
“I think the story is still the same with just being aggressive on what I'm looking for,” Adell said. “And good things have happened because of it. So just being committed to that approach and what I'm looking for. If I miss, I miss. It happens, but just always being on the attack and looking for a pitch to do damage on.”
Even in his first at-bat, he crushed one for a hard-luck out on a line drive to center field, as it left the bat at 111.9 mph, per Statcast. But it was a sign of things to come, as Adell was locked in against lefty Eric Lauer, who otherwise held the Angels at bay.
He doubled down the left-field line to open the fifth inning for the Angels’ first hit of the day. He was initially ruled out at second and was tagged hard in the face as he slid headfirst into second but the call was overturned. Adell, though, was stranded at second after Logan O'Hoppe struck out and Luis Rengifo and Gustavo Campero weakly popped out.
“The first thing was to make sure he was OK because he took a pretty good shot to the face there,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “We were gonna take our cracks right there. I thought we were in a good spot. You gotta give credit to Lauer, though, heck of a game over there.”
But after the Blue Jays took the lead with three runs in the sixth inning against veteran Kyle Hendricks, Adell tied it up with one swing. Lauer had exited after Mike Trout reached on an infield single and Taylor Ward singled to deep left. Adell fell behind in an 0-2 count against right-handed reliever Nick Sandlin but obliterated a fastball a projected 431 feet to left. His homer had an exit velocity of 111.3 mph, while his double left the bat at 108.4 mph. Adell’s two hits plus the lineout in the first were the three hardest-hit balls of the game by either team.
“It was great,” Adell said. “In the moment we planned on being aggressive on a fastball over the plate and it showed up. So I was able to get us back in it.”
Adell, though, had the chance to be the hero in the eighth, when he came up with the bases loaded and two outs. But he struck out against reliever Yariel Rodríguez, who threw him four straight sliders.
“The first pitch was probably the pitch that I wanted to swing at and I ended up taking it,” Adell said. “Guys like that, when you get in that situation, it's never good to get behind. And so we were just kind of fighting from there. And he threw another good slider in the corner, and after that, I chased away, so I didn't do what I wanted to do, but I've got to see it and learn from it.”
Hitting with runners on base was an issue for the Angels throughout the game, as they went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, with Adell’s three-run homer being the lone hit. The Angels also failed to score in the 10th despite having the top of the lineup up, as Zach Neto lined out sharply to third, Trout hit a pop fly to second base and Ward struck out. It allowed Toronto to pull off the walk-off victory on a throwing error from right-hander Sam Bachman on a sacrifice bunt attempt in the bottom of the inning.
“Obviously not what we're looking for,” Montgomery said. “We had 10 chances there and left some guys on base. A couple of them were questionable judgment but the guys are grinding and are trying to make the most of those situations.”