Albert Pujols saves the day for Angels with walk-off single in extras

For the first six weeks of 2017, the Angels pieced together an effective bullpen from the unlikeliest of sources. With their established relievers injured, they turned a lifelong starter into their closer, watched a waiver-wire veteran literally strike everyone out for a while, and plucked a diminished pitcher from Atlanta’s triple-A affiliate and, somehow, rode him successfully.

On Tuesday night at Angel Stadium, their luck ran out. But no matter: Albert Pujols saved the day. He supplied a walk-off single in the 11th inning to deliver the Angels back to .500 with a 7-6 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Andrelton Simmons started the rally with a single and took second on a passed ball. Danny Espinosa tried to bunt him over but failed. Ben Revere looped a single into center, and, for his fifth hit of the night, Cameron Maybin lucked into a bloop double to tie the game. The White Sox shortstop, Tim Anderson, slipped on his way to it.

“That was a beautiful thing right there, man,” Maybin said. “That’s one of those where you look up to the sky, and you thank the Good Lord for dropping one in there for you. I’ve been waiting on one of those to go my way.”

After Mike Trout was intentionally walked, Albert Pujols drove a baseball deep enough to center for a sacrifice fly. For good measure, Chicago’s center fielder could not catch it, concluding a poorly played game that, yet, did not feature any errors.

“As soon as I hit that ball,” Pujols said, “I knew the game was over.”

With starter-turned-closer Bud Norris unavailable after pitching on three consecutive days, Manager Mike Scioscia turned to David Hernandez, the triple-A cast-off. He blew a three-run ninth-inning lead to the Chicago White Sox in the ninth inning, unable to retire a batter. Melky Cabrera and Jose Abreu singled, Avisail Garcia doubled to the wall, and Todd Frazier tied it with the most peculiar of infield singles, the ball seeming demagnetized from any Angels defender.

In so doing, Hernandez squandered right-hander JC Ramirez’s seventh start of 2017. He lasted seven innings, didn’t walk anyone, and limited the White Sox to five hits.

Ramirez permitted a first-inning single and then nothing until the fifth, when everything began to veer toward Simmons, the shortstop. First was a grounder he turned into an out, then an Avisail Garcia blooper that tipped off his glove. The next inning, Leury Garcia blooped another baseball past Simmons’ glove just before Yolmer Sanchez deposited a two-run homer into the bleachers. Next, Melky Cabrera drilled another ball in between second and third. Simmons corralled it, finally, and exhaled twice.

Pujols missed the 597th homer of his career by a few feet in the first inning and again in the ninth, when it would have meant a walk-off. In the third, he took a shorter route to success, punishing a ball down the left-field line to score runners from first and second. Because of its carom and because of his 37-year-old legs, it went only as a single. Still, the hit carried him into 11th place on MLB’s all-time RBI list, in between Carl Yastrzemski and Mel Ott.

The Angels added a run in the fourth, on two singles and a walk, and two more in the seventh, on a double and three walks, one of them intentional. Pinch-hitter Luis Valbuena walked on four pitches to force in a run, and Jefry Marte ripped a single into center for another. Running from second, Pujols was thrown out at home by 10 feet.

After Ramirez departed, Blake Parker handled the eighth inning easily, and Yusmeiro Petit the 10th and 11th, yielding only a solo home run to Tim Anderson in the 11th.

The ball barely cleared the left-field wall. At the base of it, Maybin believed it should not have.

“That’s a ball I should catch easy,” Maybin said. “I got caught under the fence. I didn’t give myself enough space to make a good leap. I didn’t think it was gonna go that far. I just misplayed it.”

A career center fielder, he said the play was a product of his ongoing adjustment to left field, where the wall’s closer to where he stands.

Ramirez threw only 85 pitches through his seven innings and argued for the opportunity to pitch the eighth.

“I got a little bit upset,” he said about being told he would not have the chance. “But the manager, he makes the call. I think he made the right decision.”

In the first seven starts of his career, Ramirez has averaged more than six innings, struck out 36, walked just 10, and registered a 3.80 earned-run average. The statistics do not overwhelm, but they contain value. Cincinnati owned the worst bullpen in the major leagues last year and still deemed him unworthy of a roster spot. The Angels scooped him up on waivers, inserted him into their bullpen, tweaked his pitch mix, and uncovered a durable arm capable of pitching deep into games.

Whether it will last remains to be seen. But his status as a success story is no longer revocable. Absent top-end starters or talented prospects in their farm system, the Angels (21-21) must extract a few more pitching gems from unlikely sources to contend for the playoffs, now and in the future.

“We’re going to go as far as that rotation will give us a chance to go,” Scioscia said. “We’re at least keeping our head above water right now.”

pedro.moura@latimes.com

Twitter: @pedromoura