Meyer, Angels throw 1-hitter against Nats

Just when you think the Los Angeles Angels are out of the American League wild-card race, they pull you back in.One night after Washington tripled their hit total, the Angels limited the Nationals to a single hit in a 7-0 thrashing at Angel Stadium. Starter Alex Meyer carried a perfect game into the fifth and a no-hitter into the sixth, and two Angels relievers completed his effort. The club had not logged a one-hitter in more than two years.The Angels (47-50) are three games out of playoff position. Sixty-five games remain on their schedule, but only nine until the July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline, complicating the decision-making process awaiting general manager Billy Eppler.If the team streaked in one direction or the other, action would be more obvious. But week after week, they remain in the vicinity of .500.On Wednesday, the first three Nationals to bat stroked line drives. All were caught, including Daniel Murphy’s shot to right, corralled in midair by newly promoted Shane Robinson. According to MLB’s proprietary Statcast information trove, similarly struck balls are hits 93 percent of the time.The Angels promoted Meyer from triple A for the game, but in his dozen previous major league starts this season, he has struggled in the first inning. He had walked 11 and allowed eight runs in the 12 games. Predictably, in Wednesday’s second inning, he started to induce soft contact. The next five Nationals failed to hit the ball out of the infield. No Washington representatives reached base until there were two outs in the fifth, when Meyer issued a four-pitch walk to Anthony Rendon.It was the first time in 15 plate appearances that Meyer stretched the count to three balls. He did not do it again until the penultimate batter he faced, Ryan Zimmerman, in the seventh. In between, with two outs in the sixth, Brian Goodwin slapped a double down the right-field line to spoil Meyer’s no-hit bid.Longtime friends, Meyer and Goodwin met for breakfast earlier on Wednesday at the Filling Station, a local favourite in Orange. Meyer said he paid for the meal. “I’ll have to talk to him about that,” he joked.Oddly enough, the Nationals selected Rendon, Meyer and Goodwin in the first round of the 2011 draft and introduced all three together in a Nationals Park news conference. All three remain friends; Rendon just slept through breakfast, Meyer said.After two trades, Meyer is here. He put together the best start of his career Wednesday night. The seven innings he completed were a career high, and he required only 88 pitches to traverse them. While walking just one, Meyer struck out seven Nationals, pumping his two-seam fastball past unsuspecting hitters.He has typically relied on his four-seamer this season, but planned to utilize the two-seamer Wednesday.“If you want to stay up here, you need to do a little better,” Meyer said. “That’s what I took out of it,” Meyer said.David Hernandez and Jose Alvarez completed the one-hitter with a perfect inning apiece.Nationals left-hander Gio Gonzalez was wild to begin the game. Yunel Escobar and Albert Pujols singled around a Mike Trout walk, which netted one run. C.J. Cron swung at a slider in the dirt to provide Gonzalez his first out of the inning, 20 pitches in. After an Andrelton Simmons sacrifice fly scored a second run, Gonzalez settled. After a single in the second and a single in the third, he set down the Angels in order over the next two innings.Come the sixth, his control faltered. Pujols walked and Cron clubbed a home run some 461 feet. He came inches from landing the baseball inside a massive, sponsored paint can. In four seasons, no one has completed the feat, which would earn the Angels’ foundation a $1 million donation.The Angels added more in the seventh when facing Joe Blanton. The 2013 free-agent disaster had experienced a career renaissance, but he is struggling in his first season as a National. On Wednesday, Ben Revere singled against him, stole second, and took third because of Matt Wieters’ errant throw. Escobar soon singled Revere in.Up next, Trout took the count to 2-2. He then received a plum pitch, a 91-mph fastball over the exact center of the strike zone. He kicked his leg and calmly whipped his bat to meet the ball, which soared 132 feet into the air and 407 feet from home plate for a two-run homer.That capped the club’s scoring. The Angels had not mustered more than five runs in a game since June 24. They had not won a game by a margin as substantive as Wednesday’s since June 17. As expected, the Angels recalled Robinson from triple-A Salt Lake before Wednesday’s game and placed Cameron Maybin on the disabled list with a right knee sprain suffered Tuesday. To make room for Meyer, they optioned reliever Eduardo Paredes to Salt Lake. ... Right-hander Garrett Richards has stretched his throwing out to 90 feet. He remains hopeful of pitching this season.RESULTSRockies 18 Padres 4Dodgers 9 White Sox 1 (8 innings)Angels 7 Nationals 0Cubs 8 Braves 2Red Sox 5 Blue Jays 1Mets 7 Cardinals 3Pirates 3 Brewers 2 (10 innings)Royals 4 Tigers 3Twins 6 Yankees 1Reds 4 Diamondbacks 3 (11 innings)Mariners 4 Astros 1Athletics 7 Rays 2Giants 5 Indians 4Orioles 10 Rangers 2Phillies 10 Marlins 3