Angels 6, Rangers 2
Kole Calhoun was back to doing damage for the Halos. His two-homer night led the Diamondbacks to victory over the Astros and meant an Angels win would move the club 3.5 back of a playoff berth.
Jaime Barría was the man tasked with pitching. He definitely delivered, twirling a masterpiece in what was one of his finest performances as an Angels. Barría’s slider was working tonight, and he threw it over 50% of the time to a Texas team that couldn’t lay off it.
Jaime Barria has generated 10 swinging-strikes with his slider tonight. Nasty. #Angels pic.twitter.com/nbU7VwqQQK
— Brent Maguire (@bmags94) September 19, 2020
His slicing and dicing worked, and Barría pitched into the seventh, striking out eight hitters. His only two runs allowed were somewhat unfortunate, as Andrelton Simmons booted a ball and a seeing-eye single meandered its way slowly up the middle, but even the runs don’t take anything away from his performance. He is here, and he wants to stay.
Albert Pujols hammered not one but two home runs Friday night, launching him into fifth place on the all-time home run list. He’s had an amazing career, and it is a testament to his perseverance that he made it here with all the struggles he has had as an Angel.
.@PujolsFive passes Willie Mays. 👏
— MLB (@MLB) September 19, 2020
(MLB x @BudweiserUSA) pic.twitter.com/iMeO0x7X1d
The year is 2020. You hit your 661st home run to move into 5th place all-time in baseball history. The second person to congratulate you is known slugger Max Stassi. There's a nice Jack in the Box deal. Life is good. pic.twitter.com/SGokUW8370
— Crashing the Pearly Gates (@CrashingtheG) September 19, 2020
661 wasn't enough. pic.twitter.com/yhp5qwd06h
— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) September 19, 2020
A scary moment happened in the seventh when Upton was nailed in the head with a pitch. It looked completely unintentional. Upton stayed on the ground for about a minute, then got up and was able to hobble his way to the dugout. WARNING.
Not something you ever wanna see.
— Jared Tims (@Jared_Tims) September 19, 2020
Good news, Justin Upton did get up and walk off under his own power. Still scary. pic.twitter.com/YwlTM5OXeg
It’s an unfortunate occurrence for the left fielder, who was in the process of heating up.
The Angels managed to hold on and win, and they are 3.5 games out of a playoff berth. They won’t have a winning record in 2020, but they kept their hopes of winning the last MLB game of the year flickering with this victory.
(Screenshot from Fox Sports Go)
Now that Verlander is unavailable (just kidding) maybe we can get Bauer and Clevenger to join us next year to go with Bundy and Barria and one of Heaney or Canning or Ohtani and we can have a real live honest to goodness genuine all purpose full fledged super duper heavy duty fully guaranteed pitching staff. All l have to do is dream.
Yup we can just keep on winning and with a few breaks we might end up with an overflowing Halloween candy dish at the end of October. Why we might get a few breaks and win a couple of series and the beat the Dodgers in a World Series and be crowned the Champs. That would certainly be followed by a parade in the Big A, a parade of convertibles with a player in each car circling the stadium before no fans and we will all feel like winners. After all if we lose all we get is a better draft choice and we all know we are a team with great scouts even though we have very few and our upper management is very well versed in how to evaluate the available potential talent. So go Angels keep winning and do us proud. Maybe offer Verlander a contract for next season too..
He won’t pitch in 2021
Sarcasm and/or humor on my part.
Heresy coming
They should consider trading Ohtani. San Diego or San Francisco especially ( San Francisco has a large Japanese community still ). Taylor Ward has value as a trading chip. BTW you Dallas Keuchel and Hyun Jin Ryu doubters stand and take your mulligans……LOL!!!
I still believe he has a big plus side. He is a talented and valuable piece even if he does not pitch again. Learning to play the outfield and 1st would be most helpful. He has speed that cannot be taught and he needs to be given AB’s to work out of his slump. l really feel that in the long run he may even have a bigger upside in a trade that will bring even a bigger return than he currently has.
You know, I’m actually not opposed to trading Ohtani at all, but his trade value has to be about as low as it gets right now. Not saying he has no trade value, because he does, but it’s probably about as low as it gets for him.
It makes no sense to trade Ohtani when his value is at its lowest. He has a lot of value, but he needs a strong coaching staff to help him re-discover his form both offensively and on the mound.
We saw what he was capable of in 2018. Let’s see if, with a full offseason, we can get him back to it. At his age, there is no reason for him not to be able to recapture his form.
Totally agree. Ohtani can be a key piece of our turnaround going forward. He’s having a poor year but so are a lot of other great hitters including Yelich and Baez of the Cubs who is only hitting .207.
Would you look to trade those guys if they played for you (question posed to Patrick).??
Oh, I think I misspoke. I wouldn’t trade Ohtani at all. I agree with both of you that, at best, it’s a bad time to get value, at worst you are trading someone who could be a fantastic core player.
i just meant I don’t think he’s untouchable. If someone wanted to give us a couple of top notch cost controlled pitchers (which they wont), I’d at least look at it.
Yep. I agree.
Verlander is probably done. TJS at the age of 37. That means, most likely, he misses all of 2021 and tries to come back at 39 years old.
He’s Hall of Fame as it is now anyway.
yes
Never want to wish injury/surgery on anyone, but glad that he won’t be around to hurt us for awhile if ever again.
I mildly disliked Verlander to begin with, but after the whole cheating scandal and taking all his comments both before and after that in that context, he’s forever on my terrible person list. I don’t want anyone to be injured, but I also don’t care at all that he is. I don’t feel a bit sorry for him.
Thanx for not giving up on Barria
Remember John Lackey had a awful sophomore year in 2003……lowlight was a 6 run shellacking in Boston. Otherwise YKW would’ve stole him and he’d being wearing green & gold right now.
While unlikely…
If the Astros continue to fade and go, say, 3-6 in their last 9 games, we can catch them by going 6-2.
6-2 will be extremely difficult with the Padres and Dodgers on our schedule, but with both teams essentially locked up in their spots (1st, 4th), perhaps we’ll get their B squads and eke out an extra win or two that we would not have otherwise gotten.
Unlikely, but there’s a small shot still.
Even unlikelier, but the Blue Jays are now 26-25, with 2 games in PHI, 4 vs NYY, and 3 vs BAL. The Yankees are finally healthy and on fire. It would take a total collapse for us to catch them, but given their schedule, there is also a very small possibility.
We just have to go, at the bare minimum, 6-2, and most likely 7-1 to get there.
Sweeping the dodgers is a given. I’m worried about San Diego. But it would be great for the team to get hot, knock off houston and stay hot in the playoffs.
Hopefully no 12 run games but spread out the runs perfectly to get the wins.
Sweeping the best team in baseball at their home park is hardly a given. If we can somehow go 2-1 against them, that’d be fantastic.
Ideally, we sweep the Rangers, then go 1-1 against SD and 2-1 against LA. We are fortunate in that we are missing both Clevinger and Lamet for the Padres.
it’s only trAdition at this point to sweep the dodgers
and, if I’m reading this correctly, we have the tie-breaker, head to head record vs the Cheatin’ ‘Stros.
We sure do. 6-2 will be difficult, but I think it’s within the realm of possibility. Dodgers will be mailing it in the last 3 games of the season, so going 2-1 against them isn’t impossible.
Just have to hope the Astros can keep losing. Their opposition is light, but they have a terrible road record this year, and 7 of their last 9 are on the road.
It’s really strange at this point, I actually disdain each Pujols HR.
Only way we make the news
Yeah, I 100% agree and I feel kind of bad about it because I don’t dislike Pujols as person, but his contract and his performance under that contract has done such an immense amount of damage to the club for so long that “celebrating” his “accomplishments” in any way just puts a really bad taste in his mouth.
This sums up my feelings too.
Why? Pujols’ HR’s (+ Barria) were the reason we won last night.
Don’t be dumb.
Hakuna matata, my friend. Appreciate the runs of course, but I appreciate them like a trial that helps me grow. Strange, I know. But, them’s the breaks for me.
If he were playing over someone who would be producing better (like for a little, but not all of his Angel career), then I would be upset. As of now, I trust Pujols over Ohtani, and no one else is going to be in there at DH.
Did Walsh not reach his potential later rather than earlier because of Albert and Thaiss? Has Ohtani and his prolonged slump happened only because of our esteemed Albert? Maybe to both but really we can not answer these questions as they have no answers, but l am not an Albert fan and l get sick at the mentions of his so called records and Gubbi sappy fawning over him every night. But even if no players kost playing time or major league development time he still held us back because of his contract.
Yes. For now he’s the best option.
He’s actually been hitting the ball well the last week or so.
2021 will very likely be a different story.
Yeah and the Pujols plan will in all likelihood depend on the Ohtani plan
That is strange for you … I’m like the biggest “ho-hum” Pujols ‘fan’ but i can’t help but feel good for him at this point. What Pujols does or doesn’t do really doesn’t move the needle on my irritation meter at this point. Yawn.
Any word on Upton?
Maddon says he’s doing fine but will undergo some tests tomorrow.
Let’s hope he’s okay and there is no serious concussion etc..
I did not see it live but even watching the replay is pretty scary. (That sound!).
Wow! Only $5.99 for the chicken strip combo
If Pujols had a cent for every home run, he could get the combo!
And cover the sales tax……😋
And some Chiclets!
I will throw in the towel now as we will not get in on of the top 4 or 5 picks. Hey maybe we will do alright in the draft, it just might not be real bad. Maybe the new GM will have some talented guys to scout and evaluate and maybe we just get lucky, after all we got Trouty way down the line in round one.
At this point, let’s just hope that we can continue to identify good performances and breakout players who can be used as part of the team moving forward.
Bundy, Barria, Walsh, Ward, Mayers, Pena – all of them have had breakout performances to varying degrees, and more importantly, all are under contract for next year and beyond.
We actually have 4 reliable SPs – Bundy, Heaney, Barria, and Canning. The rotation needs an ace, which is the hardest part to get, but if we get one, that’s a really solid rotation. Suarez and Sandoval will be good depth in AAA. Ohtani may or may not factor in. If he actually does regain his form, then we could even have a top flight rotation.
Walsh and Ward have been very encouraging. Walsh looks like he’ll be our starting 1B moving forward, and Ward, if nothing else, looks like a solid bench player and, potentially, could be our starting RF until either Adell or Marsh are actually ready to contribute (i.e., they should both start off in AAA).
S T A S S I
I’ve honestly always loved Jaime since his come up in 2018. People at HH were not buying it though because some of his stats didn’t look good. He was only 21 and I think the best is yet to come with him and he at least deserves a spot in our rotation somewhere. I still will never forgive the halos for keeping Stratton in the show over him.
I like him too. Was disappointed he struggled last year.
Ditto, same goes currently for Sandoval.
That gives me hope for Adell
True true, I think he’s got a spot in the rotation in his future.