Angels 4 White Sox 3
The Angels finally got to open the season at home (after opening in Oakland the last 4 years), but they had to do so against The White Sox who are considered by many to be a top 5 team in MLB. This clash didn’t end so well for the Angels who are now winless on opening day for 8 years running.
Lucas Giolio didn’t make it easy, striking out the side int he 1st inning. The White Sox then drew first blood when Luis Garcia doubled, stole third, and scored on a wild pitch by Dylan Bundy. For his part, Bundy had a solid start, allowing only 3 runs on 6 hits over 6 innings.
Before we get to the rest of the game, here are some 2021 firsts. Any surprise you?
Angels first baserunner of 2021: Mike Trout (walk in the 4th)
Angels first RBI of 2021: Justin Upton (whaat?? Tied up the game in the 4th)
Angels first Home Run of 2021: Max Stassi (also what??)
Sure, Justin Upton tied up the game in the 4th, but that didn’t last long thanks to Adam Eaton’s 2 run blast in the 5th. Stassi answered with his own smash in the bottom half of the inning, bringing the Angels back within 1 run.
If you tuned out of this game early, you missed A LOT, including this Gold Glove caliber play:
The super bad-ass top of the Angels lineup roared back into action int he 8th. Fletcher legged out an infield hit, Ohtani reached on a fielder’s choice, and Michael Nelson Trout knotted the game back up at 3 with a single down the left field line. A few batters later, the Machine added one more RBI to his lifetime tally while giving the Angels their first lead of the game.
New closer Raisel Iglesias made quick work of the White Sox in the 9th and:
Angels Win!!!
That was a really promising win. I’m used to the Angels losing hard-fought games. If they turn that around and start pulling through in the clutch … what a difference that will make.
What a great win! Those errors by the White Sox in the 8th were lucky but welcomed. It’s also great to see a very formidable closer in Iglesias come out and seal it for us, he’s got some good stuff.
And I also was waiting to hear LTBU and felt empty that I didn’t. Maybe he will eventually say it?
Oh and can you imagine if Upton gets into a groove this year and produces like we hope? With Ohtani, trout, and Rendon in front of him, he will have a lot of opportunities for RBIs… let’s hope this continues.
An opening day win! Love the gutsy performance! These guys looked like they wanted it. And having an elite closer is a game changer. I could get used to non-dramatic 9th innings where we actually come out on top. Can we just extend Raisel now please? Please?!
Woo! Fun win. Nice to see Upton look pretty locked in.
Great game. It featured one of my pet peeves about the current ground rules. Eaton’s Home Run was of the over the line, but not in the seats variety. That’s just so displeasing aesthetically. I’m also not at all convinced that the line helps the Angels.
I always thought they put it in to boost Kole’s numbers, and that it kind of backfired.
Well if they’re leaving the yellow line in to help Dexter Fowler’s numbers that will be a waste.
Losing pitcher: Bummer.
There will be 162 games to digest the baseball aspect, so a few quick thoughts on the non-baseball parts of the game:
I HATE the score bug taking up the entire lower part of the screen. I’m sure the area taken up is similar to how it used to be, but it just looms so large. I miss the old one in the corner.
New theme music, no strong preference, I’m sure I’ll come to dig it over time.
I like the cadence of Sutton’s voice, as he has that nice lull where you don’t know where a phrase starts and ends. Good for a broadcaster. Seemed a bit tentative at the start, and he and Gubi were talking across each other the first two innings, but he seemed to settle in. Has the potential to be a solid team. Obviously not as great as Victor now, but we’ll see what happens in the future.
Very disappointed in the Stassi bomb call, there was nothing there. Gubi kinda needed to save the moment. I thought perhaps he couldn’t deliver the energy, but he brought it for the Iglesias play, the Ohtani FC E4, and the Trout single. Although there is no new “LTBU” yet, hopefully we get one soon. So I am positively encouraged by Sutton.
I want that LTBU. And I want it on great wins like last night.
Baseball is back! And I completely forgot that this site is a thing. Ever since HH switched over and everyone left, I haven’t been able to find a good angels community. But then I remembered Rev started an off shoot, but I just couldn’t remember the name.
So glad I found it again! Good to see a bunch of familiar names as well 🙌🏻.
Nice win! Bedrosian and alvarez not in the bp helps out alot.
So when looking at the bottom of the box score, I saw:
Chicago White Sox
Loss
A. Bummer
Yes it was for you White Sox Fans. Ha!
Not sure which is a worse name for a pitcher, Bummer or Homer Bailey.
Then of course there is David Riske. He was a reliever too!
Bob Walk from back in the day. JJ Putz was a generic bad name. But I think my favorite of these guys was Tampa’s (and others) reliever Grant Balfour. Just subtle enough in its hilarity.
So if this is the NEW NORMAL folks were talking about, it isn’t bad .
Both churches had their job done and great.
That was just fantastic. 10/10
Iglesias looked un-hittable! Let’s do it again tomorrow!
OT: Mia, the “Shut yo’ Mouth” / “I’m just talkin’ ’bout Trout” reference was from “Shaft”. 1971. Also remade by Samuel L. Jackson in 2019, so it’s within your timeframe.
First i’ve heard of both. Haha.
I originally thought the F-Bomb bothered you, so at least this is better. ☺️
I missed most of the third. How was Darren and Gubi’s interview with PTP?
It was decent. Nothing too deep but a nice peek at Perry’s personality, a cool picture of him as a kid in the Rangers dugout with Nolan Ryan. He spoke about the Fletcher extension briefly.
LIGHT UP THE HALO!!! Just Another Halos Victory!
That was the best team effort I’ve seen in years.
Also, shout out to nipples guy in the post game.
******Except for the Fowler Hat Trick of course
I imagine there were already pitchforks out for Fowler in favor of Ward in the game thread.
yes, a group effort. The CBS Sports headline says something like “Trout Rallies Angels in Comeback” but it was Fletch getting the hit, Shohei not advancing on the passed ball (which would have led to a Trout IBB), then Shohei’s speed to score the winning run, to go along with Trout’s hit. And the pen came through! Wow!
Incredible first game. Hopefully a glimpse of things to come.
The team had fight in them. Upton’s at bat was epic. And when a small crack opened, the Angels crashed through.
That was an un-frickin-believable AB. For those who missed it, it was a 10 pitch walk.
Yep. J-Up’s AB was the key moment of the game.
That AB was huge, such a pivotal moment.
I’m look forward to Simba-like plays from Iggy all season long!
Dear editors/site managers…..for some reason there have been a lot of problems with the site. It seems to crash on popular threads like gameday. Had trouble getting through all night. Hoping there might be something that can be done.
Great win!!
We are working on it. Hang in there. May have to upgrade to a new server which will take some time.
What a comeback! Turning on the game to a deficit to Giolito is never fun, but I can stand to win more games like this.
Indeed. Giolito was very tough tonight
They fought hard and worked AB’s to get his pitch count up and eventually got him out of the game.
That is when things started to turn.
I don’t know why he moved away from the change-up in favor of more splitters and sliders. His change-up was unhittable for the first four innings.
Is the Butcher of Anaheim their coach? MOAR SLIDERZ!!!
Great opening night game.
I couldn’t get the game thread or this site to load after about the 5th inning….after approximately 130 comments. Oh well 🤷🏼♀️. I kept getting “internal server error.”
p.s. It only took about 2 1/2 minutes for my comment above to load. 🙄😳😡