The Angels win today in their second game vs Texas. It was an intense start by Ohtani that ended in a comfortable win. Thanks to some luck and bad Rangers defense., the Angels take game of the series.
Recap
Shohei Ohtani was on the mound again, this time just as a pitcher. He started the game by giving everyone a panic attack by loading the bases before getting out of it without giving up a run. Ohtani was effectively wild and with his pitch count made it only 4 innings. He gave up only 1 hit, but walked 6 and struck out 7 also hit a batter. No runs and he left healthy, which is all that matters.
The offense kept quiet until Scott Schebler came to the plate in the 3rd. He smoked a double immediately, moved to 3rd on a fly ball, and scored on a sac fly by Fletcher. 1-0 Angels.
As the bottom of the 4th came, the Rangers gifted Trout a double by forgetting to catch the ball. Upton singled him to 3rd, and a wild pitch brought Trout home. 2-0 Angels.
Griffin Canning came in for the 5th and took only 11 pitches to get through his first half inning. His second inning did not go as well, allowing a solo shot in the 6th.
Meanwhile the offense helped get that run back thanks to a Trout home run in the 6th. 3-1 Angels.
However, Canning was pulled with 1 out in the 7th. Griffin went 2 and 1/3 innings with 1 run allowed in relief. Mike Mayers came in and allowed an inherited runner to score on a bunt by Joey Gallo. He pitched a clean 8th and did his job.
The offense made sure that they would get to the 9th with a comfortable lead. Pujols hit a home run, and so did Suzuki. By doing so they beat the shift in a more explosive way and increased the lead to 6-2.
With a 6-2 lead, the closer Iglesias came in shut the door. He allowed a hit, but got a GIDP to end the Rangers’ day.
The Angels are now 9-6 on the year and face the Rangers again tomorrow at 1 PM. Q gets the start, and the Angels look to win a series and keep up with the red hot A’s and Mariners.
With his home run last night, Trout tied Jay Buhner for 10th most homers ever hit by an AL West player. It took Buhner 14 seasons to hit his 307 Mariner homers.
That first paragraph was… something to read.
Nice win, though.
Cold (by OC standards) but fun night at the ballpark.
Again the middle relief kept us in the game until the bats had a chance to get going.
Great to see a Pujols bomb. I’m not going to see many more in his career.
That breeze was a little cooler than every other game so far.
Surprisingly have seen both Pujols home runs this year as well as a few of those other things he’s known for. Two 446’ bombs though! Fun to see.
Canning’s outing was encouraging. Hopefully he can build on that next time out.
The Pujols HR was an absolute blast ( he hit it 446 ft). Despite the fact he runs like Bengie Molina he still has some thunder in that bat.
But the biggest play of the night was the double be Schebler. The offense had been stagnant and somebody new had to step up with a big hit, and he was the one. Not sure why Schebler wasn’t the starter from day one.
Agreed. Schebler was already wanted on the team by this site but he proved his worth with good ABs, hustle and base running. Easy to like a guy that does that.
Especially the strikeouts.
LTBU!
A’s quickly turn their slow start around running off 10 in a row. I remember some here were rooting for the A’s to beat Houston in an early series. As far as I’m concerned you never root for either of those teams. You hope they go .500 against each other.
They were 1-7 before the streak.
Baseball is crazy.
Can’t wait till we go on a good winning streak
Fun game!!
That was one of the worst “One hit, K’s 7 in 4 shutout innings” you can get , but I’ll take it. The velo was slightly down so hopefully he gets better with more healing.
Celebrate the win!
Hasn’t pitched in 15 days. With that as perspective I’m decently happy. You don’t just come back and crank it to 11.
Langston predicted command issues on the pregame. Dude knows his stuff.
Still think Mark would make an excellent pitching coach.
Agreed. He knows his stuff. Not a great announcer but could make an excellent pitching coach.
I like seeing Ohtani hitting over .300 with a 1.04 ERA. And Trout at .385. That’s nice. I also like us being on pace to win 97.
I’m enjoying this 2021 season.
“I’m enjoying this 2021 season”
Until the next loss 😃
Exactly
Truth. 24 hrs ago I wasn’t enjoying it very much….
Sometimes I feel so nice, good Lord
I jump back, I wanna kiss myself
– James Brown
Good Times! Summer of TOD!
James Brown is the man!!!
The funkiest dude who ever lived. Kids today worship these crap hip hop “artists”and the 60’s had James Brown who was a truly great entertainer!
That was a interesting first half of the game and offense came through in 7th inning again! Driving home safely 🙂
Actually offense came through earlier in the game. Manufacturing that first run with a double, a fly ball and a SF was a thing of beauty. We HAD to have that first run tonight and we got it…
We had some offense before the 7th, yeah. The game felt odd before that (like Texas should’ve scored some runs on Ohtani and their defense really was poor. Trouts double, dropped pops up, etc) so going into the bottom of 7th up 3-2 didn’t really feel like it.
Oh my goodness. Started out a nailbiter, then Shohei got his footing, then the bombs started launching, and Kurt Suzuki hit a two run dinger! Good golly Miss Molly!
When the other times the squeaky luck is with the opponent we get all pissed so we should relish the times that we squeak thru a few tense situations in one game to win it. Light up the HALO but don’t piss in the relish.
Used to losing so any sign of losing is doom all over again…. but when we win, World Series here we come!!