After the last two days of showing off their power swings vs. the A’s, the Angels jetted up north to Seattle for a 3 game series with the Mariners. In this first true test of the new season, we’d get a small taste of how the Halos can match up with one of the teams expected to be a contender. The M’s lost 3 out of 4 to Cleveland, so the hope was that maybe they’re not firing on all cylinders yet. Would the Angels extend their winning streak to 3 or would the M’s extend their losing streak to 4?
George Kirby got the start for the Mariners and Reid Detmers took the bump for the Halos on a chilly night with the T-Mobile Park roof closed. In the first inning, Kirby worked around a Trout single to send the Angels down without a score. In the bottom half of the inning, Eugenio Suarez knocked in J-Rod to give Seattle an early lead.
The Angels would answer back in the top of the 2nd with an RBI single by Rengifo, driving in Jake Lamb.
After a scoreless bottom of the 2nd and top of the 3rd, Seattle went ahead again thanks to a Ty France double, once again scoring Julio Rodriguez. Detmers limited the damage and kept the score at 2-1.
Not to be outdone, Luis Rengifo made deja vu a reality by driving in Jake Lamb with a line-drive single. Sound familiar? The game was tied 2-2.
Detmers worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the 4th to keep the score tied. In the top of the 5th, following a Mike Trout walk, Shohei Ohtani flashed his power once again, sending a George Kirby pitch deep to center field, giving the Angels a 4-2 lead. Sugoi!!
After two more batters, Kirby would give way to relief pitcher Penn Murfee, who ended the inning with no further Halo fireworks.
In the bottom of the 5th Detmers would give up another RBI to Suarez making the score 4-3 Halos. Appearing to become less crisp, Detmers night was done. Reid was not at his best but kept the team in the game with a solid performance featuring 7 K’s.
Ryan Tepera came in with runners on 1st and 3rd with 2 outs and promptly got Pollock out on a deep fly to end the inning.
Angels pitchers Matt Moore and Jimmy Herget, along with Seattle relievers Murfee and Diego Castillo made the 6th and 7th innings uneventful. The 8th inning would not be so uneventful thanks to Taylor Ward’s blast to center field off Matt Festa, giving the good guys in grey a couple of insurance runs and a 3-run 6-3 lead.
The always excitable Jose Quijada faced off against Seattle in the bottom of the 8th with his jersey mostly buttoned, giving up a long flyout, a liner right to Urshela at 3rd, followed by a ground ball to complete a 1-2-3 inning.
In the top of the 9th, Festa kindly walked Renfroe and gave Brandon Drury a nice pitch to hit for a double to the left-center gap driving in Trout’s doppelganger all the way from first base to make it a 7-3 Angels lead.
Carlos Estevez, the closer who is not to be named closer, was brought into a non-save situation to finish up the win. Following a pop-out by former Angel Tommy LaStella in a pinch-hitting role and a J.P. Crawford walk, J-Rod put a scare into our hearts but it was a harmless flyout to deep left field. Ty France then grounded out to end the game. 7-3 Angels win to light the Halo! Three wins in a row and a 3-1 record secured. Way to keep the ball rolling and ensure at least a .500 road trip to start the season.
2nd game of 4 they scored in 3+ different innings. That probably means something
It means that the lineup is applying legitimate pressure on the opponent’s staff 1-thru-9.
This was done without Rendon & Walsh as well.
Side note: The last time Fletcher was an effective hitter is now pretty distant in the rear view.
So when do we get to play some good teams?
The question right now is “So who are the good teams?”
.750 winning percentage works for me !!!
Is it us? Are we the good teams?
We played one tonight. Despite their slow start I think one would have to characterize Seattle as “good.” I would not call them very good or great, but “good,” yeah.
Ohyeah noooo! Best worst team ever! Urshela and O’Hoppe are obviously broken men. Our bullpen gave up nothing but I could tell they were always mere seconds away from collapse. Besides, because I’m demandachamp I only count wins against teams that are five games over .500…. and whose average biceps diameter is 26 inches. So the Angels are winless still in my book. I blame Arte through Rendon via Sam Blum’s rage puddle.
I refuse to enjoy this win.
If you enjoyed this win then you just don’t understand baseball. Good to see you understand baseball.
Baseball is a child’s bauble in my hand. That’s why Arte should listen to me all the time. If you really want me to fix some things point my bulbous head at kids today or corporate fatcats and their fair share.
I’d say gitcho for president, but they rarely care about those two things.
Good all round game, as Urshela and O’Hoppe cool Drury and Renfroe heat up as Ward, Trouty and Shohei keep going. Fun Stuff.
Detmers actually had some pretty sick sequences in this start. He looked tired towards the end, but dang, if he can go another 20 to 30 pitches that way he’s gonna have a good year.
He pitched decent for being inconsistent, but he did have some good things going. He is a very good 4th starter in my opinion, not many teams can match us 5 deep. He gassed out a couple of baters early unfortunately, but the season is still very early.
I think the best thing about this game was that detmers had a handful of really dominant pitch sequences. That will give our coaches and Detmers some video and game data to look at that very clearly say “That thing. Do that stuff again.”
If he does…. good season ahead.
Yeah. The fourth inning in particular had some really good looking stuff. He was fun to watch.
Tonight we see the formula. Good starting pitching, plenty of offense, and pray the hard hit balls go straight to our fielders when the bullpen enters.
Need more suck ass catchers.
LIGHT UP THE HALO!!!
…..
Tied for first. Astros lost in extras and we handled the Mariners with ease.
To the 0-3 Tigers no less!
Maybe their dark side powers are finally recessing.
One can only hope
With “ease” ??
Lol.
3 runs(2ER) from your 4th starter is always workable, scoreless bullpen, killer offense…against a playoff team.
But i’m sorry you disagree with my use of a word. I’ll try to do better next time.
Pretty strong showing if #4 starter plus a ton of pen innings gets you a solid win. This game just needed a little Tucky D is all.
Says a lot on far we’ve come if thats our #4. Didn’t have his best stuff but was gritty enough to keep us in it. A pitch or two better easily could have got the win. Fully expect his fair share of nights where his stuff is dominant regardless of who or where he’s pitching.
Gotta love Gritty and his ability to turn the page on a bad pitch and gritty-up on his next one.
Detmers is on course to be solid I think. So far he is progressing nicely. Good to see his fastball in the 94-96 mph range. When he first came up he looked more like the “soft tossing lefty” type. He has definitely expanded his repetoire.
“Ease” sort of belies all those laser shots the Mariners hit to our outfielders : a little luck there, I’d say…
BABIP definitely in our pitchers favor there..:
Every win requires a little luck.
Act Chew El Leeeeee
I honestly wasn’t aware we were being graded. Were you?
Should I change my answer “jfc this team sucks, can’t believe we barely scratched out that 7-3 win where the M’s didn’t score after the 5th and our bats went off”
We’ll be lucky to make it out of Seattle alive!
Remember when I said we’re all gonna die? I said that. I’m right.
But it is not this day!
Had we lost to the Mariners it could have been sketchy
Let’s keep it going!!
Yeeessssss
Yessssssssssssss
so happy to see this, so soon! Also, nice catch by the fan on Ohtani’s HR. Not too difficult but his pants looked about ready to fall down, plus the guy next to him was in the way.
😂
Shufflebot lost weight this offseason and came into spring training in the best shape of his life.
He’s prepared to dance a lot this season!