Angels lose on Good Friday 4-3

Disappointing loss for sure, as the Angels had the lead for most of the game, and had a chance to tie it towards the end. But it won’t be the last of these types of games. Hopefully, bullpen gets better.

Nevin on his pitching decisions:

The Blue Jays’ lineup is loaded with righties, so Manager Phil Nevin gave Herget the ball to face leadoff man George Springer with two outs and one on in the seventh, after left-hander Matt Moore had retired the previous two hitters.

Springer was 2 for 8 with a home run against Moore, while he was hitless in three at-bats, with two strikeouts, against Herget. Right-handers Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed.

“I think he’s our best right-on-right guy,” Nevin said. “He proved that. He did it all last year. He saved games for us when there were right-handed lanes. I love him. And I’ll keep going to him against righties. He makes his good pitches there, he gets them out.”

Nevin on why he pulled Sandy early:

Sandoval had only thrown 89 pitches when Nevin pulled him, but Nevin noted that Sandoval had gone through some stressful innings.

The Blue Jays hit seven balls against him at 100 mph or harder, and the Angels converted three of them into outs. One was a 109.8 mph line drive that Matt Chapman hit in the sixth. Center fielder Mike Trout made a leaping catch against the fence, robbing Chapman of a run-scoring extra-base hit.

“I just felt like that was the end of it for him, with the stress he had,” Nevin said. “That’s a tough lineup to go through, as a left-handed pitcher. I thought he was phenomenal.”