Inning One
We have Shohei Ohtani versus Framber Valdez today. Both of the warring sides failed to score in the first. Yordan Alvarez did manage to get on base with a walk. 0-0 Angels.
Inning Two
One Astro advanced on a strikeout. Our catcher is still getting used to a major league sweeper. The Angels didn’t really do anything with this inning. Great, another pitcher’s duel! Not our forte.
Inning 3
The Astros did nothing. Zach Neto, on the other hand, hit one out to right center field for his major league homer. 1-0 Angels.
Angels. That was it for this inning. 1-0 Angels.
Fourth Inning
Chris Okey allegedly did a catcher’s interference that led to a big play at first. Jeremy Pena was safe then, but he was out later on a pick off by Shohei Ohtani.
Fifth Inning
Martin Maldonado hit a two run homer to make it 2-1 Astros. David Hensley also scored on a Yordan Alvarez single. 3-1 Astros.
Sixth Inning
The Astros did nothing. Gio Urshela did reach on a fielding error but Chris Oakey struck out swinging to end the inning. At least Ohtani made it this far. One or more of our more terrifying bullpen options might not get used today. There’s that. Mike Trout reached on a two out single. Shohei Ohtani reached on a catcher’s interference by Martin Maldonado. Anthony Rendon then struck out to end the inning.
Seventh Inning
The Astros again did nothing in the seventh. Here we are in crunch time. The Angels also did nothing.
Eighth Inning
Andrew Wantz came in part way though this inning and finished it off with no further Astro scoring. He Wantz to stay ahead of the Astros in the standings, as do we all. Okay, I did my obligatory stupid Andrew Wantz joke. Now let’s win this thing. Um. The Angels went three up three down in the eighth. They must be saving it for the ninth inning.
Ninth Inning
The Astros did almost nothing, although Jeremy Pena did manage to hit a meaningless single. Ryan Pressly came in to pitch for Framber Valdez. Shohei Ohtani struck out. Anthony Rendon did the same. It was up to Hunter Renfroe to do something with this game. Well … He hit a fly ball out to end the game. Astros win 3-1.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Take the game tonight and the series-Simple
Go Halos!!
That’s one of those tough losses in baseball where your ace is just outpitched. Oh well. Move on to the next game.
Bah. Their ace whooped our ace in an ace off. It’ll happen. Bummer. Turd the page.
Valdez with 12Ks 0BBs. No one could track his backfoot slider/curve. Touching 98 for the first time that I remember. Sometimes you run into a buzzsaw and the opposing pitcher throws lights out. Reminds me of the game years ago when we hit Hyun Jin Ryu on a night where he had everything working when he was with the Dodgers and he 1 hit us. Baseball happens.
This loss is on me, sorry.
I was at work, and saw almost none of it.
I only popped open GameDay right when Maldonado was up.
My first thought was “hey, so he is still on the Astros.”
My second thought was “sweet, we got Sandy for this guy”.
My third thought was “he’ll probably hit a homer right here just for payback”. And I didn’t see what happened and went back to work and didn’t check again until the 7th inning.
Of course if I actually did have telepathic powers I should find a better use…
Strongest evidence yet that Shohei may just be human after all.
But any game your starter holds your opponent to 3 runs you’ve still got a good chance to win. This loss is equally on the offense that didn’t show up besides the new kid.
Congrats to Neto, btw. Personally, it would eat at me that my first homer was a yellow line dinger. Maybe he’s not as crazy.
Okey is definitely not the answer but Maybe Shohei shouldn’t be calling his own pitches anymore. Unfortunately Max Stassi is MIA with zero updates as to his welfare or status. 60 days is coming up in 2 weeks and certainly he wouldn’t return without an extensive minor league rehab assignment. If its an injury then he could go on the 60 day IL if its a family issue he could go an an exemption list but both would open up a spot on the 40 man roster.
I just find it really weird that the Angels have had no updates or even mentioned Stassi’ name in over a month.
There must have been some horrible accident or death in his immediate family.
To be away from the team this long with no update. And a while back Nevin said we should pray for him.
Whatever he’s dealing with, I just hope he’s ok.
True. I am concerned. What is gonna keep a professional baseball player from wanting to go play professional baseball if he can still play professional baseball? I mean, if the Angels called me TODAY, what would it take for me to say, “nah, I can’t”? Health? Or something worse?
JuJu. It’s bad.
I wonder what Arte did to him. The evil. It’s there. Lurking. Only Shohei’s mom knows about the true depths.
SACRILEGE!!!
This loss can be blamed squarely on Shohei. There was no reason, nada, for that hanging slider to Maldonado, of all people, he of the .175 BA and .533 OPS.
Even if he had given up the hits after that, it would have been tied at 1-1.
It’s his first loss of the season, and it was well earned.
Yep, he messed up. Maldonado is still an MLB player who will jump on a pitch.
He seems to do that a lot v angels.
I’m always surprised when they announce his sub Mendoza ba and he proceeds to tear it up.
Yes, and this is an ongoing issue with Shohei. He likes to help out the lesser/weaker hitters on the opposition… For example, he frequently walks the number 7-9 batters of the other team… I mean, if you are going to pitch around or walk somebody let it be a guy like Alvarez or Devers etc.. don’t walk the little guys hitting .230 or under ! He walked Meyer right before facing Maldy, which made it a two run shot instead of a solo.
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