It was Sho-time Sunday today. The Angels also have a new look bullpen as of today. How did the game go? Well, nothing really happened in the first two innings except that Shohei Ohtani threw a wild pitch. It didn’t result in any scoring. Frankly, much of the game was a pitcher’s duel so I don’t have a lot of offensive highlights.
In the top of the third inning, Joey Gallo walked and then Carlos Correa doubled him in to make it 1-0 Twins. In the bottom of the third, with two outs, Mike Trout reached on a strikeout/passed ball. Unfortunately Shohei Ohtani grounded into the third out to end the inning.
In the bottom of the fourth inning Hunter Renfroe and Jared Walsh both singled toward right.
Gio Urshela sacrificed Renfroe in from third.
Unfortunately, Jared Walsh got doubled up at first. Luis Rengifo kept the inning alive with a single through the middle. Chad Wallach struck out. 1-1 tie after 4.
In the fifth inning, the Angels turned a double play and Shohei hit the Twins nine hole hitter with a pitch. Luckily he struck out Joey Gallo to end the top of the inning.
The Angels failed to score in the fifth inning, although Zach Neto did steal a base. Nobody score in the sixth inning.
In the seventh, Reyes Moronta came in to pitch for Shohei Ohtani. Two out of the first three batters singled. The next guy tried to “walk” with only three balls. Nice try Solano! (He did walk anyway on the next pitch.) Chris Devensky replaced Reyes Moronta with the bases loaded and two outs. He got a big strikeout to end the threat. Matt Thaiss walked in the bottom of the seventh. Pablo Lopez was pulled from the game. Is this the end of the pitcher’s duel? Zach Neto doubled off of Jorge Lopez to put runners at second and third with no outs. Mickey Moniak doubled to make it 3-1 Angels. Dude!
Mike Trout hit a grounder to second to send Moniak to third base. Moniak was out at home on a fielder’s choice leaving Shohei Ohtani at first with two outs. Hunter Renfroe struck out.
Matt Moore came in to pitch the top of the eighth inning. Hunter Renfroe made a really nice catch to deny Carlos Correa. Unfortunately, Alex Kirillof homered off of Moniak’s glove to make it 3-2 Angels. He almost had it but, of well. Eduard Julien singled. Kyle Farmer hit into a double play to end the Twins half of the inning.
In the eighth, Gio Urshela got a one out base hit. During Rengifo’s at bat he broke for second base and a botched throw sent him to third. Rengifo grounded out but Matt Thaiss doubled to left and advanced to third on a Joey Gallo error. Urshela scored. 4-2 Angels. Zach Neto struck out.
Now for the ninth inning. Carlos Estevez came in. Trevor Larnach grounded out. Willi Castro singled to center on a liner. Donovan Solano struck out. Ryan Jeffers lined out to Hunter Renfroe to end the game. The Angels won 4-2! The curse is lifted!
Seriously, though, Moniak was pissed as hell that he couldn’t catch that HR ball
🎶He’s a Moniak, Moniak in the field l, and he’s playing like he’s never played before🎶
Anyone know the record of Angels in games Ohtani starts versus record when other guys start? It has to be a fairly sizable divide.
As I have said before- my favorite is watching young players come up and contribute. Watching Neto, Moniak and O’Hoppe (even briefly) has been awesome and bodes really well for the future of the franchise.
Need Moar Yong Pitchin’
4-3 against 2 playoff-bound teams, and one series on the road. That’s a 93 win % right there! /s
If Moniak had come up with that it might have been the catch of the year.
He’s got nuthin on JB Shuck
That was a great catch
a JB Shuck reference.
That’s impressive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JjPw-s1T60
Oh boy, forgot about that one!
Jo knows better
https://youtu.be/XuH6EL61LF4
In case some of you are interested because Shohei always meets Japanese media after he pitches, some excerpts from Q&A session (loosely translated):
-When informed he got 3 strike outs with cut ball today, he explained that it was a part of the strategy and cut ball felt good to him when he was warming up prior to the game.
-When asked why he threw more splits in the first inning though this year he has not used splits compared to last year, he mentioned he just felt like he wanted to throw more splits in the first inning. In previous games, he felt he wanted to throw more sliders in earlier innings.
-In recent games he has allowed many homeruns, how did he fix the issue today. He said that he placed more importance on disallowing opponents to put strong swings on his pitches. He mentioned there were two hard hit pitches and one of them resulted in Twins run that he gave up. Otherwise he was successful in accomplishing his goal. He went on to say that he was frustrated to give up a walk before Correa’s double.
-On the sweeper that Correa hit for double, he admitted that he attempted to put that particular sweeper out of the strike zone but caught too much zone. He gave credit to Correa by saying that he is a smart batter by utilizing various strategies. (It is of note that Correa and his younger sister are big fans of Shohei)
-On giving up more walks in recent games, is it technical or more to do with pitch clock, he first said he did not know, but he was leaning toward not being able to repeat and execute consistent movement mechanics in the pursuit of finding the right mixture of different pitches. He feels that there is still much space for improvement and will continue to work on his command.
-When informed that Twins batters had 22 swing and misses today, he thought those swing and misses rather than them fouling them off was one of the keys to successful pitching today. He was happy with his fastball movements and command today except 2 pitches.
-When asked of his opinion of how the team is doing compared to last year, he feels that the number of games that Angels had no chance of winning has dropped dramatically this year. Even yesterday, he felt the team had shown never give up attitude, which has been the theme of this years team. He is confident that if the team continues to show up this way, that will result in additional wins this year.
Thanks for the translation.
You are most welcome. I am happy to continue to do this as long as time allows and there are some participants of this site who are curious and interested.
I am absolutely curious and interested.
Thanks Ippei
Ippei is the best English/Japanese translator I have witnessed with his impeccable knowledge of baseball terms in both languages. Bar none.
Ippei is impeccable at life.
And at hair
Translation services. Cool.
Yes, thanks. I know translation is not an exact science so there are sometimes minor differences in interpretations… I think of that great scene in “Lost in Translation” where the Bill Murray character is shooting a commercial for a Japanese whiskey (I think Suntori) and the director gives him a long, seemingly rambling explanation that goes on for like 3 full minutes, explaining what he’d like in the shot/scene. And the American character (Murray) asks the Japanese interpreter what the director said. The interpreter simply replies “More feeling.”
The Murray character follows with “Is that all he said?”
Anyway, I feel like everything above can be summarized by saying don’t use the damn sweeper Shohei. That pitch sucks for him… It seems like just about all the HR’s he has surrendered have come off the pitch. Indeed, the double yesterday by Correa came off of, you guessed it : “the sweeper.”
Please Shohei ; stop trying to be creative like a modern art painter, just throw the damn ball ! You can blow people away with just two pitches, 1) the fastball and 2) the split. That’s all you need. If you want to throw a slow curve every so often, fine. Just keep it out of the zone.
There you have it. No more “sweepers.” Life is fine.
“More feeling.”
All we need is a catcher who’s respected enough to tell him that.
Adell, 2 more HRs today. 17 so far.
Saw the highlights, I liked that he trotted the bases with no gimmick or hitches in his trot. AAA don’t mean crap. I’m beginning to become intrigued.
If I was Ward I’d be looking for a renter for his condo.
Trade him to Minnesota so they can unite Farmer and Adell
Had my youngest kid’s birthday party today so didn’t get to watch, but just glad the W/L/L thing is finally over (and they finally win a series vs a team with a winning record).
Hard fought series win. Nice, real nice work by the Halos!!
Kenyon Jacob Yovan has been discussed here many times…0.54 era, 16 innings, 16 Ks, 1.02 Whip. The era keeps falling.
With Perry’s willingness to go get players from AA why not see what he can do up here sooner than later. 40 man roster right now is a little more complicated than it was a few weeks ago. But….Not to pick too much on him, but Herget has had a small window in his career where you’d say “can’t cut that guy”. At least throw Yovan in the mix with Weiss and Wantz next time.
https://www.milb.com/player/kenyon-yovan-668719
Developing a stronger pen will help this team ten fold. This guy Kenyon and Eric Torres hopefully will be up before the AS game .I’d turn Bachman into a 1-inning arm as well.
Today was interesting day as the top 4 Trash Bullies pitched today
Torres started off coming in a tie game 6-6 but proceeded to hit yet another batter ( His 10th of the year) but also gave up 2 singles and a grand salami.. . Joyce was next with 2 scoreless innings giving up only one hit but striking out 3 and walking nada.This season has been a wild ride for him as he’s hit 5 HB while walking 12 and striking out 20 in 12-2/3 innings. Soriano pitched a scoreless 8th where he has now lowered his ERA as a reliever to 1.84 and has 20 Ks in 14-2/3 innings.(he may be the first of the 4 to reach the Bigs) Lastly Yovan ended up with the win today by pitching a scoreless 9th. His ERA is stellar but his K/9 is not as high (8.63) as Im sure the Angels would want
So I believe there will definitely be some moves coming up here real soon but I think the Angels are still trying to figure out the impact of the sweaty balls on this years crazy BB & HBP rates Remember as aggressive as Perry’s been he’s only elevated one pitcher straight from AA and that was Silseth with very mixed results.
Did you mean Schweddy Balls?
My middle school baseball coach used to yell to infielders in practice, “Catch grounders with “Kin Tama”, directly translated as Golden Balls, euphemism for testicles. The intention was to encourage us infielders to move quickly so that you catch the grounder in the center of your body while staying low. That used to crack me and my friends up, but now I think about it, we were taught sound fundamentals.
By the way, we wore no cups at that time. Yes, when hit, it was excruciating.
But your balls were golden. How could it hurt?
https://twitter.com/SamBlum3/status/1660319753079250945?s=20
Nice, hopefully he does better for us that Scioscia, Gretzky and Muhammad Ali’s sons did.
Torii’s son too.
Oh don’t forget Cookie’s son . He was so bad for us he became an announcer.
Youch, I did forget.
SL winning a series too
https://twitter.com/SaltLakeBees/status/1660415258358603776?s=20
LOL, bald spot on AAA player……
That’s the Plumber..
But I didnt see a butt crack so how do you know thats the Plumber?
Moniak has done nothing but hit in the most crucial times of the game, and he almost had another HR robbery.
At this point, if I were Phil, I’d play the hot hand until he falls off the cliff (if he ever does). Moniak-Trout-Renfroe in the OF, everyday. The kid has more than earned that everyday spot in the lineup.
Nevin/Perry still have their faults (who doesn’t), but I’m really liking this new commitment to youth under their regime. Neto was given the starting SS job and never looked back, and when Mickey’s playing, he’s leading off, ensuring the most ABs for him as much as possible.
Worst case scenario it ends up being a platoon with Ward. Might not be as productive against lefties. I’d take that, keep giving Ward a chance to start hitting again
True. I would platoon him with Ward.
I rooting for Ward to do well. The more players do well, the better for the team, so it’s not like I want Ward to fail so that Moniak can take over. But he’s struggling right now, and there’s another alternative/option who’s playing better. I wouldn’t exactly send Ward down at this point (unlike what others have suggested), but I would platoon him for now and see if that gets him going.
Ward just needs to tweak it back, he’s by far not a reclamation project. He’ll be back soon this season producing.
I hasten to add Logan O’Hoppe to your youth list. This team would have had 3 candidates for AL ROY award if it weren’t for unfortunate shoulder injury. Moniak played himself into “regular” spot, but I bet he would play CF for Trout and RF for Renfroe when those seniors need their afternoon naps.
Yes of course. O’Hoppe has been incredible. It’s really a bummer he went down the way he did, but at least both Wallach and Thaiss have been performing well, even if the team has to sacrifice some defense at the position.
He’ll be benched tomorrow night.
He has been officially added to the list of interesting prospects.
https://twitter.com/TaylorBlakeWard/status/1660102263241863170?s=20
He is 6 foot, 8 inches tall or (6’7″) depending on the source.
He’s Paul Bunyan big.
Wow, glad I am not the guy having to put his name on his uniforms.
We can call him the Big Koch.
I remember seeing we had the worst OPS numbers from the lower part of the order last year and how pleasant it is to be able to have a chance to score from any part of the order this year.
The AL east and west are tough(what happened to those TEX bats?? ), but hopefully we can catch-up.
I have a sneaking feeling that we might have the best 9th spot batter currently in MLB on our team. Remember Andrew Velazquez last year with his automatic outs?
And Rojas, and Mayfield, and Lagares, and Sierra, and Aguilar, etc.
This year’s depth has been incredible. Rendon out? No issues with Urshela. Walsh is back, but Drury didn’t do a horrible job when he was out. Rengifo is now a bench utility player, Fletcher in the minors. O’Hoppe goes down, and Wallach/Thaiss have both been more than capable. The team needed to rest OFs? They brought a true sparkplug up from the minors.
Totally agree. We have been competitive in just about every game this year because of our depth. Yes, it would have made us happier if we had won more, but it has been exhiralating to watch them play whereas last year it left you with empty feelings once Angels fell behind.
Who could forget a walking/talking blackhole.
Sure, we won the third game, but we NEVER win the second game. I have concerns. This team will never win. No commitment to committedness.
Well never in May.
But you know there was that time in St. Louie….
St. Louie 11-5 since our last visit.
We showed them! 👊
We definitely have that effect on teams. Its one of our greatest superpowers.
We were fortunate that Nolan Arenado was cold when we played them. Oliver Marmol’s seat was getting pretty hot after we swept them, but with National Central being meh overall, I would not be too surprised that they are in the first place by the end of May. And I am glad that we are not going to play them again this year.
Winning the 2nd game of a 3 game series is for suckers. Only the Dutch and the stupid Mariners get excited after winning the 2nd game. Just win the series.
Mariners fly “we won game 2” flags. DI-po-thet-tic!
Shocked!
I know it’s pointless to compare 2023 to 2022 because every year, every day, is different but, as you remember, Jimmy Herget proclaimed us “unbeatable” and then we sank. But we still had a good record of 27-21 after 48 games. Now here we are, only 2 games behind that and it’s pretty obvious (knock on wood) that by the time another ten games go by we’ll have a better record than last year.
We recognize where the problems are and we can see by Perry’s most recent moves that he wants to do something about the bullpen.
I guess I’m optimistic about the squad.
Jimmy doesn’t like flying to Salt Lake…..Jimmy likes it in Anaheim.
Correction, Neato, Mickey, Matt, Urshela, Shohei day was beautiful today. (Hello Cowboy, it’s fixed 🛠 )