Game 2 against the Red Sox brought a pitching matchup of Brayan Bello vs. Griffin Canning. The hope was that Canning could pitch well past the first time through the order. What we got was a pretty good pitcher’s duel.
Aside from a walk in the top of the 1st, the Red Sox didn’t pose a threat. However, in the bottom of the inning Zach Neto continued his hot hitting leading off the Angels offense with another home run. 3 out of his 4 home runs so far have been to lead off the game, amazingly.
Walshie and Shohei also had singles in the inning, but to no avail as they became the first two Halo LOBsters of the game. We lead 1-0.
The second inning brought a hit and a walk for the Red Sox, followed by a 1-2-3 bottom half.
In the third inning both teams went down in order, while the fourth inning consisted of only a Red Sox walk.
Canning had another clean inning in the fifth, but the Angels finally got some action going. Matt Thaiss launched a long ball to the opposite field gap to lead off the inning with another solo homer. When he really gets a good swing it is a beautiful thing to behold. Other than a Neto single, nothing else happened in the inning. 2-0 Halos.
Bello and Canning continued into the 6th inning and successfully as both teams went down in order. It wasn’t all boring though. Zach Neto made a great sliding stop and strong throw for the final out of the Boston half. Neato!
Canning continued into the 7th inning and worked around a Casas single sending him back to his casa with an awesome 7 inning, 2-hit, 0 run performance. Harbinger of good things to come? I hope so!
Bello also pitched the 7th inning and the Angels went down 1-2-3 again. Still 2-0 Angels.
In the 8th, Matt Moore came in relief walking the first batter, but then got a near 3-6-1 double play but he dropped the ball covering first base. No problem! Yoshida was nice enough to ground into a real double play.
The bottom of the 8th brought a new Red Sox pitcher, Joely Fisher…erm… I mean Joely Rodriguez. Apparently Nevin was a psychic because he pinch hit for red hot Moniak with ice cold Taylor Ward and it resulted in a doinker double off the third base bag. Then Mike Trout returned from wherever he has been the last several days in style going oppo with a 2-run homer. Nice insurance! 4-0 Angels.
After Ohtani struck out, Renfroe doubled and Walsh walked, knocking Rodriguez out of the game. Cal State Fullerton’s own Justin Garza was his replacement. Aside from some technical difficulties with his PitchCom device, he easily got out of the inning with no more damage done.
Jacob Webb made his Angels debut on the mound to close out the game with zero drama. We win! 4-0 Halos. Light that baby up!
@Powerhalo (Will Stevens) leadoff HR was Moniak, not Neto (paragraph 2)
https://crashingthepearlygates.com/2023/05/23/angels-turn-red-sox-into-chowduh-win-4-0/#comment-248585
Canning was dealing and the ‘pen came in and said very clearly to the BoSox, “NO!”
Keep it rollin’ Angels!
Go Halos!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeHkaSH0Xw8
Pahk the cahr on Bahston!
My name is Mickey Moniak and I’m here to save left field.
Woo hoo!! Beating the Sox is sweet shuffling!
This one goes to 11 !!
I was rec Number 11 on this.
Shut-out bonus!
https://giphy.com/gifs/carnaval-carnival-dance-10hO3rDNqqg2Xe
https://giphy.com/gifs/funny-dancing-rEbJjSjoS8qYM
Now, I can go to bed peacefully and happily.
Time to hit the rack, good night.
Nevin said he would have left Canning in there for the 8th had their lead been bigger.
You mean he could not have predicted that Trout was going to hit a two run home run? Fire him!
Stupid Nevin. In over head. Not real baseballz man.
IKR!
I didn’t watch the game… did Estevez warm up in the 8th, and oops nevermind and sit down?
Yes he did
Off day Thursday hell be ready if needed tomorrow.
@ Will – great effort on the writeup but Neto is not Moniak. Moniak led off the game with a homer, not Neto. 😎
Friggin GOLD!
Fauck Bahston
Would you look at that? With a much better defense behind him, Griffin didn’t have to throw extra pitches, and he ended up lasting through 7 innings, pitching a shutout. And it’s not against a cheap, lowly team either. Hopefully this is the real Canning and he stays healthy for the entire season.
Staying ahead in the count and not issuing lead off walks or hits doesn’t hurt any either.
I guess giving a two out walk is much better than lead off walk. He did that three times today, but I might be nit picking. He was amazing otherwise today.
Leading off with a base runner changes pitch selection, especially with a potential base stealer. No runner on and changeup and curve, slider are more likely than a fastball. Also changes infield assignments. You’re not nitpicking, but having two outs followed by a runner, doesn’t change a lot of strategy.
Giving up less runs than we scored is the most keyest thing
We were referring to Canning and stop getting so technical with the runs stuff, we got the pitching and giving up less runs than we score is important for our pitchers, so we can win. Just exactly were you trying to say?
🤣
Yah. Some really encouraging starts from the back end of the back end this series.
If I recall correctly, before Canning got hurt he he would get hit more as his FB velo declined into the low 90s as the game went on. Now, it seems like he starts with a higher velo and is using the changeup more, which is probably keeping his arm strength up. I don’t know how this plays with the top hitting teams, but it seems to be playing well with everyone else.
12-9 this month (27-23 overall) 1 moar against the Roid Suck, 3 against Miami (who are about .500) and 3 against the Chisox, (who are bad). 4-3 is doable for a 31-26 record. Fingers crossed (recency bias be damned).
Houston lost while Texas won tonight. We are inching closer, and we should not look too much ahead of us, but if we can sweep Red Sox and take both series win with Marlins and White Sox before we battle Houston and Texas in pair of 4 game series away, Angels confidence will reach the highest level and may be able to claim the top spot in our division in the middle of June. That is entirely doable. We are also only 2 game behind from the 3rd wild card spot.
Nevin said Moniak will sit out tomorrow 🤬
I thought I misheard Phil, but you confirmed he will not start. I guess Phil does not want to sit Ward for too long.
🙄
Ward will be starting Tomorrow and Friday.
This is a “Not a Platoon” Platoon
Looks pretty platoonish to me. Mick sucks against lefties, so I get it. If he’s so hot right now this shouldn’t break him, no more than getting his dk punched in by a couple pitchers he can’t hit.
Nevin is an idiot. The hottest player in the American League, sorry Bichette). So let him sit so he can get cooled off.
Right?
If sitting him one day cools him off then what was he really? Stupid Nevin, why won’t he get a huge fan chubby for Moniak the way I do, rest of the team and schedule be damned!?!
The hottest player who has a life time .042 batting average against left handers and will be facing one of the best LHP’s of the last decade?
Sure Nevin’s a complete imbecile. he should go with his gut just like Soggy Joe did it worked out so well for us.
Nevin needs a Mohawk
Apparently Ward has good numbers against Paxton,
🤞🏻
But I still don’t think you sit a guy who is as hot as Moniac no matter what numbers Ward has had in the past against Paxton.
put Moniak in RF and sit Renfroe.
If we are leading, say one or two runs, in late innings would you consider replacing Ward with Moniak?
I’d actually consider pinch hitting for Ward if a RH pitcher comes in and Ward has sucked or we need a run.
Yeah. I think I would try to play ‘em both.
Maybe sit Renfroe for a game and play Ward in RF.
James P is a tough lefty. I’d expect Moniak to sit vs. a tough lefty. The platoon advantage is real.
I’d also expect to see Walsh sit tomorrow. Drury to 1st, Rengifo to 2nd.
That’s what teams with depth do. Play the percentages and put their players on positions to succeed.
Sure, teams that use analytics and win large amounts of ballgames do that shit, and sure, we’ve demanded that stuff since a few years before Soth left, but NOW I don’t feel like I like that idea… so Nevin is stupid.
Also, no more huge contracts for aging stars…. well, accept the one my feelz really wants, pay him more than two players.
Depth, what a beautiful thing.
Earlier, I had expected Walsh to be pinch hit for by Rengifo against a lefty in the 8th, then moving Drury to 1st and Luis to 2nd. Walsh had a good AB drawing a walk, and I guess Nevin still values his defense in a still close game so he decided against taking him out.
I don’t know how many games in Salt Lake City Walsh played before he arrived in Anaheim, but he may have played at least 3 days with the Bees followed by 3 days in a row with the Angels with no off day in between, so it is probably appropriate to give him tomorrow off. I do remember James Paxton from his Mariners days, and when he is on, he is going to be difficult to deal with. It would be good to get to him in the first inning.
It’s fine. It’ll be OK. That’s how platoons work. It’s 2023 and teams have been doing it a long time and surviving it. It’s gonna be a huge help if we have 4 solid OF as we march through the season.
And Friday
Looks like I missed a great performance by Canning.
Great to beat bahstun.
That has to be up there among our best games of the year. Excellent pitching, excellent defense, timely hitting. There was so much solid competent play.
Glad to see Canning get some functional defense behind him tonight and then produce as a result. I’ve thought he has looked better all year than his stats indicate.
Jacob Webb – never heard of him. He looked like a serviceable arm tonight though. That changeup he was throwing was nasty.
Webb looked good this ST too…. then went to SLC and got blasted for a while.
The bar scene is that great there?
Mormons gone wild. It’s a thing.
I recall some 30 years ago when I went there for skiing, I had to pay $5 for drinking card which would allow me to purchase alcohol. Do they still do that?
I don’t think so. When I’ve gone there I just drank in bars and at my friend’s house like a normal person.
Yeah, when I was there for Frozen Fury a couple of years ago, it was just like a regular bar.
Jacob Webb? You mean this guy?
Just the facts
Finally, our long national nightmare is over. Winning the 2nd game of a series after winning the 1st game. Nice job Halos! 4 game series sweep on the table? lol
It’s a 3 game series 😀
We’ve beaten a team with a winning record two games in-a-row when both of the opposing pitchers were dealing. We’ve been able to come up with late inning hits. This team seems to keep fighting until the last out and as fans that is all we can ask for.
The halos starting pitching the last two games has been stellar. The bullpen has done what they needed to do.
Seeing the young kids succeed is refreshing as well.
Since we broke that WLL pattern we’ve tied one series and won two
technically ‘the curse’ wasn’t broken until last series, right?
Yes. Good point. I should have said since we broke the lose 2 of 3 pattern (because we played and won the 4th game)….
Also if this is another 4 game set then we haven’t won it yet. Still, we won’t lose it!
Canning to me was the player of the game although TV announcers gave it to Thaiss. I would like to point out that having Walsh at 1B stabilized the infield defense tremendously. We used to lose this kind of game earlier in the season because of defensive miscues. We had iron clad defense tonight.
Having a 1b that you KNOW will get to the badly thrown balls makes a HUGE difference to the rest of the infield.
Canning was easily the Player of the Game. 7 innings of shut out pitching and he looked like he could have gone another inning.
Estevez should buy him a beer. Dudes had a lot of innings.
panther = canning