In the final game of the Cubs’ rare appearance in Anaheim, Reid Detmers squared off against Drew Smyly. Also of note, Jo Adell was back from his exile to Salt Lake, where he has been mashing with his usual high strikeout rate.
The Cubs got on the board first in the second inning thanks to a Trey Mancini RBI double.
Leading off the bottom of the second inning, however, Adell gave us a little reminder of why we were once so excited about him by hitting a 450 ft solo homer just inside the left-field foul pole.
Rengifo and Wallach followed that up with singles to put runners on the corners for Neto, who struck out swinging. Fortunately, Taylor Ward was up to the challenge with a sac fly to drive Rengifo in and give the Angels a 2-1 lead.
Fast forward to the 4th inning, which started promisingly with an error by Cubs 3B Wisdom off the bat of Wallach, then a Neto walk. Unfortunately, Ward, Ohtani, and Trout cooked up some LOBsters and it was still 2-1 Angels.
After shutout 5th innings from both pitchers, Detmers pitched into the 6th inning but allowed 2 runners to reach with 2 outs. Never fear, Devenski is here to do another escape job by getting a grounder to third base to end the inning and keep Detmers in line for the win. Hometown boy Devenski continues to do good work!
In the bottom of the 6th, Neto singled and Taylor Ward walked. With Ohtani at the plate, a double steal was put on and resulted in a run when the throw to second got away allowing Neto to score. The Angels had a 2-run lead.
Devenski continued onto the 7th inning and kept the Cubs off the board again. In the bottom of the 7th the Angels got a couple of runners on base via walks by new pitcher Julian Merryweather. But Walsh cooked up another 2 LOBsters. Still 3-1 Angels after 7.
Jose Soriano looked awesome pitching a perfect 8th inning. Aside from a Chad Wallach single, Cubs reliever Adbert Alzolay had a strong 8th as well.
In came Carlos Estevez in the 9th to successfully stretch his save streak to 16 and complete the sweep of the Cubs. The Halo shines bright again!
Series sweep!
Nice start for Adell!
No complaints about tonight, but for the love of God, PLEASE send down Walsh to get better swings. He’s flailing up there and I really like him, he needs to get his swing back @ AAA.
SWEEP!
Adell is now very popular in Japan:
エンゼルス・アデル、今季初打席で豪快特大弾(Translation: Angels Adell hits exuberant gigantic homer in his first at bat of season)
Estevez
Moore
Devinski
Soriano
Bachman
Joyce
Perry cooked 🥵🥵🥵
And we could still use another left hander. Is Kolton Ingram the next man up to join his fellow Trash bullies?
In his last 6 games at Rocket City hes pitched 7-1/3 innings , 0 ERs .95 WHIP 13 Ks
Moore will be back at some time….hopefully soon. “…could be close to starting a throwing program”
“Trash bullies” I like that.
All have velocity of 95+ which is IMO imperative to success in today’s game. No more soft tossing scrubs.
Ward and Rengifo are starting to contribute which lengthens the lineup. Need to solve the ugly 1st base situation, extend Renfroe’s paternity leave and Free Anthony Rendon!
After seeing Adell’s mammoth homer tonight, Renfroe’s has miraculously already completed his bonding and has booked his flight back in time for Saturday’s game.
Tomorrow it will be Luis Castillo vs Shohei Ohtani.
That ones going to be a real ball burner ( H/T Jim Healy/Jim Carrick)
ballburner.wav – Jim Harrick on an upcoming basketball game: “It’s gonna be another ballburner.”
This was a two run win, as apposed to a one run win, so I give it a .77 win on the rectal scale.
Adding to Jo Adell’s long list of failures while highlighting the Angels total development cluelessness is the fact that, though he was obviously trying, he failed to hit a massive piss rod of a HR as far as De La Cruz did last night by a few feet.
Chris Devenski. You may look pretty dang good pretty much all the time now but you don’t fool me. It only looks good. Like wax fruit. I hate when I eat wax fruit. Ban that fruits.
I still just don’t think Estevez is really really really an MLB closer.
When Rengifo’s OPS surpasses Netos sometime next week who do I hate? Oh yeah, my dad. I mean Arte.
Worst 34/30 team evah. Why watch? Remember I told you lots of stuff would happen. No. You’re wrong. Donkey Pow Wahhhh!
D@mn Gitch, you ran out of meds again?
I think we gave him yours! 😀
i think we gave him yours on accident! hehehehe
On a pace for 86 wns. Just gotta get hot a couple of times, say 7-2 twice or so. Is our BP suddenly alright?
I was going to say our bullpen is the best, but decided to pull it back by saying one of the best. We have Devenski, Soriano, Joyce, Bachman, Moore, and Estevez. Wow, that’s a group of 6 powerful relievers that other teams would drool over.
Not saying we NEED it, but it would be pretty cool if they traded for a solid pen arm too…. just more ice in the cooler baby. Help us get by solidly when guys like Dtemers/Canning/Barria give us 5 really solid innings but we don’t want to push our luck.
Like Aroldis Chapman?
Yah. There will be other good arms available too. It can happen.
Certainly Cubs fans would drool. They’re unhappy with their pen
Pleased with Soriano thus far. Bachman still has control woes but I think he contributes with his hard stuff. Joyce is a laser beam to bring in after the soft tossers. Even when Devenski blows up there are still options within.
Nothing makes a team relevant more than a lights out pen or a 4-man rotation. I go back to the Royals when they had 3-guys to finish games who were unhittable Herrera, Madden and Wade Davis. That is one example.
Not only are we better off than we were at this point last year, I tend to forget that after our big losing streak we hit a 2-14 patch. I’m pretty sure that won’t happen again.
4 in a row!! Here we go!!
I have missed this dancing phenomenon.
Doomers nowhere to be found after a 4th straight win 😭😭😂😂😂
Ohtani vs Castillo tmrw will be box office !
I will wait till tomorrow to sign up for 2 mo free Apple TV+ subscription trial, RELUCTANTLY.
It’s was 3 free months last month. Better hurry before it gets to 1.
Ahhh crap, is it an Apple TV game?
Unfortunately. I live in an area with basic cable subscription I receive Root Sports, which broadcast Mariners game. But Apple TV exclusive broadcast right trumps that.
I’m going old school and listening to the radio feed.
Great idea
Great choice. Love listening to Terry Smith and Mark Langston duo.
Castillo is a tough draw.
I don’t mean to exaggerate tomorrow’s game’s significance, but this match up has a feel of post season game. If you are a baseball fan, it will be must-see MLB game. It will be 10:38 am Saturday morning start time in Tokyo, so I would say at least 30 million Japanese will be tuning in from Japan (free without a requirement to sign up for Apple TV+.)
Postgame show talking about Neto’s double steal, which resulted in that important insurance run. That was huge! Especially when we know now that Shohei struck out after that.
At this rate we’ll go 102-90
Is this a new math?
It keeps team eeyore agitated
Yup. Checks out.
Wow Adell!!!
I love this team.
Feels like something special is brewing
I hope it’s not something churning 🤣
MUST WIN PLAY OFFS SHOHEI SUCK UP BLAH FEST or no, aren’t these dudes just a whole lot more fun to watch? We just gotta keep the sad donkey piss in the tea crap Angels fan wanker juju off these boys and a good time can be had all summer long baby!
I am thrilled for Detmers first win of the season. Good booming homerun by Jo Adell. Estevez tied Troy Percival for 16 saves in a row from the start of season. Especially when Ohtani and Trout were completely invisible.
The real take away from the season so far for me has been that the Angels system has been at or near dead last for so long, and we’ve had no real prospects, so obviously we won’t get any contributions from home grown players this year.