7-3 Angels
Patrick Sandoval was on the bump for the Angels in the series opener at the Trop, looking more like what he did at his best. Mixing up his pitches and missing bats, Patrick Sandoval threw an effective 5 innings (with some help from an extremely inconsistent home plate umpire in Adam Beck who no doubt pissed off handfuls of Floridian fans), keeping the game close enough for the bats to break through late against Phil Maton.
Despite the end result, I was originally ranting about a brutal hard-fought battle of the limp-dick offenses. After a 5th inning where the Rays had the bases loaded with no outs and only barely managed to scrape across a single run on a force, the Angels one-upped them with a bases-loaded 1-out GIDP off the bat of Mickey Moniak in the 7th. It was truly a question of who wanted it less.
Or was it?
Somehow, the Angels 1-4 hitters in Rendon, Trout, Ward, and Sano combined to go 10-19 despite one of the most frustrating near-blowout wins you’ll see.
Let’s end this series losing streak tomorrow when Jose Soriano pit– okay, well, at least we have Detmers in Game 3.
If Rendon keeps this up, he needs to get some love when the team returns home. Yeah I know, no HRs yet, but he’s on a tear right now.
Yes, maybe the power has been zapped. But the way he is playing right now is much better than being an automatic out, or being injured. I’ll take being regularly on-base, whether it’s a walk, or a cheap hit, for our leadoff hitter.
It seems getting on base for Trout and Ward will pay dividends…who knew!?
Shohei is 1-16 with RISP to start the season. Not a peep from the baseball world.
Doyers suck! Ha! Get some joy while I can.
They’ll have a 10 game lead in the division by June lol.
Welp, unfortunately the GOAT hasn’t been much better. Even with tonights home run hes now only 2 for 14
Trout has 100% more hits than Ohtani with RISP.
Right. But the discourse the last few days has been about Trout not being clutch, while no one is talking about it with Shohei. Just pointing out the double standard.
People really wanted to believe he wasn’t the best in the game anymore.
I Love the way Trout faced the music and took the heat from the Press over this. Yesterday he said he had to get better in these situations and tonight he delivered.
Thats why he’s the GOAT.
Absof*ckinglutely.
It’s hard for me to believe all the flack Trout gets from folks here. If he stopped playing tomorrow, he would be the greatest Angel to ever wear the uniform and one of the best in the history of the game.
He has been and done everything that a fan could possibly ask for. He has been a great face of the franchise, been incredibly loyal to the franchise even though the franchise has not done him any favors as far as feilding a winning team. He signs autographs and takes time out for the kids, he has never done anything that can remotely be called controversial or harmful to the franchise or fans.
To me he has earned the right to have some slack cut and the only thing that over the past few years that has kept him from being the best in baseball is his health. If he is healthy this year will again show that he is the best and as fans of the Angels and Baseball we should be rooting for him.
This!
This is why balanced lineups are important and making the right plays. Even the best hitters struggle to get hits when it counts. And they can be streaky. Guys like Thaiss can matter.
They also matter unless we want to run our regular catcher into the ground before the ASB. Thaiss, overall was pretty good tonight definitely deserves another start.
Guess he is not a sure bet after all?
Ippei withdrawals……
Since it hasn’t said, LTBU!
Big win for Halos.
Huge bomb by Trout. Rendon stays pesky by setting the table.
Ward going his job. Thaiss with a huge timely hit.
Good stuff!!!!
Now let’s win the series. Let’s goooo!
“That’s what I’m talking about”
Free Shuffle Bot….from wherever he stays when we don’t see him.
71’s basement.
You might also find Pee-wee’s bike down there.
I thought the bike was in the basement of the Alamo?
So what you’re saying is ’71 lives in the Alamo?
Trout’s killing us with the 3 outs he committed today….. Seriously though, what a well timed BOMB. It picked up the team instantly.
Tayor Ward is currently 2nd in MLB in RBI. Incredible. Lock him up ASAP.
The longer we hoover around .500 the better. The team will gain confidence if we’re “in the mix” while Neto & Schanuel continue to hit worse than pitchers.
Speaking of Schanuel, send him down. I’m not a huge Sano fan but, he and everyone else is more deserving of these precious at bats. And I mean everyone else.
Hopefully Neto figures it out soon as well. Heck, I’d gladly take .230 from hit at this point. He stay’s because of defense and lack of depth however.
Rendon is now .263/.317 and steadily improving. He’s also third on the team in at bats (57). This is a GOOD thing. Hopefully some of the power returns as we go along. Think positive.
I’m looking forward to seeing if Soriano can take a step forward tomorrow….
If I’m Wash, send down Schanuel.
Tell Neto to chill, going to keep you in the nine spot, your playing every day, your bat will come around, maybe tweak a few things, but we need your glove. No worries.
It’s hard to imagine that he won’t get demoted. Soon. Very soon.
Exactly right. I’ll correct myself a bit. If Schanny goes down, Drury will likely get the lion’s share of the 1B starts, not Sano but, the larger point remains.
Still buzzing from UFC300 this past Saturday. What a night, even if a lost a few shekels.
One day, going to get on board with UFC.
More regular AB’s for Jo, Mick, Sano, with Schanuel going down and hopefully regain some confidence. Think Sano and Drury split more at first than you think. That leaves more DH ABs for Adell-Mickey.
And Hicks might be playing himself out ABs and a job. That really opens up the lineup.
Do you have ESPN+ ??? If so, I can recommend some fights to watch for newbies.
I co-sign all of those allocations for at bats. Adell clearly is earning the right to play more while Hicks clearly isn’t.
Giving a 2nd Game Ball to our Manager Stewart “Wash” Smalley for getting Sandy right in the head.
https://youtu.be/6ldAQ6Rh5ZI?si=3eK7nMeNfcWgybhE
Everyone needs to stop condemning Trout for his inability to hit with RISP, at least for tonight. Go MNT!
Ok, I’ll stop for tonight.
Schanuel looks lost. Time to send him to AAA. Bring up Adrianza.
Put Drury at first and let Rengifo start everyday at 2B.
That works, both need to be in the lineup.
I came to the comments to say the same thing. He needs to go to Salt Lake and get right.
Would do wonders for clearing the log jam at DH too.
Now if only we can get rid of Hicks then we can start fielding a good lineup every night.
Damn, I love the halo idea for the hr celebration. It could’ve been some lame prop, but whoever came up that, props from me.
I noticed it fits nicely on Ward…..Trout? Not so much….because he’s got a giant Heed. He’s fat, might need to make it bigger, saying he’s going to hit about 45 more of them. And nobody outside of Trout and Ward can hit it that far, so one size fits all should be, one size fits Trout.
https://youtu.be/xybLWdP119A?si=HVpd9Uy_syWBA90r
LOL, give Mike an Onion Ring
A hula hoop!
That is such a great scene and a great pull Twebur
Ward on a pace to set the single season RBI mark
We should have signed Montgomery to go along with Ward
Sandy showed progress, the offense woke up. Mike proved he’s clutch, is hitting multiple run HRs again.
Good game.
Luis Garcia with the win. I didn’t expect to be typing that any time soon.
If Sano can just fix that Launch Angle, I feel like he’s going to be the second deadliest hitter on the team. He hits HARD.
I can’t believe he used to way more, he’s a big boy.
I thought the same thing….but I also thought Hicks would replicate what he did in Baltimore last year too.
Sano’s glove looks solid too.
All of us (including me) that said we would not see .500 again…get to be wrong.
I said they could easily win tonight and return to .500. Just for the record.
We stipulate that you were right