Simeon Woods Richardson versus Yusei Kikuchi today. Two of yesterday’s pitchers are already gone and we have some new faces in the bullpen. You can’t tell the bullpen without a scorecard.
In the first inning Zach Neto got a hit and proceeded to steal both second and third base. Unfortunately, the Angels were unable to drive him in. The Twins were all over Yusei Kikuchi who contributed a wild pitch to the six hits and one walk by the Twins. 3-0 Twins.
In the second inning, Luis Rengifo got a single. The Angels didn’t score. The Twins continued to hit against Kikuchi. He started off his half of the frame with a pitch clock violation. He gave up one more run on two hits. 4-0 Twins.
Zach Neto homered to put the Angels on the board. 4-1 Twins.
The Twins continued to hit and Luis Rengifo contributed one of his patented throwing errors in the third inning. Yusei Kikuchi got his second pitch clock violation to load up the bases with no outs. He was replaced by Ryan Johnson. Johnson retired three in a row to get out of the first inning in which the Twins didn’t actually score. 4-1 Twins.
In the top of the Angels fourth, two Angels struck out and then Nolan Schanuel fouled one straight into his kneecap and left the game unable to walk. J.D. Davis came in and finished striking out for Schanuel. Brutal! They are calling it a right knee contusion.
The bottom of the fourth and all of the fifth inning were scoreless. Reid Detmers came in to replace Johnson on the mound.
In the sixth inning, Zach Neto hit his third hit of the game putting a man on with one out. Woods Richardson was replaced by Brock Stewart. Zach Neto stole second base once again while Mike Trout was batting. Then we saw the second strikeTrout of the game.
Taylor Ward flied out to right to end the top of the sixth. Double doubles in the bottom of the sixth (Ty France and Brooks Lee) made the score 5-1 Twins.
Griffin Jax came in to pitch for the Twins. Let’s hit some Jax! O’Hoppe struck out but J.D. Davis managed a hit to bring him up to a robust .167 average. That’s almost as good as Tim Anderson. Rengifo and Adell struck out. Jose Fermin came in to make his major league debut for the Angels. He walked a guy and then struck out a guy. Buxton popped out and Correa struck out. Not bad, Fermin!
Louis Varland replaced Griffin Jax and retired the Angels in order. Garrett McDaniels returned the favor in the bottom of the Eighth.
Mike Trout flied out to second. Taylor Ward grounded out to short. Logan O’Hoppe grounded out to second. The Angels lost this one 5-1. Zach Neto had a great game. Everybody else not so much.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
