It is opening day. A day of optimism and hopium. When every team has a chance, even for a moment. Even Angels fans here have some hope. Not for playoffs, or even a winning record really, but that hey, maybe Mike Trout will be Mike Trout again. Or that Soriano can become that Ace. Whatever the optimism is, this is the day for that, and we can all use some of that these days.
Soriano started Opening Day. he went 6 innings, giving up no runs on 2 hits, striking out 7 and walking 4. A marvelous start that ended with him leaving in a 0-0 game.
Mike Trout looked good. He even STOLE A BASE! He hasn’t had double digit SB since 2019. Maybe this year?
Highlighted Recap
It was a pitching duel. And that meant no scoring. The best highlights were stuff like Trout stealing a base, or a strikeout. In fact there were many, MANY strikeouts today. Mike Brown for the Astros struck out 9 Angels despite not even making it through 5 innings.
Jose Soriano did even better, going 6 scoreless. But this meant that it was 0-0 through 6 innings.
In the 7th, it was still 0-0. And Mike Trout was tired of being walked, deciding to hit a Home Run instead.
This was only the 2nd time in modern MLB (since 1901) that a player had 3 walks, a SB, and a home run on Opening Day. This also meant that Soriano was now in line for a win!
Walbert Urena took over in the 7th. Holding a 1-0 lead as his MLB debut.
The offense rewarded him by scoring a 2nd run.
Despite all the Ks, things were looking good for the Angels. Although people were wondering why Nolan was batting 3rd, as he kept not even swinging at strike 3-
Up 3-0, Kurt went to Jordan Romano to close the game. He pulled it off!
Angels win! Their first Road Opening Day Win since 2013.
Upcoming
Angels face the Astros 3 more times as this is a 4 game Opening Day series. Then they go to face the Cubs in Chicago.
We’re undefeated and Trout is Trout.
I’ll enjoy this day fully.
did not watch the Dodger game but got a load of their horrible uniforms and caps. Yuck! One thing they have or now maybe had going for them was tradition with the blue team name and the red numbers. Now they’re ordinary.
Watch the very end of the Trout highlight. Someone let the Hou ballboy run out to 2B during his trot!
I’m calling BS that the Trout Bomb was ONLY 408 ft. I think it landed on Bourbon St in New Orleans!
It’s the earliest Pre-Shuffle~Bot-Eve in 16 years….or something like that.
I don’t think we can count spring training but I like your attitude!
We had a tie sandwiched in there, so not three straight wins.
I took his comment to mean 2 wins in a row so far, which is why it’s shuffle bot eve
1st win down, 83 to go.
LTBU!
I didn’t think I’d live to see another Angels win on Opening Day
I’m a huge fan, but Mr. Dunne got shelled today.
So you’re saying he was ……….. un Dunne!
LOL
Delusional long suffering optimists = 1
Long suffering realists = 0
5:15 game tomorrow, Kikuchi vs some Astro
First AAA games tomorrow – A’s affiliate Aviators plays Angels affiliate Bees in Vegas at 7pm.
First A-AA games next week, Thurs/Fri start.
Buttercup season opener!
Trout & Schanuel with the timely bombs.
Go Halos!
Not bad for Game 1- esp seeing Trout hitting it “outta here!” as Terry Smith would say. But I’m noticing the high Ks. I hope this doesn’t become an issue as the season goes on.
“Troutahere“
It’s been an issue for a long time.
Nice to start the year with some good-looking baseball. Good D, Trout bomb, and Soriano only two hits. Maybe we will only slightly suck this year.
Love a good opening day Trout bomb.
well I missed getting to the T-Mobile store. I have some questions that I figure they can answer about the mlb offer. But I was too caught up in this game. I’ll go tomorrow
It’s really simply. I have used it before with a VPN to get Angels games. I don’t have a VPN this year, I can watch every game with MLBtv (I just activated the promotion on Tuesday, it will expire for new or existing customers after 3/31), apple, NBC, spectrum, except for angelsTV which I’m not paying $20/month for. Only other question I can see you having is I’m in Portland and what team is going to be blacked out due to local market rules/regs? I’d assumed Mariners.
I don’t care about the Mariners. Pit-tooey! I spit on the Mariners! If I get this deal do I have to watch on my phone?
I watch with my fire stick plugged into the big TV using their app. I watch on my phone as well.
Allegedly it isn’t supposed to work, but I’m streaming on FanDuel through my prime video account.
$20/mo for the subscription, billed through Amazon.
I watched the game on my phone today on the prime video app. And the last couple of spring training games worked on my fire stick on my TV.
Is 19 whiffs good? Is a 99.1 mph avg FB good?
Asking for a friend.
Observations:
Soriano with a meaningful velocity spike, working 97-99 all game with the four-seamer, hitting 100+ five times, with a 101.3 peak. New blood.
MNT looks healthy for once to start the season.
14 Ks, including three from Nolan, are big time troublesome.
Dirty Jordan with the save. Bruh looks like he’s cooking up some mean bathtub meth in his apartment. Appreciate some character in the bullpen again.
It WAS the best HOU SP, so…
Nolan clocking 73.8 mph bat speed on his homer is a lot more meaningful than the 3 strikeouts imo
We’ll see – this was precisely the story in the early part of last season too, and he hit a HR in Houston that first series as well:
https://www.mlb.com/news/nolan-schanuel-improving-bat-speed-in-2025-as-angels-fall-to-astros
Then over the course of the season, things normalized, and he settled back into the 4th percentile of bat speed.
I think his value on this club comes from consistent quality contact, not whiff-heavy slugging. What the lineup lacks is contact and lefties. YMMV.
Only saw one of his strikeouts… but it was on a pitch he DIDN’T swing at, right down Broadway, so his struggles today weren’t necessarily due to aggressive swinging. Maybe he had butterflies. Happens sometimes. He closed well.
He K’ed swinging on a knuckle curve in his first at bat, after reaching to foul off a pitch eight inches above the zone. He swung through a changeup in his second AB then reached after a curve out of the zone and watched a FB right down the pipe, twice, in two different ABs.
If you only saw the one AB, you didn’t get the full picture. Pitch recognition was uncharacteristically not great – too much OOZ reach, followed by passivity on hittable pitches.
He closed well.
MNT looks to be in the best shape in years. Definitely leaner. That stolen bag was easy. And that bomb was destroyed.
So nice to win on Opening Day !
Seems like it has been a long time since we last did that….
Just looked. It was 5 years ago !