Fresh off a path of destruction throughout points north in California, our gallant heroes trod the field of battle in search of their 8th consecutive victory this evening. And they were successful.
Sir Taylor Ward stepped to the plate swinging a bat full of magic and put the Angels on the board early.
Ok, I can’t keep this going. I’m far out of my depth on the fantasy stuff.
Ward cashed in another RBI in the bottom of the 4th on a sacrifice fly. Then Logan O’Hoppe drove in Moncada on a double to push the Angels lead to 3-0.
All hell broke loose in the bottom of the 6th. How about an RBI on catcher’s interference and another run scored on a hit batter in the same inning? Yeah, it happened. Add in a sacrifice fly and 3 runs scored without needing a hit to drive in the runner.
A 6-0 lead after 6 innings against the struggling Fish seemed like a solid win, possibly a shutout. But Ron Washington went to Shaun Anderson to pitch the 7th. Shaun did what Shaun does and immediately gave up a solo shot to local boy Eric Wagaman.
He then proceeded to pitch batting practice for a while, ultimately leaving in the 8th with 2 on and 2 out. Anderson had already allowed a second run and Neris finally allowed an inherited runner to score. Actually, Neris let both inherited runners score which made the game a tight 6-4.
Jorge Soler came to the plate with the bases empty, so he was capable of getting a hit. And he hit a ball a long, long way to give the Angels a 7-4 cushion heading to the bottom of the 9th.
Fortunately the Angels have Kenley Jansen to close out games. After allowing a leadoff single, Jansen recorded two outs then issued a walk. That put runners on the corners and brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
The mood from the 6-0 lead to this moment had changed dramatically but Jansen still just needed one good pitch to seal the deal. Looking fatigued and missing high in the strike zone, that was no guarantee. He found it and got a pop up to end the game.
Light that Baby Up! 8 in a row, baby!
In the context of the current win streak: Mike Trout who?
Good riddance Shaun Anderson. Welcome Caden Dana. You will be relief in more ways than one.
Linup – Paris and Adell at the bottom of the order. Picking one or both to do something postive….with the inevitable K’s of course
https://x.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1926406292374974765
I can hardly believe I’m scoreboard watching but I am! Houston beat Seattle so we can’t catch Houston today but we can get closer to (gasp!) 1st with a win. Texas fell back even further already in their afternoon game.
Like the first 3 weeks of the season, my whole day revolves around waiting for the Angels game and reading up on all things related to the Angels. The always pull me back.
That’s my routine when not chasing kids around! ha!
Remember in the way back times when we’d watch the top of the standings, and not the bottom for TANKING purposes.
100% believe and love the honesty.
https://x.com/Thomas_L_Murray/status/1926145819624849817
Sean Newcomb is available but we might be out on Wilson if we get him.
Just say no to Newman and Newcomb. Don’t need his 1.76 whip.
Even Sam the Hat is reporting on the positive. We’ll make a fan out him yet!
https://x.com/SamBlum3/status/1926366370284920990
While we have climbed out of the basement in terms of team OBP,(there are now three teams below us in that category) we are still last in walks, so there are still improvements to be made.
https://x.com/bmags94/status/1926345261992870003
Some of you prefer coach speak Wash, I prefer “let it rip” Wash.
Coach speak Wash re: Trout.
https://www.si.com/mlb/angels/angels-news/angels-manager-says-mike-trout-still-has-a-few-boxes-to-check-before-return
BTW – Mid June at best for Trout.
Is Shaun Anderson still on the roster?
No, Caden Dana took his spot
Free the mullet. The mullet has been set free.
Being a journey reliever is a tough life. Anderson pitched well against the Dodgers five days ago and got the save but has had rough outings since. I cannot find whether Anderson was released or sent to SLC. Can someone find a link?
Angels don’t believe in updating us. Don’t work on the weekends, appointment only on weekdays. I’m shocked the media even gets news of what’s going on.• Designated RHP Shaun Anderson for assignment
https://x.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1926407111942062249
1964: LA Angels, 11 game winning streak. Dean Chance won the CY Young award. One of the greatest seasons any pitcher ever had.
Mr. Trout: Are you healthy? Do you have your timing catching up to a high fast ball in place? Are you ready to help this team win? Are you ready to earn your salary?
MNT: I’m getting better. Should be fully for Spring Training 2026.
….and in the best shape of my life…even better than 2025.
Give him a pair of Pom Poms. He’s doing great as a cheerleader!
The problem this year – apart from injuries – is that he’s missing down the middle meat balls. Big time.
I noticed in Gamecast; that he’s well below .200 on pitches he should kill.
I realize Gamecast isn’t analytical but, come on.
To be fair. Mickey never had his timing catching up to a high fast ball in place before injury.
Because yeah I’d be the guy who tells the pitcher “Nice game bro!” in the sixth inning of a no-hitter:
From Chat GPT: The Los Angeles Angels‘ all-time record winning streak is 11 games. They achieved this streak from June 16-26, 1964. This streak was strung together in only their fourth season of existence. They haven’t matched it since.
I don’t remember anyone here clamoring to resign Canning last winter, myself included, but…
Was letting him walk based on someone’s rational, real-world projection that a fading 36-or-whatever-year-old (i.e. Hendricks) would outperform him over the course of a MLB season, or was saving $2 million just that gosh-darn compelling? ‘Cause it definitely feels like the biggest hindsight miscalc of the offseason.
This is flogging horse corpses I know… but now that Hendricks is plummeting back down to Earth (and maybe Canning will be joining him who knows?) and the Halos are on the cusp on something, it’s seems like the most kvetch-able thing at present.
From what I can see the only difference in his numbers compared to the last few years is a reduction in his home run rate.
I’m waiting till the AL East teams start seeing him multiple time to make any judgement but based on his FIP (4.02) we’ll probably see some regression.
I looked at Canning’s stats last week to see if anything stood out. If I recall his ground ball rate rose about 11% and his fly ball rate dropped about 10% compared to last year. How he has pitched differently to obtain this I don’t know.
Based on his bbsavant page, his fastball isn’t being destroyed like it was last year and looks like he picked up a cutter. He’s still giving up a lot of hard contact it’s just going into the ground right now.
Canning and Sandoval were both decent and cheap back of the rotation pitchers. There was no reason to replace them this year. Sandoval had to be replaced because he was injured. But Perry had an opportunity to trade Canning for Soler straight up and for some money. Soler has an under market contract based on his 120 OPS+ last year so I can’t complain about the trade in hindsight. But you can certainly argue about whether or not the Hendricks signing by itself made sense.
Hendricks was signed to make sure Dana started in the minors.
He’s also cheap enough to be replaced if Dana continues his hot start.
Dana is in Anaheim
Which is absolutely fine. I was not arguing against Hendricks. Regardless of who it is, we may have one of several who will be ready at some point in the season and you do not want to have invested much money in the guy they would be replacing.
I’m thrilled this band of vagabonds is winning. I really am, however we’ve been down this path way too many during the “we don’t rebuild” rebuilding. Exhibit #1: Mr. Taylor Ward. He’s unconscious at the plate currently. He’ll be in his last arbitration year in 2026, and an UFA in 2027 when he’s 33 years old. His trade value will never be higher than this season……but we won’t trade him because we “have a chance” this season. Just like with Ohtani.
We know how this story will end.
I agree and I hope not.
Trade him… Of course by the trade deadline, we’ll have a 13 game lead in the AL West, with a lock-down Bullpen, and a healthy Trout. No fear of a 1995 collapse.
Happy Donkeys
Love your opening sentence here Jeff ….
With one XBH tonight, Taylor Ward will hold the team record. That would’ve been a laughable idea 2 weeks ago. I realize he’s streaky but, it’s difficult to comprehend that a player that can be one of the best hitters in the game (at times) can also be one of the worst for such long stretches. One would think the floor wouldn’t be so low for a guy that can hit such high ceilings. Strange indeed.
The inevitable crash and return to his evil twin, will be a hard one to watch.
Fingers crossed it won’t last for his normal month and 1/2 and won’t be as bad.
-Ward
Well there you go.
Not everyone can be a “see ball, hit ball” phenom like Shohei Ohtani. Who knew.
Still, his swings are WILD.
It’s the hitting coach. 🪄
Need a ruling on the Win-To-Shufflebot scale.
It requires 3 Wins to qualify for the 1st Shufflebot. That we know.
Does each successive Win earn another Shufflebot at 1:1 ratio? If so, we are currently at 6 Shufflebots.
However, if it’s 3:1 ratio across the board, we’re currently sitting at 2+ Shufflebots.
These are important questions.
Considering how rare these types of streaks are, I think you have to roll with the 1:1 ratio.
Otherwise we would hardly ever see 2 of them together and they would get lonely. It’s bad enough that we already lock them away for months at a time.
Besides, there’s no fractional shufflebot that I’m aware of.
I think there’s a limit to the number of gifs allowed in a comment.
Site needs to do an up-grade with all this winning going on. Less turning the page and more Shuffle Bot capacity.
Good morning everyone. First time post here. Long time Angel fan, but I have posted a bunch on LockedonAngels on YouTube. Great to see this team hitting homeruns with runners on.
Welcome aboard!
I’ve activated your account so your comments will show in real time now.
Thanks. Glad to be on.
Welcome aboard.
Appreciate the welcome.
5/23 Top Prospect Performance: Rio Foster, OF
4/5
1 triple
1 RBI
Rio was our 16th-round draft pick in 2023. He’s a big boy—6’3″, 220 lbs. He had a breakout 2024 season in Rookie Ball and Low-A, and this year is his High-A debut. He’s a lottery ticket prospect that I’ve been following.
Season stats in High-A:
117 PAs
.239 / .385 / .315
25.6% K rate
12.8% BB rate
Very impressive OBP, helped by 8 HBPs lol. Waiting for the power to show up.
Also: Top 5 name in the org.
Sounds like a character in a Cormac McCarthy book.
I thought of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTizYn3-QN0
Lol. Me too. Dances on the sand 😂