This piece was written before the Angels’ 5-0 win over the White Sox on Tuesday, September 17.
Already lost at the bottom of the American League West, the Halos began an end-of-week series against the always-favored Houston Astros on Friday.
Rookie starter Sam Aldeghri began the game on the mound and delivered a horrific outing. Aldeghri allowed four earned runs, five walks, six hits, and zero strikeouts in two innings. This was Aldeghri’s third career start and his ERA after Friday’s game inflated to 4.85. However, the bullpen did its job, only allowing one ER in 6 innings.
The Angels found momentum in the third and fourth innings with three runs altogether but couldn’t get going after that point.
Astros’ starter Yusei Kikuchi threw an impressive seven innings of work, allowing only three ERs while throwing six strikeouts. Since being traded to the Astros at the deadline, Kikuchi has a 3.19 ERA and 0.94 WHIP through eight games. After a 5-3 final score, Kikuchi earned the win.
Looking to tie up the series on Saturday, the results were the same, despite the Halos’ efforts.
Tyler Anderson started the game and threw a middle-of-the-pack outing, lasting five innings and allowing four ERs. Anderson struggled to keep players off base, allowing seven hits and three walks. Once again, most of the damage was done by the time Anderson left the field; relievers Hunter Strickland, Ryan Zeferjahn and Guillermo Zuniga only allowed one run in four innings.
Catcher Logan O’Hoppe had a great showing with two hits, one RBI and scoring a run. On the season, O’Hoppe has 55 RBIs and 19 HRs—one of the few bright spots on a forgettable Angels season.
Three-time Cy Young winner Justin Verlander was on the bump for the Astros and threw a serviceable game, especially considering how Verlander’s season has gone. During his five innings of work, Verlander gave up two earned runs, four hits and walked a couple.
The Angels were down three runs heading into the eighth and managed to pull one run back, but were left needing more. With bases loaded and only one out, Astros reliever Ryan Pressly shut down the chance of any comeback with a 1.2 inning save, his fourth of the season.
Looking for some sort of spark in the final game of this three-round series, nothing seemed to work for the Angels. The same old story repeated itself, as Caden Dana had a pitiful game. Dana only managed to stay in the game for 3.1 innings, allowing four earned runs in the process. Dana just couldn’t locate the strike zone as he walked two batters and surrendered five hits.
Miraculously, the Angels bullpen once again did its job and threw a gem. It did not allow any runs in the following five innings and the Halos almost made the comeback, scoring all four runs in the eighth and ninth. Taylor Ward started the offensive run with a solo homer to bring it within five. In his last 15 games, Ward has produced a .302 average, .696 slugging percentage and six homers.
Heading into the final out in the ninth, rookie Zach Neto—up against the heat-throwing closer Josh Hader—could’ve tied the game with a man on first, but ultimately couldn’t capitalize.
The Angels record dropped to 60-90 after the swept and lost the first game of a three game series to the MLB-worst 36-115 Chicago White Sox. The Halos will hope for a turnaround series against one of the worst baseball teams of all time.