Angels Beat Texas, 3-2, As Bullpen Excels After Bloodletting

The Los Angeles Angels evened up their series against the Texas Rangers at a game apiece with a 3-2 win, as their much-maligned bullpen held up for 4-2/3 innings after the purge of the bullpen coaching staff by interim GM John Mozeliak. 

The Rangers got on the board first with a solo homer from Joc Pederson off Halos’ starter Ryan Johnson, but the Angels rallied for a three-spot off Cody Bradford to take a 3-1 lead. 

The Angels played some small-ball to get the runs, starting with an infield hit from Wade Meckler, and Tyler Heineman bunted him over to second. 

Zach Neto then singled home the first run, and when Mike Trout was hit by a pitch he and Neto executed a double steal to put runners on second and third with one out. Nolan Schanuel got the second run home with a sacrifice fly, and Vaughn Grissom completed the rally with an RBI double.  

Johnson made it into the fourth inning, and his final line featured five strikeouts to go with three hits and two walks in 4-1/3 innings. Command and control are still issues for the young starter, but this was another start in which it felt like he made progress. 

The Rangers tightened things up in the sixth off relievers Tyler Saucedo and Luke Murphy as they played some small-ball over their own. Saucedo gave up a single to Brandon Nimmo to start the inning, and Murphy poured gas on the fire by giving up another hit to Ezequiel Duran. He settled down to get a couple of fly ball outs, but pinch hitter Jarred Kelenic singled home a run to tighten things up and make it 3-2. 

This is usually the cue for a bullpen blowup by the Halos, but Jose Fermin and Sammy Natera Jr. stopped the bleeding and held the line to finish things out, with Natera getting his third save of the season as he continues his successful audition for closer with Fermin getting the win to run his record to 4-2. 

The win ended the Angels latest losing streak, which was a three-gamer, and it cost Texas a chance to climb over the Houston Astros in the AL West race, such as it is. 

The victory also comes on the heels of the Halos cleaning house with their bullpen staff, as pitching coach Mike Maddux, bullpen coach Dom Chiti and assistant pitching coach Darryl Scott were all fired before the game. 

The moves were a complete about-face from interim GM John Mozeliak, who said the current staff was safe through the end of the year when he took the job, so it will be interesting to see the followup commentary on these moves in the next few days.