Angels Dominated By Skenes In 1-0 Loss To Pirates

The Los Angeles Angels sent Walbert Urena to the mound today against Paul Skenes, and the result was their second 1-0 loss in the three-game series. 

Runs were at a premium in this one, which wasn’t surprising given the pitching matchup. Urena blinked first, giving up a solo homer in the second inning to Henry Davis to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead. 

Skenes grew up in Fullerton, Calif. as a die-hard Angels fan who met Garrett Anderson when he was young and then later Mike Trout, and he pitched like he had a score to settle in this one. Skenes didn’t have his usual velocity, but he did touch 98 mph at times, although it didn’t make much difference given what the Angels lineup has been doing lately. 

But Urena was even more brilliant. He went eight innings and gave up just one run on three hits with one walk to go with four strikeouts, and he lowered his ERA to 2.74 in the process. Urena threw just 88 pitches to get it done, and it was the Angels’ first complete game from a starter since Shohei Ohtani turned the trick back in 2023. (Apologies for the Ohtani reminder, of course.)

The Angels managed just five hits in the game, with Trout getting two of them to go with singles from Zach Neto, Wade Meckler and Christian Moore. 

Skenes wasn’t the only problem the Halos had, though. Skenes left after 5-1/3 innings when his pitch count reached 87, and Gregory Soto, Carmen Mlodzinski and Camilo Doval followed him to the mound. The Angels managed just a walk and a hit against the trio, and Mason Montgomery pitched a scoreless ninth to get his tenth save of the season. 

The Angels have managed some horrifying statistical feats in this disaster of a season, with the latest being dropping a series with a pair of losses in which they gave up just two runs. Pittsburgh also scored a grand total of three runs in the series, which makes the series win all the more remarkable. 

The loss dropped Urena’s record to 9-10, but he’ll be remembered for this particular losing performance for a long time. He continues to go toe-to-toe with some of the best teams and mound opponents in baseball, and the outstanding starts keep coming. 

The Angels will move on to become live bait for their next opponent, as they play tomorrow afternoon against the Boston Red Sox in a Labor Day matinee. The matchup will be Grayson Rodriguez against Patrick Sandoval as the Halos will have to try and score against yet another strong pitching staff.