Angels Ride Strong Start from Klassen to 3-1 Win Over Astros

The Los Angeles Angels continue to look like something resembling a real baseball team as they got their fifth win in their last seven games, with starter George Klassen leading the way to the 3-1 victory over the Houston Astros. 

Klassen has been a work in progress since he showed out early in spring training, but he’s starting to get it together in his fifth start as a big leaguer. The right hander admitted to pitching through what he called “jelly legs” in the first inning against Houston last night as he let the Astros generate some traffic on a walk and a hit before getting down to business. 

“The legs were feeling a little jelly in the first inning, and the slider was the pitch that was feeling the best, so I stuck to that strength and just went at [Dalton Varsho] with it,” Klassen said in a followup piece from Jeremy Rakes of MLB.com.

Klassen was nails after that, as he retired 19 of the final 21 hitters he faced, per Rakes, and he gave catcher Tyler Heineman and his defense credit for the win. 

“I had some outstanding plays on defense help me out a ton,” Klassen said. “Heine calling a great game behind the plate, and the bats were alive tonight. Overall, a really good team win.”

The bats being alive is a bit of an exaggeration, but the Halos hit enough to get the win. The Angels scored single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings, with Nolan Schanuel singling home the first, Josh Lowe hitting a solo homer for the second and Zach Neto getting run number three home with an RBI double. That made it 3-0, and Klassen took it from there.

He wound up with a one-hit effort through seven innings as he walked three and struck out seven, but reliever Jose Fermin faltered in the eighth as he gave up a solo home run to Cam Smith to get Houston on the board and cut the LA lead to 3-1. 

But Ryan Watson did a fine job of cleaning up the mess Fermin made after that, and Ben Joyce came on to get his third save of the season as he continues to solidify the closer spot. 

Klasssen now has a 1.59 ERA and 15 strikeouts in his last three starts as he’s held opponents to a .167 averge, and the Angels are 3-0 in those starts. 

“That was some of the best stuff we’ve seen all year,” said manager Kurt Suzuki said. “Attacking with his fastball and pretty nasty sliders, but I think it was more commanding the zone, getting ahead and really just on the attack. He didn’t make it too complicated, knew what he did best and went after them.”