The Los Angeles Angels have plenty of candidates to be moved at the deadline, and yesterday three of them came through.
The Los Angeles Angels know they’re playing out the string, but that doesn’t mean that several key Angels don’t know they’ve got a chance to escape from Anaheim.
Jose Soriano, Jorge Soler and Jo Adell all contributed big as the Angels won the last game of their three-game series against the San Francisco Giants, 4-3, with Soriano being the big pitching prize deadline prize.
Soriano surrounded himself with traffic, but he did manage to go five innings and give up just one run. Walks have been an ongoing problem for the Angels starter, but he attributed most of his success yesterday to a renewed focus on his bread-and-butter pitch.
“I feel like I’ve been throwing better with my fastball,” Soriano said in a piece written by Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “I’ve been working hard and having the result I want because of that.”
Manager Kurt Suzuki, however, chose to focus on Soriano’s secondardy pitches in his comments.
“Things looked a little crisper today, even more than last time,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “Breaking balls were good, couple good splits. Splits were pretty firm and crisp, so they almost looked like sinkers. I thought he was really good today.”
Soler, meanwhile, has been a disappointment at DH. He started fast but quickly went flat, but yesterday he provided one of those impressive home runs that will get him another chance with a new team.
"I've been traded many times, so I'm not worried about that,” Soler said through interpreter Manny Del Campo. “What I need to do is get better, hit better and help the team win."
Adell also got in on the long ball act, with a tape-measure home run off Giants starter Carson Whisenhunt that measured out at 446 feet. The outfielder’s power numbers have been a disappointment, but the Angels have another year of team control over Adell, and Suzuki would like to see more of what Adell put on the field yesterday.
“That was nice,” Suzuki said of Adell’s homer. “I was watching him hit today in the cage before the game, and he was putting some nice swings out there. He's been working and he did the same thing in the game.”
Next week will be showcase week for all three players, and starter Reid Detmers will get his next moment in the spotlight when he takes the mound against the Houston Astros tomorrow night. No one wants to see these players leave, but fans are hoping the Halos commit to a complete overhaul to eventually get the team out of the basement in the AL West.
