by Hannah Begay | It’s official! The first week of the baseball is in the books. It was a successful week for the Angels as none of the players have tested positive. No seriously. After both virus breakouts from the Cardinals and the Marlins, not having any positive cases is a success. As far as their play goes, that’s another story. In the 10 games the Angels have played, they’ve won only 3 games. Their top 3 stars are all hitting below .300 and their stud pitcher has only recorded 5 outs over 2 starts. Yikes.
The Angels opening day set the scene for the next 9 games to follow. Starter Andrew Heaney went 4.2 innings and finished with 6 strikeouts, 2 hits and 1 earned run. Pretty good start for the unprecedented season. Then the world came crashing down. Ty Buttery came in in relief and flat out blew it and Robles came in giving up even more runs. The game remained tied in the 9th which led to our first extra innings game of the season. A runner began on second and it only got worse for the Angels. Matt Olson came up big for the Athletics sealing a 7-3 victory with a walk off grand slam in the 10th. The interesting thing to note from this game is Ohtani might have had a boo boo moment. What does that mean? In the 9th inning Ohtani struck out and walked sadly back to the dugout. He put his jacket on and pouted without even realizing he needed to run at second. Already mentally checked out. He got on second and was immediately caught in a run-down on a ground ball resulting in an out. I’m not saying it is his fault they lost but he was done with the game after strike three. He was checked out and ready to shower.
The Angels lost all three-opening series with each loss becoming even more grueling to watch. To make matters worse, Ohtani had been shut down as a pitcher and was listed as day to day only as a DH. As Mike Trout left on paternity leave to welcome his baby boy Beckham Aaron Trout, I was intrigued to see if he would return. The Marlins and Cardinals are having major virus outbreaks on their teams canceling a multitude of games. In the end he did in fact return but it came as a surprise to some as he was one of the outspoken players concerned about playing during the pandemic. Trout considered opting out in the beginning of the season, but his inner Scotty Smalls couldn’t allow him not to play.
The Angels stand at the bottom of the AL West at 3-7. Their next series is a battle against the Mariners this week with brand new call up Jo Adell who can hopefully provide some much-needed offense for the team.