What we learned from the Angels’ loss on opening day

We were all waiting for opening day to come, somehow making it through the baseball-bereft winter, till the thrill and hope of spring training signaled it was almost time to come out of hibernation. Then, it was Opening Day 2017. Angels vs. A’s.

So, how’d it all go? To steal from the hilarious opening scrawl of the cinematic masterpiece Monster Squad:

With the Angels going down 4-2 in the opener, was there anything we could learn from the game? Yeah, I reckon.

Here are the main takeaways from the Angels’ opening day loss:

1. MIKE TROUT
2. . MIKE TROUT
3. MIKE TROUT
4. MIKE TROUT
5. Mike Trout will be important to this club
6. MIKE TROUT
7. If Ricky Nolasco can give that sort of performance every outing, then I’d be happy.
8. The bottom part of the lineup is potentially the scariest in the league. There is potential there, but Maldonado and Espinosa, the defensive/pitch framing powerhouses they may be, need to hit the dang ball every now and then otherwise the defense aspects to their game is moot.
9. MIKE TROUT
10. The bullpen is going to be a lil rocky, and by “a lil rocky”, I mean there are going to be days when they will make us cry, and days when we’ll say “that was an OK outing, good enough” and there will be no middle ground between those options.
11. MIKE TROUT
12. Hey, the top of the order is pretty good! Sometimes, at least. So...yeah.

My mantra for the day is “It’s only one game”, because it IS only one game. But then again, it was a game that we’ve all seen countless times before. Tread lightly.

It’s only one game, though, f’reals.