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For the second night in a row, the Halos got to beat up on the Philadelphia Phillies, this time walloping their visitors by the score of 7-0, powered by one of their best innings of the season. It was also a night where we saw J.C. Ramirez deliver the goods and deliver a win, improving on his last start by going longer, and with fewer walks.
Ramirez was crisp, clean and in the zone, boasting 8.0 innings pitched, six hits, no runs, three strikeouts and two walks. That’s the Ramirez worth of the J.Cy. moniker, that’s the cold-blooded killer that materialized into a sick starter right before our very eyes, back in top J.Cy. form.
If it weren’t for all the dominance on display in the third inning, I could easily spend a few more paragraphs talking about nothing but J.C. Ramirez; but the third inning was a burst of offensive dynamite that obliterated Philadelphia and showed us the ideal, optimal Halos offense, in full stride, everything clicking.
They ended up hitting THREE blizzys in the third: Mike Trout, C.J. Cron and Kaleb Cowart. That Trout homer was his 20th in the 2017 season. It also made him just the fourth player in MLB history to have 6+ 20 HR seasons before age 26 their season. The other three are Alex Rodriguez, Tony Congliaro and Mickey Mantle, naturally. The Angels also got runs in that third thanks to an Andrelton Simmons single, and also a fielding error on a Ben Revere ball.
After the carnage was finally over, and the dust had settled, the Halos had put up seven hits on seven runs in the third, which would end up being more than enough to put the Phillies to sleep for the night. The Halos had just three hits in all other innings combined, and no runs other than those in the third, and that’s OK. When you have Ramirez dialed in and throwing eight scoreless innings, and Trout hitting 420 (Ohhhhhhhhh shhhhhhhhiiiiiiiii bro!) ft homers, life is good and you can be happy with the W.
Tonight, the Angels got back on track by teeing off on a bad team. It’s nice to be on that side of things again. Here’s to the sweep tomorrow; may the Halos avoid any walk-off grand slams.