Angels prove that matinee baseball is fun and Mike Trout keeps breathing rarified air

Splitting a series with the second worst team in baseball isn’t exactly a proud achievement, but at least the Angels salvaged the last two games in this set and scored 23 runs in the past 24 hours.

Following the Martin Maldonado trade, Francisco Arcia (after 12 years in the minors) made his big league debut, drawing a walk, striking out once, and notching 2 hits, including a 3 run home run in the 7th. Welcome aboard!!!

Nick Tropeano gave up, well, a few home runs in this game. The home runs allowed in the 1st and 2nd inning were okay and he was still on his way to a quality start when he decided to give up 3 more in the 7th inning over the span fo 4 batters. Tropeano’s final stats? 5 hits allowed, 5 home runs allowed, 2 walks, and 7 Ks.

Kole Calhoun stayed hot with 2 more hits and another dinger and Justin Upton had a 4 hit game - his first of 2018. But one again, much of this was overshadowed by what Trout accomplished before he even had a hit in the game (he did later get a double).

Mike Trout was intentionally walked (twice) and stole a base in this game which brings us to some fun facts and tweets:

So smooth!!

Not to be left out of all the fun, Andrelton Simmons hit a little league home, complete with basically walking across the plate, and Ian Kinsler stayed hot with a 3 hit game.

I’d also like to point out that Simmons is 4 for 8 over his past two games since being moved down from the 2 spot in the lineup.

Hope some of you were able to catch this game, because aside from all the Nitro Bombs, it sure was some fun baseball.

Final Angels stats: 12 runs, 16 hits, 0 errors, 3 home runs runs, 5 doubles, 1 triple, and 2 stolen bases.