The Angels do the unthinkable and for once, don’t lose

Angels 12 Red Sox 4

They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and the Angels have definitely executed on such dogma in the month of August, piecing together eight losses jam-packed into a stretch of ten days. Their first loss of the stretch came on July 31st, trade deadline day, which seems so long ago! As it should.

Excluding today’s offensive doozy, the club has been outscored by 43 runs (on average, having lost by 5.4 runs per game) — miraculously, this still excludes the other Tigers loss and the entire Orioles series. To put into perspective how long the Angels losing streak is, since LAA won their last baseball game on July 30th, newly-minted Chicago Cub Nick Castellanos has hit 4 home runs, 6 doubles, 5 singles, and drawn 3 walks.

I wasn’t sure if it was possible for the Angels not lose, and they didn’t do so today. Clearly the club was in a better headspace Saturday afternoon in Fenway Park, as they wasted no time in taking Red Sox starter Rick Porcello to the woodshed.

Justin Upton got the team on the board with this home run in the first inning, sneaking this out to right field on what wasn’t a bad pitch from Porcello.

This, however, was an extremely bad pitch to Mike Trout. I’m going to go out on a limb and say this wasn’t what Porcello intended to do:

The tater represented Trout’s first home run at Fenway Park, meaning that at the age of 28 years, Mike Trout has homered in every single American League ballpark.

The offense had a very nice day. Kole Calhoun set the table well for Mike Trout with two hits, while Shohei Ohtani and David Fletcher also chipped in multi-hit performances. Matt Thaiss flashed his signature good eyes and got on base three times.

On the flippity flip, Andrew Heaney and Taylor Cole combined to pitch 5.1 innings of 1-run baseball, and the weary Angels did not surrender the lead.

57-61