The Angels Mission to Break the .500 Record Continues

Yesterday’s comeback and today’s loss started off awfully similar for the Halos. In the top of the first today against the Indians (soon to be Guardians) with one out, Franmil Reyes belted his 22nd homer of the year and the Halos were losing 3-0. With two outs and one on in the bottom of the second, Straw and Rosario doubled back to back, and just like that Cleveland had increased their lead to 5-0.

A hallmark of yesterday’s come from behind win was traffic on base for the Angels. The most that got going today came in the third; Suzuki singled and so did Ohtani. With his 143rd hit of the season, Fletch drove in Suzuki from third, scoring the Angels only run of the game.

By the beginning of the third, starter Jaime Barría was out, replaced by Sam Selman. Barría has been struggling recently and he couldn’t turn it around tonight. In the month of August he’s sported a 6.00 ERA in 2 GS, going 9 IP with a 1.78 WHIP.

After Selman, this made way for the 31st pitcher the Angels have used in the 2021 season: Jose Marte. He was also making his major league debut which was undoubtedly the brightest part of the evening.

Marte was acquired in the Tony Watson trade with the San Francisco Giants earlier this season. The first batter he faced was Myles Straw who he struck out looking on a cutter.

Marte also touched 99 mph in the outing. He went back out for the fifth and struck out the side. With the 33 pitches he threw he went 2 innings allowing just 1 hit and striking out 4 of the 7 batters he faced. A pretty impressive debut.

Angels pitching could not keep the game close and instead of the offense chipping away at Clevelands lead, the Indians kept adding to it. In the bottom of the sixth, Junior Guerra loaded the bases with two outs before giving up a hit to Reyes that scored two runs. Ramírez then came around to score on a Zimmer single, leaving the Angels trailing 8-1.

The Angels faced a familiar face in Blake Parker in the top of the 8th. He made 138 appearances for the Halos between 2017-2018. All the Angels could get off of him was Ohtani reaching on an error; nothing really seemed to get started for the offense the whole night.

By the time José Ramírez homered off Quijada to start the 8th putting the Angels down 9-1, the game was for all intents and purposes over. Garza came in the top of the ninth and sent the Angels down 1-2-3 on just 6 pitches.

Today’s loss marks the 25th time the Angels have been at .500 on the season. The record in a single season is 35.

The Angels currently sit at 62-62, 4th in AL West, 10.5 games out of first, and 8 games back of the second Wild Card. They look to Reid Detmers (1-2, 7.04 ERA) to even the four game set with Cleveland tomorrow as he goes against Triston McKenzie (2-5, 5.12 ERA) in a 1:10 PM PT start.

Angels News and Notes:

• Sam Bachman, the Angels number one draft pick, started tonight for High-A Tri-City. He threw 42 pitches with 26 being strikes. His final line: 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K’s
• Michael Stefanic went 3-4 in game one of the double header for the AAA Salt Lake Bees; he’s now batting .337
• To make room for Marte, who made his MLB debut today, Aaron Slegers was optioned to AAA Salt Lake