Jo Adell Breaks No-No; Angels Offense Sparks Victory at Petco Park

San Diego Padres pitcher Blake Snell (4.22 ERA) stepped into the 7th inning with dreams of a no-hitter, but Jo Addell and the Angels offense quickly put that dream to bed with a lively night of plate performances that earned the Halos a 4-0 victory at Petco Park on Tuesday night.

With their eyes on the NL West Wild Card spot, the Padres entered tonight’s game with a strong bullpen behind Snell, but the Halos bullpen came to play with Packy Naughton dominating the hill for 5 innings with 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB and 5 K — an impressive start for his 2nd time leading the bullpen.

Up until the 7th inning, the game was a battle of the bullpens, with both Snell and Naughton keeping the board scoreless and the bases clear for majority of the night. By the time Snell took to the mound in the 7th, he had paced himself with 66 pitches throughout 6 no-hit innings, and Padres fans at Petco Park started to get excited.

But that excitement was short lived as the Angels bats responded to their wake up call.

After Snell walked David Fletcher, Luis Rengifo stepped up to the plate with a groundout that moved Fletch to 2nd, and Halos fans didn’t expect David “Flash” Fletcher to stay there for very long. Fletch stole his 15th base of the season, and Snell sweetened the inning with a walk for Jack Mayfield, leaving runners on the corners and Jo Adell at the plate.

Despite warnings from the pitching staff, Snell continued to pitch with no one warming the Padres bullpen, and to say that Jo Adell made the most of this moment, would be an understatement. The young rookie single handedly ended Snell’s no-hitter with a double that brought home 2 runs in the top of the 7th and left the Angels with a 2-0 lead.

But the bats didn’t stop there, and the bullpen never let up.

Angels pitcher Jimmy Herget (5.40 ERA) kept the game scoreless for 2 innings before handing it over to Steve Cishek (3.15 ERA) and Raisel Iglesias (2.61 ERA) who kept the offensive lineup at bay for the remainder of the night while the bats got to work.

By the top of the 9th inning, it was clear that the Halos bats were awake and ready to work as shortstop Luis Rengifo hit a solo HR off of Padres pitcher Emilio Pagán (3.79 ERA) and Phil “the Goose” Gosselin hit a double that put him in scoring position. Captain Jack Mayfield advanced Gosselin to 3rd with a pop up to left fielder Wil Myers, and Adell’s final plate performance was a nice reminder that: this kid is here to play.

Adell’s 3rd RBI of the night scored Gosselin and cemented the Angels 4-0 victory, leaving the Padres farther back from the NL West Wild Card spot than they were at first pitch.

Aside from his fire in the batting box, Adell has also shown solid defense in left field where he has started 12 out of 13 of the last games with no errors reported in 21 games.

And while the magic of the lineup fell together perfectly behind a solid bullpen, it’s worth noting that Joe Maddon played with today’s starting lineup quite a bit, using the NL field as a chance to try out different players and techniques.

Kean Wong, who was recently pulled up from Triple-A Salt Lake and has played with the Angels before, made a brief appearance at the plate, but after a quick groundout, he was replaced in the lineup by Herget and later Shohei Ohtani who went 1-for-1 with a single in the 8th.

As for the Halos standings, the team is slowly inching their way back up to a .500 record, but it will take a win in tomorrow’s series finale to get there. Their record currently sits at 69-70. The team will take on the San Diego Padres again tomorrow night at 5:10 PM.