The Los Angeles Angels had no troubles taking care of the Oakland Athletics during their mid-week series at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. Shortstop Zach Neto helped secure the sweep with a three-run double in the sixth inning on Wednesday afternoon, but each game had a different hero for the Angels.
Monday’s opener saw the heart of the order — Luis Rengifo, Taylor Ward and Willie Calhoun — combine for five hits in a 5-1 win. On Tuesday, Mickey Moniak’s grand slam gave the Angels all they needed. And through it all, despite bad news on the pitching front with Patrick Sandoval, L.A. held things down on the mound to hold Oakland to a 2.7-run average.
This is only the third sweep of the season for the Angels, and Neto applauded the team for the way they took advantage of the Athletics’ mistakes over the week, via Jeff Fletcher of The O.C. Register:
“It’s not easy beating any team,” Neto said. “You still gotta go out there and contribute, and manufacture runs just to beat them. They have a really solid team over there, young just like ourselves, but we got the better of them today. We took advantage of their mistakes, just like better teams than us take advantage of us when we make mistakes.”
The Angels still have one of the worst records in MLB thus far in 2024, but a favorable schedule for the remainder of the first half could see them go into the All-Star break in a better-than-anticipated position.
They begin a four-game set against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday, then follow it up with another series against the Athletics. From there, it’s the Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners to finish up the first half. Of those teams, only the American League West-leading Mariners are above .500.
Angels have five top trade targets
The Angels have some big decisions to make in the coming weeks. The MLB trade deadline is on July 30 at 3:00 p.m. PST and a spotlight will certainly be on general manager Perry Minasian, as the Angels are expected to be major sellers with a host of sought after talent like Luis Rengifo and Tyler Anderson.
MLB writer Mark Feinsand released a list of the top 13 trade deadline targets at this point in the season and three potential fits for each player. And if there was any doubt about the Angels having deadline ammunition, it should be gone after Feinsand listed five Angels in the top 13.