A difficult month stretch for the Los Angeles Angels was highlighted with a tough loss on Sunday to the Houston Astros after allowing four runs in the ninth inning.
The deflating defeat had a bit of everything, including a home run from Shohei Ohtani, some clutch hitting from different pieces of the lineup and a bullpen that couldn’t hold. Angels manager Phil Nevin has been at the helm for more than a year now, entering his most critical point as their skipper.
Nevin highlighted multiple areas of the weekend series with the Astros, and how the clubhouse could move forward following the tough loss, via Sarah Valenzuela of the L.A. Times:
“I stayed in here quite a bit longer last night,” Nevin said. “When I left, there was still a lot of guys sitting around. Sometimes you need that to cleanse things and get it out of your system before you go — knowing you come back, same attitude, same effort, same focus on [the next] game.”
Nevin noted that the hangover from the marathon game the night prior, in which the Angels won 13-12, made Monday’s win over the New York Yankees prove vital to team morale:
“After [Sunday], you come out on the wrong end today, and that one, it can knock you down pretty good,” Nevin said.
The division is likely out of reach with a near 10-game deficit over their heads, but they sit just 4.5 out of the American League Wild Card race. Having both succeeded and struggled, most of the Angels roster understands what they need to get going:
“You just gotta keep going, keep your head down,” Detmers said. “We got a good club. Just gotta play better at certain times. We gotta pitch better and at certain times we gotta hit better. It takes a whole team to win. We all gotta do our jobs, and at the end of the day we’ll win a lot more games.”
It will certainly take everyone to turn their ship around, and a quick two wins over the Yankees, who sit directly in front of them in the Wild Card race, is a good place to start.
Shohei Ohtani on track to make next start for Angels
Ohtani’s June 27th start was the first sign of trouble after he was forced to exit the game after 6.1 innings pitched, with 10 strikeouts tallied. The right-hander had been dealing with a cracked fingernail to go along with a blister, and in his most recent pair of starts, he allowed nine earned runs in 10 innings.
With the Angels pondering what to do with their superstar at the trade deadline, they have to push on with what to do with Ohtani and how to handle him going forward. But he is on track to make his next start.
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