The Los Angeles Angels have been playing phenomenal baseball lately, putting together what Joe Maddon refers to as formulaic wins. However, they faced one of their toughest tests in a while against the red hot San Francisco Giants, and Andrew Heaney was on the wrong end of an offense that can’t be stopped.
Things went poorly right off the bat for Heaney and the Angels defense. Heaney gave up a one-out single in the top of the first, followed by a double due to a poor route by right fielder Luis Rengifo. Buster Posey scored a run via a groundout to give the Giants a 1-0 lead. Then with two outs, Brandon Belt scored a run on a perfect bunt, and Heaney immediately gave up a two-run home run to Wilmer Flores.
After another solo home run by Mauricio Dubon, it was 5-0 before the Angels had even recorded an out in the second inning. Heaney spoke about his outing and what went wrong in the early innings, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com:
“Ultimately, we lost the game, so I’m not terribly happy, but it’s probably the best I’ll feel about giving up five earned in a game,” Heaney said. “There’s probably a lot to like about it, but there’s obviously a lot not to like about it. It’s one of those ones that I just want to go back and figure out exactly what was going on in the first inning versus the rest of the game.”
Remarkably, Heaney survived six innings. After giving up five runs before recording a fourth out, he allowed zero runs on four total hits. The Angels wound up losing 5-0, as there was no offense to be found on either side after the early jump by the Giants.
This is one of those games that — if Heaney and the defense had just played with a bit more control out of the gate — the result could have been different. Perhaps not going down 5-0 almost instantly would have allowed the offense to play their game, rather than playing catch up for nine innings.
Justin Upton leaves game with back tightness
There is no telling the severity of things just yet, but Upton was removed from Tuesday’s game with low back tightness. Maddon made it clear that it wasn’t just one swing or moment that caused it, but rather a feeling of soreness and tightness throughout the opening innings.
The Angels hope to know more about his status prior to Wednesday’s game.