The Los Angeles Angels had ridden three solo home runs by Brandon Drury, Mike Moustakas and Logan O’Hoppe to a 3-1 lead over the Cincinnati Reds in the fifth inning of Tuesday’s series opener. And with a chance to put the inning away maintaining that lead, rookie first baseman Nolan Schanuel made a costly error.
With two outs in the inning, he misplayed a ground ball that bounced off his glove and shot to his right, allowing runners on second and third to both score and tie the game at 3-3. The batter, Elly De La Cruz, would eventually score, meaning three unearned runs for Lucas Giolito off the glove of Schanuel.
The 4-3 score would hold for the remainder of the game, giving the Angels another in a long line of disappointing and avoidable losses this season. But Angels manager Phil Nevin rightfully refused to place the blame on the rookie, saying that several other things didn’t go right for the Halos, according to Jeff Fletcher of The O.C. Register:
“He feels awful for what happened,” Manager Phil Nevin said of Schanuel. “We’re not putting this on him. We had chances to score. The three home runs were good. But only three other hits besides that. Really scattered around. There was no traffic. We didn’t put any pressure on their defense, nor their pitcher. So to me, that’s what it came down to.”
Giolito also came to Schanuel’s defense after the game, saying that he could have done better to not put Schanuel in that situation by limiting baserunners.
“I know that sometimes people want to point the finger at the error,” Giolito said. “But there’s a lot of things I could have done better to even avoid that situation altogether. Four-pitch leadoff walk kind of put us in a tough situation to start the inning.”
The Angels have lost many games this year by their own unforced errors. On Tuesday, it was a literal error from a rookie in his fourth Major League game that led to the loss. But just about everyone has had a moment like for that the Halos this season.
It digs their hole towards the postseason even deeper, and puts them in a situation where any more losses of that nature could mean the end of their season.
Minasian wanted Angels to play meaningful games
The decision to be buyers at the trade deadline not only stemmed from a free agency pitch to superstar Shohei Ohtani, but it also came from general manager Perry Minasian. He wanted the Angels to have the opportunity to play meaningful games in September and October, and felt that he had made the right moves to accomplish that.
