The Los Angeles Angels traveled up the I-5 and delivered a big victory against the L.A. Dodgers in the Freeway Series opener on Friday night. Taylor Ward was the hero with the game-winning RBI in the 10th inning, but it was the collective effort of the bullpen after Patrick Sandoval exited the game early that stole the show.
Sandoval was removed from the game in the third inning due to left forearm tightness. It’s a new injury for Sandoval, who has been one of the Angels’ most durable pitchers over the last few seasons. He has never dealt with any major elbow or forearm issues, making this a potentially serious issue for the team moving forward.
The 27-year-old had pitched 2.1 scoreless innings and is now set to undergo testing on his elbow and forearm on Saturday. He was less than positive in the aftermath of the game, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com:
“[Feeling] not the best, I’ll do some tests in the morning and see what we’ve got,” Sandoval said. “It was really painful. It was something I’ve never really felt before, so that was pretty scary. I’ve felt normal aches and bruises, but nothing like that.”
“My spirits are pretty low right now, just because it’s pretty fresh,” Sandoval said. “But we’ll see.”
The Angels losing Sandoval for any significant length of time would be a massive setback, as the Halos are already struggling to piece together five quality starters with an injury to Jose Soriano and Reid Detmers still in Triple-A. But on the bright side, the collection of Angels’ relievers helped lift them to victory on Friday.
“The best part of the night for me was the bullpen coming in and keeping that game there after we lost Sandoval,” Washington said. “The bullpen did a tremendous job.”
Hunter Strickland, Ben Joyce, Luis Garcia and Carlos Estévez tossed a combined 6.2 scoreless innings with Matt Moore giving up the lone runs of the night on a Shohei Ohtani home run. Estévez got the save in extra innings to get the Angels their 30th win of the season.
Now, the Angels await the results of testing from Sandoval’s arm injury.
Tyler Anderson impressing Angels
The Angels hoped for a bounce-back effort from Tyler Anderson in 2024 to justify the contract they gave him after his big season with the Dodgers. And so far, he has been even better than advertised. Anderson has a 2.48 ERA and 1.177 WHIP in 94.1 innings over 15 starts.
This was punctuated by an incredible start on Wednesday against the Milwaukee Brewers. He gave up one earned run in seven innings of work — although it was ultimately in a losing effort — making it his sixth start of the season completing at least seven innings.