The Los Angeles Angels entered Monday night’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies in a tough spot. They had lost nine of their last 10, got bad injury news about Anthony Rendon and had just made their first cut of the season by designating Aaron Hicks for assignment. The work Ron Washington put in during the offseason seemed to be unraveling quickly.
Then the Phillies put up three runs in the first inning against struggling starter Griffin Canning. For a 10-18 team with one win in their last 10 outings, a three-run first can be a death sentence. But the Halos turned it around from there. Jo Adell, easing his way into being an every day player, hit a solo home run in the first.
And when the Angels needed to rally in the sixth and seventh inning, they did so, scoring four combined runs to take a lead that would hold for the rest of the game. Carlos Estévez tallied his fifth save in 11 Angels victories in a 6-5 win over the red-hot Phillies.
For Washington, it spoke to who he believes the Angels are when they are at their best and gives them something to work on moving forward, according to Jeff Fletcher of The O.C. Register:
“We played the game of baseball tonight,” Washington said. “It’s a beautiful thing to watch when you execute. We are capable of executing. We just have to find the consistency to do it. And tonight everybody’s head was in the right place. And when the game asks them to do something, they did it. And I would like to see them continue to do that because that’s got to be the way we play. We’re not going to bang people to death, but we can execute and create some havoc.”
The win brings the Angels to a still daunting 11-18 record on the year, but Washington urged that fans stick around to see what they can accomplish this season.
“I just hope that fans don’t give up on us, because they don’t need to be front-runners,” Washington said before the game. “We’re gonna put some quality baseball together here before it’s over with. And once we start putting that quality baseball together, they’re going to want to come to the ballpark.”
The Angels held tough for the first 18 games of the season, before quickly falling apart. But the beauty of the MLB season is that it is very long, and there is always time for a turnaround. Washington has seen a lot of teams in his years in MLB, and believes this Halos roster is capable of that.
Ron Washington believes in process
The Angels were never expected to be a postseason contender in 2024 after losing Shohei Ohtani and not signing any major free agents. However, they were expected to at least be competitive, and in many of their losses this season, they haven’t been. And it’s largely due to an offense that has a tendency to go completely quiet if Trout is unable to connect at the plate. He had eight home runs in the team’s first 18 games and zero in the last five.
Washington spoke about the poor offensive execution, saying that success will come with time this season.