Heading into Canada to face the Toronto Blue Jays, the Los Angeles Angels were tasked with salvaging a messy road trip while missing Taylor Ward, Ryan Tepera, and Aaron Loup. After a 1-6 start to the 10-game trip, Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout led the charge as the Angels dismantled the Blue Jays.
In a three-game sweep that was never particularly close, the Angels won by an aggregate score of 22-3. The Blue Jays did not score their first run of the series until the fourth inning of the finale, meaning they were held scoreless for 21 consecutive innings by Angels pitchers.
Included within that was a 7.0-inning gem from Ohtani, as he shut down the Blue Jays with only two hits and one walk given up. The Angels also got solid starts from Reid Detmers and Tucker Davidson, the former bouncing back from a recent difficult outing.
Angels interim manager Phil Nevin was proud of his group for the way they closed out the road trip, according to Julia Kreuz of MLB.com:
“We really played inspired [baseball] all around,” said Nevin. “We have good hitters in there, guys with track records who are doing some things, and it’s nice to see some young guys come up and have a nice weekend. It’s good for the psyche. It’ll be a fun flight home.”
And as the Halos prepare to return to Anaheim and face the New York Yankees, we break down what was an incredible three-game stretch that brought a hard road trip to a salvageable 4-6 mark.
The opener of this series belonged to the Angels almost immediately out of the gates. Behind a David Fletcher double and an Ohtani triple, the Angels placed five runs on the board in the second inning. An Andrew Velazquez home run in the third gave them a 7-0 lead.
From there, two Jo Adell and one Trout blast brought the run run total to 12. It tied the team’s season high for runs scored in a game — with the other being a different 12-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in May — and brought the Angels shutout total to 16, the most in the AL.
Detmers tossed 5.1 scoreless frames with four hits and three walks allowed. Andrew Wantz, Jose Marte, Gerardo Reyes, and Jesse Chavez supported him with 3.2 clean innings.
Game 2: Angels def. Blue Jays 2-0
Ohtani’s gem on the mound came in the middle outing of the series, and the Angels needed just two pitchers — and two runs — to get out of this game unscathed. Ohtani tossed 7.0 innings with 109 pitches, allowing only two hits and one walk while striking out nine.
Then, Jimmy Herget finished things off with 2.0 perfect innings. He struck out two while allowing zero baserunners against a notoriously difficult Blue Jays lineup.
A sixth-inning RBI from Luis Rengifo broke the scoreless tie, and Velazquez provided an insurance run with a homer in the ninth inning.
Game 3: Angels def. Blue Jays 8-3
The Halos finally relented and allowed Toronto to score a run in this series. However, their offense kept the party going with eight runs, largely thanks to Ohtani and Trout. Combined, the two superstars went a whopping 5-for-9 with a walks, four RBIs, and four runs scored.
Thanks to home runs by Rengifo and Kurt Suzuki in the early frames, the Angels never trailed in this series. And with the score at 3-1 in the seventh inning, Trout and Ohtani made sure the winning would continue when they hit back-to-back home runs.
Davidson was solid on the mound as well, allowing one earned run on three hits and five walks in 4.0 innings of work. Wantz, Jaime Barria, Reyes, and Chavez did the bulk of the work, however, pitching 5.0 innings of two-run, six-hit baseball.
As Nevin said, it was the type of series that gives hope for what the Angels can accomplish over the final weeks of the season. And as they head to a home series with the Yankees, they’ll need all the momentum they can get.