Angels' opening series provides optimism for bats, as pitching looks to catch up

HOUSTON -- After striking out more than any other club in the big leagues, and finishing with the sixth-lowest run total among MLB’s 30 teams last year, the Angels' offense wasn’t expected to be a major strength this season.

The Angels, however, displayed an impressive combination of patience and power in their four-game series against the Astros that can provide some early season optimism going forward, despite dropping the final two games of the series. But the pitching simply couldn’t hold up after short outings from their starters on Saturday and again in Sunday’s 9-7 loss in the series finale at Daikin Park.

“You can argue it was a good series with the back and forth,” said manager Kurt Suzuki. "That's a good pitching team, and our hitters battled them and made them throw and knocked their starters out early, just like they did to us. We would have liked to have our starters to go deeper, but there are times where you just got to grind it out and find a way, but unfortunately we came up on the losing side twice.”

As Suzuki noted, much like on Saturday, the Angels couldn’t get any length from their starter and it unraveled for the bullpen.

After the Angels took the lead in the fourth on a two-run homer from Zach Neto, which was the club’s MLB-leading ninth of the year, right-hander Chase Silseth gave up a two-run double to Christian Walker that tied it in the fifth before the Astros took the lead in the eighth after the Angels did not issue an ABS challenge on a called ball to Isaac Paredes that appeared to have been a third strike. Instead, Paredes ripped the next pitch for a two-run double and scored on a single from Jose Altuve to put the game away.

Logan O’Hoppe replaced Travis d’Arnaud at catcher that inning, and the Angels had one challenge remaining after Mike Trout lost an ABS challenge in the first. It turned out to be a pivotal missed opportunity for the Angels, but O’Hoppe said he thought it was a ball in real time.

“I didn't even know it was a strike until about two minutes ago,” O’Hoppe said. “I’ve got to be 100 percent sure. I'm only going to call the ones I'm 100 percent sure about. I wasn't 100 percent sure about it. If you saw it, it was as close as it could get.”

It spoiled another strong showing from the offense, which made history through three games by hitting at least two homers and drawing at least six walks in each game to become just the third team since 1900 to accomplish the feat in the first three games of a season, joining the 1948 Giants and 1954 Cubs. It led to the club’s first 2-0 start since 2007 before they dropped Saturday’s game, 11-9, in disheartening fashion.

On Sunday, the Angels found themselves in an early 4-0 hole after right-hander Jack Kochanowicz struggled in the second and Yoán Moncada made a costly throwing error with two outs.

But the offense again came through with four runs in the third and two more in fourth to take the lead. In all, the Angels drew eight more walks to add to their MLB-leading total of 28.

They scuffled early against right-hander Tatsuya Imai, who was making his Major League debut, but rallied in the third when Neto walked for a second time and Mike Trout worked his way back from an 0-2 count to rip a 3-2 fastball for a single.

Nolan Schanuel, who has surprisingly already homered twice this season, walked to load the bases for Jorge Soler, who smoked a three-run double down the left-field line. Jo Adell followed with a game-tying RBI single to knock Imai from the game.

“The work's been good, the routines have been good, the mentality, the approaches have been all awesome,” Suzuki said. “It was a good series for the offense, no doubt.”

But after the Angels gave up three runs in the eighth, they put up a fight in the ninth, knocking out closer Bryan Abreu with one out after Trout walked following two successful ABS challenges. They plated a run on a single from Schanuel, and had the go-ahead run at the plate, but came up just short.

“The guys never gave up,” Suzuki said. “The guys kept fighting. They kept battling back. There’s going to be games where we're gonna have to pick the pitchers up, and there's games where the pitchers are gonna pick the offense up. Unfortunately, we came up on the losing side, but the fight was there.”