ANAHEIM -- The Angels have been scuffling over the last two weeks, and to make matters worse, they saw their starting pitcher exit due to injury for a second straight game in Friday’s series opener against the Mets.
Just two days after lefty Yusei Kikuchi left after two innings with left shoulder tightness, right-hander Walbert Ureña departed his start after being hit in the right knee by a line drive from Bo Bichette in the sixth inning of an eventual 4-3 loss at Angel Stadium. The good news is that Ureña was diagnosed with a bruise and he believes he’ll be fine to make his next start, but it came in a seventh straight loss for the Angels, who have lost 11 of 12.
“He took a hard shot off the side of his leg, but it looks like just a bruise,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “We took him out as a precaution. He said he was OK, but you don’t want it to lead to something with the arm. We didn’t want to take that chance.”
Ureña, ranked as the club’s No. 18 prospect by MLB Pipeline, cruised through five scoreless innings before Bichette hit a first-pitch fastball 102.6 mph that caromed hard off Ureña’s knee for a single to open the sixth. Ureña immediately hit the ground while Bichette reached on an infield single.
Ureña was visited at the mound by Suzuki, pitching coach Mike Maddux and trainers Mike Frostad and Eric Munson and eventually got up and was able to throw a few warmup pitches. But he ultimately had to leave the game due to injury, despite walking off the field on his own accord.
Ureña, though, said he wanted to stay in the game and believes he can make his next start. He said it scared him at first because he broke his foot on a comebacker as a Minor Leaguer in 2024, but that Friday night's line drive hit him on the side of his knee -- so it wasn’t direct impact.
“I tried to stay in the game but they didn’t want me to pitch in that situation,” Ureña said. “But I feel good, I think it was a pretty good start. Just trying to stay aggressive and calm with every pitch.”
It spoiled an otherwise strong outing for Ureña in his third career start, but he didn’t factor into the decision and has a 3.86 ERA in 16 1/3 innings (five games, three starts) this year. He didn’t allow a hit through the first three innings and faced the minimum over that span thanks to a double-play grounder off the bat of Ronny Mauricio in the third. The 22-year-old scattered two hits and three walks with four strikeouts over five-plus frames and was charged with one run after lefty Brent Suter allowed the inherited runner to score on a one-out single from Francisco Alvarez.
“He was awesome,” Suzuki said. “You can kind of see him settling in a little bit now with a few starts under his belt without the pressure or anxiety of going out there. You see him kind of moving slower, and it’s fun to watch.”
The bullpen, however, has not been fun to watch, as Angels relievers have especially scuffled over the last two weeks. After allowing three runs in four innings, Angels relievers have combined to post a 5.69 ERA that ranks as the second-worst mark in the Majors behind only the Astros (6.54).
Suter allowed the inherited run to score and before being lifted with two runners in scoring position and two outs, but right-hander Chase Silseth promptly allowed a game-tying, two-run single to Marcus Semien.
Right-hander José Fermin also gave up a go-ahead solo homer to Mauricio in the seventh that proved to be the difference, as the Angels didn’t record a hit after scoring two runs and getting three hits in the first inning, with Mets pitchers retiring the final 21 batters they faced.
Suter acknowledged it’s been a difficult stretch -- especially for the bullpen -- but said they’re doing their best to stay together to get themselves out of this rut.
"I'm starting to think about bringing some sage in or something to burn some sage in the clubhouse,” Suter said. “But we’re attacking. Every one of us has had some struggles here in the last week or two. We’ve all had moments where pitches we want back and, you know, it’s rare to have every single member of the bullpen want some pitches back. It’s definitely heavy and we’re going to take accountability for it and we’re going to make some adjustments and keep on attacking, but the key is we've gotta just keep wanting the ball.”