ANAHEIM -- In a season full of impressive performances, rookie Walbert Ureña outdid himself with his best showing of the year against the Twins on Thursday night.
Ureña struck out a career-high nine batters over seven scoreless innings before Wade Meckler delivered a walk-off single to lift the Angels to a 5-4 win in 10 innings at Angel Stadium. Mike Trout also came up big with a game-tying RBI single after the Twins scored in the top of the 10th. Meckler was excited not only for his first career walk-off but to give the Angels the victory after another stellar showing from Ureña, whose locker is right next to Meckler’s.
“It's unbelievable,” Meckler said. “You just watch his stuff from the outfield, and it looks like a bowling ball at 101 mph from that high slot and then the fastball just stays up. I hope I never have to face him.”
Ureña scattered just four hits without issuing a walk to improve his ERA to 2.74 in 28 outings (26 starts) this season, but was stuck with a no-decision after Ben Joyce gave up a game-tying two-run homer to Walker Jenkins with two outs in the ninth. The 22-year-old Ureña has struck out 140 and walked 67 in 144 1/3 innings to make himself a candidate to receive some down-ballot votes for the American League Rookie of the Year Award.
“That might have been one of the best starts I've seen, honestly,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “Like up there with ones that I've ever caught, either. It was impressive. It was 100 mph, his changeup was incredible. Today, he was virtually unhittable.”
Ureña’s ERA ranks second among all MLB rookies with at least 100 innings pitched this year, as the only rookie starter with a better ERA this year is Cleveland’s Parker Messick with a 2.57 ERA in 178 1/3 frames. Additionally, his 16 starts allowing one or no runs are the most by a pitcher in a season at age 22 or younger since Dwight Gooden in 1985.
He had electric stuff against Minnesota, as his four-seamer averaged 100.1 mph, his sinker 98.8 mph and his changeup 92.1 mph. It helped him to generate a whopping 22 swings and misses, including 12 with his changeup, nine with his sinker and one with his four-seamer. His previous high in a start was 18 whiffs.
He also filled up the strike zone, throwing first-pitch strikes to 19 of the 25 batters he faced, with 62 of his 91 pitches landing for strikes. He’s had trouble with walks this season but has been better recently, issuing a combined three free passes over his last four outings.
“Every timee I'm ahead in the count, that helps me a lot because I make the hitters more aggressive,” Ureña said. “And that's better for me because I get a lot of ground balls and early contact.”
It was a relatively stress-free outing for Ureña outside of giving up consecutive two-out singles in the first inning. He struck out Emmanuel Rodriguez to get out of the inning, the first of six straight outs he recorded, five coming via strikeout.
The only other time the Twins had a runner in scoring position against him came in the fifth, when Jenkins singled with one out and reached second on a grounder from Ben Ross. But Ureña got Luke Keaschall to ground out to end the inning and then went out to finish his outing strong by retiring the final eight batters he faced, including getting two strikeouts in the seventh.
“I'm just trying to go out and make good pitches, have fun, and do my job to help the team every time,” Ureña said. “I just was trying to get my pitches down in the zone and that's what I did.”
He pitched with the lead for most of his outing, as the Angels scored three runs in the opening frame against right-hander Taj Bradley. Fellow rookies Moisés Ballesteros and Denzer Guzman connected on back-to-back RBI singles while Oswald Peraza plated a run with a two-out RBI single.
But the Angels didn’t score again until the 10th, when Trout and Meckler teamed up to help the club improve to just 5-14 in extra innings this year.
“It's my first career walk-off hit in the big leagues so it's a cool moment for me,” Meckler said. “It was almost a relief. You're in that spot, runner on third, less than two outs, I expect myself to get the job done in that spot.”