Angels' Nimmala ends lull at the plate with five-hit night in the Fall League

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- You can’t keep Arjun Nimmala down for long, especially in an Angels uniform.

MLB Pipeline's No. 34 overall prospect went 5-for-7 with a homer, a double, three runs scored, two RBIs and a stolen base on Thursday in Mesa's 21-5 rout of Salt River at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. The five knocks tied Guardians' No. 19 prospect Welbyn Francisca’s mark on Oct. 3 for most in an Arizona Fall League game this season.

More importantly for Nimmala, the complete performance put a definitive end to a seven-game stretch in which the 21-year-old shortstop went 2-for-24 with 10 strikeouts, though he did walk seven times in that span. His AFL OPS stood at 1.204 at the beginning of the stretch, but fell to a more modest (by the standards of this league) .854 at the end of it, only to buoy right back to .980 after Thursday.

“I just try to keep as much confidence as possible,” Nimmala said, “Every great player goes through stretches, bad stretches, multiple times within a year. Obviously, you don't look at it just because you look at a grand scheme of things, and it's the same here. I think I’m just keeping my confidence, trusting my eyes and allowing myself to play the game that I know I can be good at.”

He displayed that belief in himself quickly Thursday with a sharp single to left field on a 2-0 fastball from Twins lefty Ross Dunn in the first inning. The 109.7 mph exit velocity was the highest of any batted ball the Los Angeles prospect has put in play over his 15 games in the desert.

“I think for any player, when the first at-bat goes pretty well, it definitely sets the tone on a better standard for the rest of the game,” Nimmala said. “It felt good to get that out of the way, but I’m just trying to build off good at bats, of course.”

The contact was nearly as loud and the damage was four-fold two frames later when he shot a first-pitch cutter from Dunn 417 feet out to center for his second Solar Sox homer of the spring. Nimmala also singled in the fifth and eighth innings and rounded out the night with a double in the ninth. Five of his seven balls in play had exit velos above 94.8 mph.

Such rockets have become commonplace for Nimmala since he was moved to the Angels from the Blue Jays in the José Soriano deal at the Trade Deadline on Aug. 3.

At Double-A New Hampshire at the time -- where he was limited to 33 games over the summer due to a previous right hamstring strain -- Nimmala joined Rocket City after the swap and proceeded to hit .260/.389/.577 over 27 games for the Halos’ Double-A affiliate. His 17 extra-base hits (eight homers, nine doubles) were third-most in the Southern League after he made his Trash Pandas debut on Aug. 5, and he led the circuit with three postseason home runs on the way to a Southern League championship, the first in Rocket City’s history.

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This recent run before Thursday may well have been Nimmala’s first slump as an Angel, but as he proved with the performance, he keeps finding a way to fly.

“The Angels have done a really good job with me in terms of just allowing me to play the game that I know how to play,” Nimmala said. “As soon as I got there, they were like, ‘You know what, we traded for you as a player because we knew what you were capable of. We just want you to do that defensively, offensively, on the bases. Whatever you do already, just continue to do that.’ So I have to shout out the Angels staff for that, and that's the biggest thing that has allowed me to play my game.”