SAN DIEGO – Blake Snell barely had to work up a sweat to cruise through an Angels skeleton for six innings.
Jo Adell tore off the Angels’ first hit after two walks to score an unlikely 4-0 win over the Padres on Tuesday night in the first two runs.
With several of their best hitters injured and two of the best healthy hitters on the bench, the Angels didn’t even have a single baserunner against Snell in the first six innings.
David Fletcher worked a leadoff walk to finish the perfect game. Luis Rengifo tried to score. Although he was out, he moved Fletcher to second place. Fletcher then stole the third.
Phil Gosselin then worked Snell for nine pitches and eventually kicked out, and Jack Mayfield worked an eight-pitch walk. Those 17 pitches increased Snell’s pitch count to 26 for the inning, almost half of the 66 he threw in the first six innings.
Snell went ahead of Adell, 1-and-2, but then Adell pounded a line drive into midfield for the Angels’ first hit of the game. It went in two parts because Mayfield stole second when the Padres paid him little attention at first.
The runs came too late for Packy Naughton to take his first major league win. While Snell dropped each of the angels in turn, Naughton adjusted him in the column that matters: Runs.
He worked on two hits and two walks, including one each in the second inning. He knocked out Ha Seong-Kim and Snell in order to strand the runners.
Naughton was drawn after five innings and only 72 pitches, so the Angels could use a pinch hitter to try and get something going against Snell.
Naughton, one of the pitchers the Angels picked up in the Brian Goodwin deal last August, has a 2.57 ERA in his first 14 major league innings over four games.
After Naughton was drawn, Jimmy Herget worked two innings. Steve Cishek beat eighth and Raisel Iglesias finished him. Luis Rengifo ended up in the top of ninth, then the Angels added another insurance run when Gosselin doubled up and eventually scored on an Adell groundout.
The Angels pitching had to be good because they were using one of their thinnest possible lineups.
Related articles
Angels’ Reid Detmers vows to return this season despite COVID. Lost time
Angels only manage 5 hits in a shutout loss against Rangers
Angels’ Joe Maddon believes David Fletcher should win a gold glove despite the metrics
Angels take a look at young talent who lost to the Rangers
For Jo Adell von Angels, a situational approach on the plate pays off
Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon and Justin Upton are all injured. They also didn’t have a Shohei Ohtani because there is no DH in the National League Park.
The Angels started the game without all-star Jared Walsh, who was freed against left-handed Snell. Catcher Kurt Suzuki, the weaker loft of their two catchers, was behind the plate.
Fletcher was the only player from the opening day line-up to start on Tuesday evening. Suzuki and Juan Lagares were the only others who were even in the top leagues on opening day.
We invite you to use our comment platform to have insightful conversations about topics in our community. While we do not pre-examine comments, we reserve the right to remove any information or material that is illegal, threatening, offensive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent, or otherwise objectionable to us, and all Disclose information that is necessary to comply with any law, regulation, or governmental requirement. We can permanently block any user who abuses these terms.
If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the « Report as inappropriate » function by hovering your mouse over the right side of the post and drag the indicated arrow down. Or contact our editors by email at [email protected].
Keywords:
