LA Angels Earn First Shutout of Season vs A’s

Through three games this season, we have seen the LA Angels be outmatched entirely, win a close game, and now have seen them dominate their opponent thanks to a 5-0 shutout victory Wednesday night against the Athletics.

The LA Angels had all the momentum in the series. They were coming off an exciting, ninth-inning win the night before and had their ace in Garret Richards making his season debut. Richards looked like his 2014 ace form as he struck out four and only allowed three hits and a walk. He was ultimately removed from the game, however, due to precautionary reasons.

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Richards, coming off stem cell treatment for a torn UCL last year, suffered some tightness in his right bicep. Scioscia and the training staff hustled out, and decided to remove him from the game. However, it did not seem very encouraging at first for Halo fans. Albert Pujols was shown in the dugout with his arm around Richards, consoling him. However, the staff is optimistic in Richards’ ability to make his next scheduled start.

“Nothing serious. My arm feels good. I felt good tonight, elbow feels fine, shoulder feels fine,” Richards said. “It was just kind of a long inning and it just kind of stiffened up a little bit. There’s no red flags or anything… Everything kind of moves on as

planned”. The staff may skip Richards’ next start, but are very hopeful he will be back sooner rather than later.

Richards and the bullpen were not the only unit to have a great game. The offense as a whole exploded. It began in the second innings, when Andrelton Simmons and Danny Espinosa drove in three runs off of a couple of good drives. Then, the Angels’ stars took on the rest of the scoring. Trout drove in Escobar on a deep drive. Then, Albert Pujols drove in Trout and Calhoun for his first hit of the season. That forced the A’s to finally go to the bullpen, who were able to prevent any further scoring for the Halos.

Despite having an RBI single, Trout did not have a great game. He struck out twice and on 7 total pitches.

After dropping the first game of the season due to a lifeless offense (outside of Trout), Angel fans were gearing up for a long season. However, the past two days have shown a better version of the team, one we all hope to see more often than the former.