2 Angels players who turned their season around in Dodgers sweep, 2 who kept surging

The Los Angeles Dodgers have been one of the worst teams in baseball since July 4th, despite Shohei Ohtani likely hitting and pitching his way to his fourth MVP award. The reigning World Series champions are now 12-21 since Independence Day -- only the Tampa Bay Rays and Washington Nationals have a worse record, and the Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants have the same record in that time. In a series that was supposed to turn their season around, the Dodgers floundered and embarrassed themselves in a major way by getting swept by the Los Angeles Angels for the second time this season.

The Angels now have their longest win streak in franchise history versus the Dodgers, and it was a complete team effort to pull that off. The Angels have several players who kept performing incredibly well during the pivotal series, and a few who stepped up that desperately needed to.

2 LA Angels players who kept surging in LA Dodgers sweep

Zach Neto

What else is there to be said about how good Neto is at this point? His star keeps growing and growing, especially when he turns triple plays and hits leadoff home runs against the best starting pitchers in the sport during a single series.

Neto led the Angels in SLG, total bases and RBIs during the Dodgers series, which is just par for the course for the 24-year-old. He shows up in the biggest moments against the best players and teams in baseball over-and-over again.

Taylor Ward

Has any player in baseball had a more quietly dominant season that Ward in recent memory?

Cal Raleigh, Kyle Schwarber, Eugenio Suárez and Ward are the only players in baseball with at least 29 home runs and 90 RBIs in 2025. Ward's 29th home run and 90th RBI came against Ohtani while the Angels were trailing 3-0. The Angels' cleanup hitter and Byron Buxton are the only hitters this season to hit a home run off the two-way superstar in his 23.1 innings pitched. Before that, the left fielder hit an RBI single and solo home run against Emmet Sheehan as his contribution towards a 6-5 win.

The Angels came under some fire for not selling off players at the trade deadline, and Ward especially would have netted the Angels a hefty reward should they have chosen to re-group for 2026. Ward is validating Arte Moreno's somewhat irrational decision to hold onto him for this year and next (presumably), as his normally inconsistent play is stabilizing in a major way.

Ward has always been a quantity more than quality type of player, but he is bolstering his already stellar availability by improving his rate stats mightily. He has a career best SLG, OPS and ISO, and is showing no signs of slowing down.

Honorable Mentions: Brock Burke, Kenley Jansen, Luis García, Yoán Moncada, Bryce Teodosio

2 LA Angels players who turned their season around in LA Dodgers sweep

Logan O'Hoppe

O'Hoppe's stats during the Dodgers series were not overly impressive -- the catcher recorded two hits (both singles) and drew a walk in eight plate appearances. However, one of those singles was a go-ahead single in the bottom of the 8th inning that put the Angels up for good in the series finale.

Sam Blum of The Athletic posted a quote from O'Hoppe after his game-winning single: "It’s a lot. It’s what I’ve wanted for a while. Obviously the past couple of months haven’t felt right. I felt like after I fouled that heater back, I got a wave of confidence that I hadn’t had in a couple weeks. I’m happy I got it."

O'Hoppe started the season strong, and inspired myriad hope in fans by doing so. He looked like an All-Star candidate, and a player who would force his way into the conversation of who the best catchers in the American League are. O'Hoppe's bat and defense cratered in June, and his August has still been incredibly shaky overall. This moment surely could propel him in a positive direction, and he could be the linchpin that turns the lineup from great to elite the rest of the season.

José Soriano

Soriano was recently mentored by Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martinez about how to reel himself in, improve his mentality on the mound and not do too much on the mound. That lesson occurred right before his latest start in the series opener versus the Dodgers, and it paid off for Soriano and the Angels immediately.

The 26-year-old pitched 6 scoreless innings in the series opener versus the Dodgers, which was just the second time in his last ten starts where he blanked the opponent. Soriano was lit up by the Rays in his outing prior to the Dodgers start, allowed a pair of home runs to the Mariners at the end up July, plus had a meltdown against the Nationals on June 27th. He is pretty erratic, but he sure built himself a lot of momentum via Pedro and his start heading into his next game.

The Angels ask a lot of Soriano because he is a relatively unproven pitcher who needs to be the No. 2 on a team who views themselves as playoff contenders. They need Soriano to dominate every outing if they actually are to make a run at the postseason. Hopefully he is no longer an up-and-down starter and is much more steady moving forward.

Honorable Mentions: Connor Brogdon, Ryan Zeferjahn

More LA Angels News from Halo Hangout