Los Angeles Angels offense shines, leads to first spring win

The Los Angeles Angels offense ripped 17 hits to back a shaky start by Garrett Richards and give the Halos their first win of the spring, an 8-2 victory over the Oakland A’s at Tempe Diablo Stadium.

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The top of the Angels lineup was sensational, as Yunel Escobar, Kole Calhoun and Mike Trout combined to go 7-for-8, including a walk, an RBI and four runs scored.

C.J. Cron, Geovany Soto, Daniel Nava and Ji-Man Choi all delivered RBIs as the team had eight hits in the first three innings alone.

“We had a good day,” manager Mike Scioscia said in the television interview following the game. “We did a lot of good things on the field, some things not quite as well as we will but it was a good day.”

One of the things the Angels can take away as something to improve was their hitting with men on base. The team went 5-for-19 with runners in scoring position and left 12 on base, numbers that need to improve before April if they want to win close games.

Nevertheless, the outburst was just 24 hours removed from Wednesday’s Cactus League opener against the San Francisco Giants, where the Angels struggled to put the ball in play, getting only four hits, none of which came past the fifth inning.

Most of the Angels’ starters, including Calhoun and Trout, didn’t play in that game but saw their days end by the fifth inning on Thursday, getting to leave work early after stellar performances.

Richards’ day ended when he expected it to, just probably not how he expected it to.

The 27-year-old started the game looking like the ace the Angels are hoping he will be this season, as he needed only 11 pitches to retire the A’s 1-2-3 in the first inning.

But everything unraveled in the second.

Richards walked Yonder Alonso on four-straight pitches before allowing a double off the wall to Marcus Semien. He then threw a wild pitch allowing Alonso to score before Andrew Lambo singled to give the A’s a 2-1 lead.

Richards’ day was done after two innings, a pair of both hits and earned runs, a walk and no strikeouts.

The Angels offense backed up their right-hander, though, scoring a pair of runs in the third and fourth innings to take a 5-2 lead.

From there, six Angels relief pitchers combined to throw six innings of four-hit ball complete with nine strikeouts and only two walks.

Al Alburquerque, one of the newest Halos relief pitchers, gave up two of those hits and walked one but struck out two and didn’t allow any runs in his debut with the team.

“He’s got a great arm,” Scioscia said. “I liked his fastball today, it had a lot of life. He’s got a great slider and he got out of the inning but he showed that electric slider and if he gets that fastball under command he’s going to be tough.”

The Halos tacked on three more runs in the eighth inning before handing the ball to Javy Guerra, who struggled through the ninth allowing two hits and a walk to load the bases before getting Matt Chapman to fly out, preserving the 8-2 win for the team from Anaheim.

Mike Morin (1-0) was credited with the win after pitching a solid third inning that included a strikeout. You can click here to see the complete box score.

What’s next?

The Angels will travel to Sloan Park in Mesa on Friday to visit the Chicago Cubs, the team they will play on Opening Day on April 4.

Jered Weaver is expected to make his spring debut opposite Pierce Johnson, a 24-year-old righty who has not yet pitched in a Major League game.

First pitch is at 12:05 PST.

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