Los Angeles Angels roll ’em all out on Sunday

Sunday, most often is known as a day of rest and relaxation. For Angels manager Mike Scioscia, it meant trying out his first line-up of the spring with all of his potential opening day starters. Albert Pujols made his 2016 spring training game debut at designated hitter.

Hopefully the offensive production, or lack there of, isn’t a sign for things to come for the 2016 Angels season.

In the first inning, the Angels started off in a way they rarely did last season. Each of the first two men got on base, which meant Mike Trout had some RBI’s to bring in. However, he hit into a fielder’s choice that moved the runner to third. Pujols came up and hit a high fly ball that barely made it out of the infield and shortstop, Raul Mondesi Jr. made the catch.

Trout promised he was going to run more on the base paths this season and he got a nice jump on a hit and run that Kole Calhoun fouled off. Trout would have stolen second base easily. Calhoun eventually would fly out to leftfield.

So the Angels get the first two guys on base and the heart of the order, fails to do anything with it.

Couple of bright stop for the Angels in the first two innings. One was starting pitcher Nick Tropeano, who looked good on the mound. He went two hit-less innings and struck out two. One of those two was Kansas City Royal’s leftfielder Alex Gordon.

The other was starting first baseman C.J. Cron. Cron hit a groundball on the second base side that snuck through and got to the outfield but because it was hit so hard, and Cron took off sprinting out of the box, he ended up on second base. A groundball to second by shortstop Andrelton Simmons moved Cron to 3rd. Carlos Perez came up and would eventually hit a sacrifice fly to right. The ball wasn’t hit that deep but Cron tagged up on it and produced a run the old Angels away. That’s where the offense stopped.

Trout, Pujols and Calhoun, the 3,4,and 5 hitters respectively went 8-0 today with a walk going to Trout.

Giavotella retained his spark-plug moniker that he earned last season with a ball that was scorched down the 3rd base line. Left fielder Alex Gordon bobbled it and Gio ended up with a triple.

The Royals went on to win the exhibition game 6-1. The defense from the Angels starters looked strong. Andrelton Simmons has been as good as advertised so far. He runs after everything hit in the air, takes groundballs on the second base side of the infield and makes accurate strong throws to get runners. Between he and Trout, not many balls are going to touch green this season.

The offense still has some work to do but at this stage of spring training its nothing to worry about. Most pitchers are ahead of hitters as far as season development goes right now. Trout isn’t going to let many of the RBI stay on base too often.

Angels are 2-3 in spring training but these games don’t matter.