J.C. Ramirez gets the ball as LA Angels play home opener.

The LA Angels had a successful four-game series in Oakland winning three of four games over the A’s.  Now the Angels have returned home for 6-game homestand against Cleveland and Oakland.

During the first four games in Oakland the LA Angels got good starting pitching and clutch-hitting in taking three games from the A’s.  Strong starts from Tyler Skaggs, Matt Shoemaker, and Shohei Ohtani was the story of th weekend.  All three pitchers looked really good, with Shoemaker and Ohtani having one bad inning that made their final pitching line look not as good as they pitched.

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Skaggs on the other hand was lights out in his 6.1 Innings allowing no runs on only three hits with five strikeouts.  Skaggs did not walk a batter throwing 60 strikes and only 38 balls.  The bullpen closed it out despite giving up one run in the ninth for a 2-1 victory.

Shoemaker was cruising in the sixth inning as he had allowed no runs on only two hits in his first 5.2 innings.  With two outs Shoemaker walked a pair of batters and then allowed a two-run single by Stephen Piscotty that plated two runs and ended Shoe’s evening. Cam Bedrosian followed by giving up a double to Matt Chapman that plated one more run before he was able to close out the inning.

After that the bullpen shut the A’s down over the last three innings to ice the -3 victory. Shohei Ohtani also pitched very well going six innings allowing three hits and three runs while striking out six and walking only one batter.  The bullpen closed it out for Ohtani’s first MLB victory 7-4.

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This brings us to tonight when the Cleveland Indians come calling.  J.C. Ramirez, who looked very good in the Spring will pitch for the Angels against Cleveland’s Mike Clevenger.  On Tuesday Garrett Richards will get his second start of the season against Josh Tomlin of the Indians.  The third and final game of the series will see Tyler Skaggs match-up against back-to-back Cy Young Award Winner Corey Kluber.

On the offensive side the Angels have gotten excellent production from Mike Trout, Zack Cozart, and also Andrelton Simmons.  Simmons is hitting .438 with four RBIs, Trout is hitting .300 with a homer and four RBI’s and Cozart is hitting .368 with a homer and three RBIs so far.  However, eight different Angels have driven in runs so far so the offense is getting multiple contributions.

Next: Shohei Ohtani stands out in first start

Hopefully this will continue in the series against Cleveland and Oakland this week along with the strong starting pitching the Angels received in the first four games of the season.