LA Angels get a clean sweep with mixture of hitting & pitching

The LA Angels have been struggling throughout the last two months.  This week they returned home to play the struggling Detroit Tigers.  The Tigers are just what the doctor ordered to get the Angels going.

When the LA Angels took the field Monday they were hoping for something to spark them and they got it in the form of the long ball. With the game tied at one in the bottom of the fourth Andrelton Simmons blasted a go-ahead two run homer to give the Angels. 3-1 lead, then an inning later Eric Young Jr. hit a solo shot to extend the lead to 4-1.

Nick Tropeano did his job as well pitching five innings of one hit ball to keep the Tigers at bay.  From there the bullpen closed it out to take a 6-2 victory. So in game two what would the Angels do for an encore.

The second game did not start week as the Angels fell behind 2-0 after the top of the first inning, but the Angels would not sit by and let things get worse.  Instead the team responded scoring seven runs in the first inning

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SHohei Ohtani started things off with a three-run homer to erase the two run deficit taking a 3-2 lead.  The Angels didn’t stop there as they loaded the bases and scored a fourth run on a walk by Kaleb Cowart to extend the lead to 4-2.  Francisco Arcia then laced a two-run single for a 6-2 lead and then later in the inning the Angels executed a double steal with Eric Young Jr. stealing second and Arcia stealing home for a 7-2 advantage.

After the Tigers caught up to within 7-5 and Justin Upton hit a two-run blast in the sixth to make it 9-5 and the Angels were rolling and when the dust had settled in was an 11-5 victory for the Angels.

So the Angels went into Wednesday’s afternoon game against the Tigers looking for their first series sweep since an early June sweep of the Royals. Jaime Barria, who started out strong when he first got called up this season but has been struggling mightily with a five-game losing streak.  However, Barria won his last start and hoped to make it two in a row.

After a scoreless first inning turned in by Barria, the Angels got things going right away.  Kole Calhoun led off the game with his third lead-off homer of the season for a 1-0 lead.  The Angels extended the lead to 2-0 on a Jefry Marte single.  Barria kept it going not allowing a run in 5.2 innings. Offensively the Angels got some breathing room as Justin Upton and Albert Pujols went back-to-back with homers to left to make it 5-0.

Jose Briceno plated the sixth run with a two-single in the sixth.  Again the ANgels bullpen shut the door and the Angels had a combined shutout and a three-game sweep of Detroit with a 6-0 victory.

"Next: What the new Angels manager needs to change."

Now this was not a sweep of the Astros, or Red Sox, but it was still encouraging.  Can the Angels keep things going over the weekend against wild-card leader Oakland. We will see what happens.