Strong pitching and a monster series from MIke Trout help LA Angels take series

The LA Angels went into last Friday night’s game looking for anything good as they were mired in a major slump to start the season. Thanks to a strong pitching effort by Felix Pena & 3 relievers plus 2 solo homers by Mike Trout, helping the Angels snap a 6-game losing streak.

The LA Angels and Trout did not stop there after getting their first home victory.  In the third game of the series the Angels were again looking for some offense and again Mike trout delivered this time with a grand slam to give the Halos a 4-0 lead.

Tyler Skaggs turned in the best pitching performance of the season for the Angels going 6.1 innings giving up only one run with five strikeouts. Luis Garcia, Hansel Robles, and Luke Bard pitched 2.2 innings of scoreless relief only allowing one hit with seven strikeouts to close out a 5-1 victory.

To top it all off the Angels rallied from an early 2-0 deficit scoring four runs in the bottom of the second inning to take the lead. Chris Stratton bounced back from a rough start pitching four strong innings, but left with the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the 5th. Justin Anderson came in again and bailed out an Angel started striking out two Ranger batters to escape with no damage.

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Cam Bedrosian pitched a scoreless top of the sixth and Trout came through again with his fifth home run in four games, a laser-beam to left-center that scored Tommy La Stella and gave the Angels a 6-2 lead.  Brian Goodwin hit a solo homer in the 7th to provide the final run. Luis Garcia, Ty Buttrey, and Noe Ramirez closed out the final three innings striking out three Ranger hitters to end the game.with a 7-2 Angels victory that helped the team take three of four from the Rangers.

More importantly the last three games have given the Angels so much needed momentum that will hopefully carry them into their next series against playoff contender the Milwaukee Brewers in an inter-league series against a team that game within one game of making the World Series in 2018.

The Angels have looked much better the last three games, but still have some areas they need to improve on. The biggest area is starting pitching. In 10 games the Angels only have three quality starts.  the team is also still hitting .209 for the season.

The bright spots have been Mike Trout hitting five home runs in the last four games. The bullpen is actually another strength.  Hopefully the Angels will keep rolling, but we wil see what happens.