The LA Angels Win Last Night Was Exactly What This Team Was Supposed to Be in 2019

1.) Be Great At the Plate

The Angels came into the season with expectations of having a top offense in the American League. When healthy, they’ve had just that and have shown the ability to win games with relentless offense.

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However, their offense was also designed for nights like last night. Obviously you want to score ten runs every night, but sometimes the ball doesn’t drop for you, which is why the philosophy of the Angels offense is so important for nights where the team is cold.

Through six innings last night, Rangers’ All Star Mike Minor has a one-hit shutout going. He was holding the Angels bats down and keeping them quiet. However, the key part of this was that he only had four strikeouts in those six innings. The Angels were making contact just as Eppler designed the team to do, the ball just was not dropping.

Then came the seventh inning, and the odds evened out. The Halos had a three hit, two walk inning and scored four runs on Minor. Then, to cap things off, Mike Trout hit a league-leading 43rd home run to left field.

This is what the Angels offense was supposed to be: too good to have a night where they don’t have AT LEAST one great inning.

Oh, and that Mike Trout fella hitting fingers and having another MVP season.

2.) Good Enough Starting Pitching

If there’s one thing that derailed the Angels season, it was employing one of the worst rotations in the history of the MLB. It goes without saying that is not what the Angels were hoping for from their starters.

However, they knew what they had. With Shohei Ohtani restricted to hitting this year, their rotation lacked a true ace. All the Halos were hoping for from their starters was five or so innings every night so they could turn the game over to their bullpen (more on them later).

Last night was exactly what the team had in mind. Andrew Heaney went six innings deep, had ten strikeouts, and allowed one run. This was a huge start for Heaney, and just added more fire to the hot streak he’s been on since the end of June.

These are the kinds of starts the Halos had in mind when putting the team together. Even if Heaney had only gone five innings, that’s enough to keep the bullpen’s workload intact and prevent them from degrading as the season progresses. If the team had more starts of this nature throughout the year, they may still be contending for a Wild Card spot.

3.) Elite Pitching Out of the Bullpen

Last night, the Angels bullpen entered the game down 1-0. Andrew Heaney had done his job, but the offense hadn’t been able to string together any hits to that point.

Then, the bullpen did exactly what it was supposed to do.

Noe Ramirez got the first two outs of the seventh inning seamlessly. Miguel Del Pozo, the eventual winning pitcher, came in and retired the final out of the inning.

As noted earlier, the Angels offense then picked apart Mike Minor and gained a lead.

Cam Bedrosian, who is having a phenomenal bounce back season, did allow a solo home run in his inning of work. However, he worked through the inning well besides that one pitch. He held the lead, and handed the ball to Hansel Robles for the ninth.

And El Blanco did what El Blanco does. He shut down the Rangers to secure the win, and end the Angels’ five game skid.

The Angels, for the first time in a week, won a baseball game. And this time around, they won it just how they drew it up at the start of the season.