Angels Opening Day: Three takeaways from extra-innings loss to A’s

The Los Angeles Angels dropped their 2020 season opener to the Oakland Athletics, becoming the first team to utilize the runner at second in extra innings.

The 2020 MLB season didn’t get off to a great start for the Los Angeles Angels, as they suffer an extra-innings loss to the Oakland Athletics in 10 innings. After a game-tying home run from Jason Castro tied it up, the Angels were unable to capitalize in the 10th and lost on a walk-off grand slam, 7-3.

The Angels took a 2-1 lead into the 7th inning, but back-to-back extra-base hits from Ramon Laureano and Matt Chapman put the A’s on top 3-2.

Angels’ catcher Jason Castro tied things up with two outs in the top of the ninth with a solo home run. However, the Halos squandered an opportunity to take the lead when Shohei Ohtani struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning.

The Angels left another opportunity on the table in the top of the 10th, when Ohtani was nabbed in a rundown after starting the inning off at second base. The Angels would go on to load the bases with two outs, but couldn’t push the run across in the 10th.

That set the stage for the second inning of Hansel Robles, who appeared to run out of gas. With Marcus Semien starting on second base under the new rule, Robles hit Laureano on a 2-2 pitch. He recovered to strike out Chapman but then walked Khris Davis. That set the stage for Matt Olson’s walk-off slam.

While the final score of 7-3 makes it look like the A’s had command of this game and feels like a disappointment for the Angels, it wasn’t all bad for the Halos. Let’s take a look at the key takeaways from last night.

Angels Opening Day: Halos hitters miss opportunities

Only two of the Angels’ hitters went without a base knock on Friday. However, the Halos ran into a familiar foe in their loss against the A’s.

To say that the Angels failed to cash in on a few opportunities would be under-selling it.

They left a pair in scoring position in the first inning, failing to set the tone against Frankie Montas. The Angels did cash one in during the top of the 4th but ran themselves out of the inning. When Goodwin would get caught in a rundown trying to stretch it into a double, Jason Castro tried to sneak in from third but was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.

The Angels had another opportunity in the ninth. After the Castro home run tied the game, Andrelton Simmons singled, followed by a one-out walk to Goodwin. David Fletcher would then strikeout for the second time on the night and Liam Hendricks opted to intentionally walk Mike Trout to load the bases. Unfortunately, Ohtani would go down swinging on three pitches to end the threat.

That set the stage for the 10th inning. Starting the inning with Ohtani on second under the new MLB rule, the two-way star would get caught in a rundown after a hard grounder from Jared Walsh. Tommy La Stella would single to right on the next pitch. After a Pujols pop-up, Castro would walk to load the bases again, only for Simmons to ground out to end the inning.

This isn’t a new problem for the Halos. They ranked 23rd in baseball in 2019, stranding an average of 6.94 runners per game. They also ranked second to last in leaving runners in scoring position last season, doing so at a clip of 6.00 per game.

If they want to be successful in 2020, they’ll have to find a way to push runs across with runners in scoring position. That will improve drastically when Anthony Rendon returns, as he ranked 5th in baseball with a .365 average in those situations last season. Until then, the Angels will have to find a way for others to contribute.

Angels Opening Day: David Fletcher didn’t look like David Fletcher

Alright, raise your hand if you had David Fletcher striking out twice on your Opening Day bingo card!

After being one of the toughest strikeouts in all of baseball, David Fletcher went down via strikes twice last night.

The first time was leading off the game when he uncharacteristically swung at a 1-2 splitter well outside of the strike zone. In 2019, he swung at just 25.3% of the pitches he saw outside of the strike zone, making contact on 82.6% of those swings.

The second time came in the ninth when Fletcher had the go-ahead run at second base. After working a seven-pitch at-bat versus Liam Hendricks, Fletch took a 3-2 fastball over the outside corner.

To put this all into perspective, Fletcher stuck out multiple times in a single game just 11 times in 154 contests. After doing it for the first time on April 18 of last year, he waited until June 4th to be set down twice on strikes. That’s a span of 40 games between the two instances.

Now to be fair, having done so 11 times last season would indicate that it isn’t unprecedented for Fletcher to strike out twice in the same game. Doing so in 7% of his games last season, that would mean Fletcher stands to do so in 4.28 games in 2020. He’s just getting it out of the way early.

Here’s to hoping he puts together a 40-game stretch in 2020, as his spark will be needed in the sprint to the postseason.