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: Andrew Heaney looked good in season debut

In what seemed like par for the course around the league, the Angels opted to only throw Andrew Heaney for 4.2 innings, keeping him under five for the night. That move seemed a desire to keep his pitch count under 75, especially after missing his last summer camp start due to back tightness.

While his night was short, it was certainly encouraging for the Angels.

A surprise choice to start the opener (well, at least the first time he was named), Heaney ran with the opportunity. While facing just 16 batters over his 4.2 innings, Heaney allowed just a pair of hits and one earned run, while striking out six.

Heaney looked sharp from the get-go, needing only nine pitches in the first inning. That included a strike-out of Ramon Laureano. He sat at just 32 pitches through his first three frames.

However, he made his only mistake of the ninth when he hung a curveball over the heart of the plate to Laureano with one out in the fourth. The A’s center fielder deposited into the left-field stands for the team’s only run off of Heaney.

While the Angels would have surely liked the win, they had to be encouraged by what they saw from Heaney. Overall, he threw 44 of his 67 pitches for strikes and made few mistakes on the mound. The key is his ability to piece these starts together, and that’ll begin Thursday against Seattle.

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.