LA Angels: 2 players who have justified Angels’ faith, 1 who has not

No. 2 player who has justified the Angels’ faith in him this season: Patrick Sandoval

Patrick Sandoval came into the starting rotation in place of Jose Quintana (injury), and he needs to be a full-time starter.

He has the best ERA of all starting pitchers on the Angels at 2.77.

He doesn’t give out many free passes. He’s walked 2.77 batters per nine innings, which is second on the team.

He also doesn’t give up many hits either, surrendering the third-lowest batting average against him on the Angels at .247. Ohtani‘s the only Angel who has a lower WHIP than Sandoval’s 1.23 WHIP.

He’s been electric since Quintana’s been down (kind of already was before Quintana’s injury), pitching 12 innings and only giving up four earned runs in those two starts. That last start counted as a win for Sandoval.

The interesting thing about Sandoval is he hasn’t been a guy that’s come in and consistently racked up a ton of strikeouts. He still can, though, as in one of those starts he struck out 10 batters in his six innings.

All the Angels have needed out of Sandoval was to be a guy who can stop the bleeding and fill in for a struggling Quintana, and Sandoval has been so much more. He’s done everything Joe Maddon has asked of him; justifying the Angels’ faith in him.