LA Angels: 3 encouraging signs from the LA Angels vs. NY Yankees series

The LA Angels had to reschedule their series finale vs. the New York Yankees Thursday for August 16th.

That means that they won the shortened series two games to one if looking at it that way.

The Yankees are a team that hasn’t lived up to expectations in this season yet, but still have arguably the most talented lineup in the Majors. To come out of this with two wins out of three is a very good sign in itself for the Angels. There are three other good signs that came out of this series that are a bit deeper than wins and losses, however.

No. 1 encouraging sign from the LA Angels vs. NY Yankees series: The bullpen looked strong

Pitching for the LA Angels in general has looked shaky this year.

That continued in a major way in this series for the starting rotation. The starters in this series gave up 16 earned runs in just 5.1 innings. It doesn’t get more horrendous than that.

That sounds like a series where a team ends up getting swept. Instead, the bullpen came in and shut the Yankees lineup down.

They gave up just six runs in 20.2 innings. That’s a nice ERA of 2.67 for the bullpen in this series.

There were tons of really impressive individual efforts by Anaheim relievers in this series. There was also a monster long relief appearance from Jose Suarez, who went 5.1 innings of one-run ball after starting pitcher Dylan Bundy had to leave the game after getting sick and vomiting behind the mound. Suarez walked just one batter and gave up just two hits, while striking out five.

He now has a 1.98 ERA on the season, shining in his nine appearances this year.