It took Logan O'Hoppe just one pitch to destroy LA Angels' goodwill

The Angels' lineup has been fueled primarily by Zach Neto and Logan O'Hoppe all season, as both members of the Angels' young core are no. 1 and no. 2 on the team in OPS and SLG (excluding Matthew Lugo). However, both Neto and O'Hoppe are not without flaws, and the Angels' backstop is causing fans to question some aspects of his game after a critical moment during the second game of their series against the Yankees...

...why are you swinging in a 3-0 count against Devin Williams, Logan?!

It took Logan O'Hoppe just one pitch to destroy LA Angels' goodwill

The Angels, who are actually the most clutch team in the league according to FanGraphs, were staging yet another late-inning comeback against Williams. Down 3-0 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Yoán Moncada hit a leadoff home run. Taylor Ward followed that up with a single. After a Travis d'Arnaud fly out, Luis Rengifo hit a single that advanced Ward to third base. Jo Adell rolled over an absolute meatball over the middle of the plate, but scored a run on a fielder's choice. O'Hoppe came to the plate with the Angels down to their final out, pinch hitting for Chris Taylor. He represented the winning run, and Adell was the tying run standing on first.

The catcher could have drawn a walk, pushing the tying run into scoring position and bringing Matthew Lugo to the plate. O'Hoppe was up 3-0 against the Yankees' reliever, who has struggled in his first season wearing pinstripes, and the next offering was a 92 MPH heater well above the strike zone. Trying to play hero, O'Hoppe abused his green light and wound up popping out to end the game. In that moment, he showed his age and lack of plate discipline in a major way.

O'Hoppe is sporting a way-too-high 34% K%. For context, he has the fourth highest K% of any player who has worn an Angels uniform this season. The only players who have a higher strikeout rate are Chris Taylor in his nine plate appearances, the recently demoted Kyren Paris, and Lugo in his 40 PAs. O'Hoppe has a higher K% than the dearly departed J.D. Davis and Tim Anderson. Oh, and the Angels have the worst K% in the league.

O'Hoppe is a leader of the team and a budding star in the league, which means he will (and should) take criticism when he fails to deliver in key moments. It's frustrating for fans that the team is rocking an unsustainable, boom-or-bust approach at the plate, as it causes the lineup to not draw walks (the Angels have the second worst BB% in baseball, O'Hoppe has a meager 4.5% BB%) and strike out way too much. In many ways, O'Hoppe is the epitome of this year's team...in both the good and bad ways and it showed in that critical juncture of the game.

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