ANAHEIM — The end of another academic year has arrived and with it, a sense of accomplishment that Nolan Schanuel and Zach Neto know all so well.
Two years ago, it was Neto slamming a college textbook closed for life beyond academics. Last year, Schanuel did the same.
On Wednesday night, the young Angels infielders marked the occasion of another foray into summer with home runs one inning apart, turning study time into the mastery of the test at hand. The Angels then finished off a 3-2 victory and a three-game sweep of the San Diego Padres.
An Angels lineup without Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon and Brandon Drury will take power production from wherever it can get it. Schanuel delivered his sixth of the season, while Neto went deep for the seventh time.
Angels manager Ron Washington was lamenting the lack of power just before the game began.
“No we’re not that type of club,” Washington said when asked about finding ways to score without power. “We’ve got a few guys that can punch the ball out of the ballpark, but we don’t have a guy that’s known for punching the ball out of the ballpark in our lineup right now.
“So we’ve got to play the game of baseball. And the game of baseball is the fundamentals. And we’ve been preaching that since Day 1 in February.”
On Wednesday, Washington got the best of both worlds as the Angels pulled off the three-game sweep of their neighbors to the south. It was just their second three-game sweep all season and the first since the second series of the season at Miami. It was also the first time since last July against the Yankees that the Angels swept a three-game series at home. Coming into the series, the Angels had lost 21 of 28 games at The Big A, easily the worst home start in franchise history.
Angels starter Jose Soriano continued his progression as a major league starter. The right-hander, who never started before this season, gave up two runs (one earned) on six hits in six innings with one walk and one strikeout.
Schanuel got the Angels on the scoreboard, breaking out of an 0-for-18 slump with a home run in the first inning against Padres right-hander Dylan Cease. Neto’s home run came in the second after a Logan O’Hoppe single for a 3-0 lead.
Soriano cruised into the sixth inning when he seemingly ran out of gas again.
The Padres scored twice in the sixth when Luis Arraez moved Luis Campusano to third with a double and Campusano scoring when Taylor Ward’s throw from left field went to nobody in particular and rolled all the way to the front of the Padres’ dugout.
The Padres then pulled within 3-2 on an RBI single from Fernando Tatis Jr.
After Adam Cimber pitched a scoreless seventh inning for the Angels, Washington went to flame-throwing Ben Joyce in a key spot in the eighth for the right-hander’s 2024 debut.
Joyce gave up a leadoff single to Tatis and a wild pitch to move the tying run to second. But he escaped further trouble with a pair of ground outs and a fly ball into foul territory down the right field line by Jurickson Profar.
Joyce hit as high as 103.3 mph on the radar gun, had seven pitches over 102 mph and 12 that were thrown as hard as 101 mph.
Related Articles
Angels’ Anthony Rendon participates in on-field drills but no timetable for return
Angels defeat Padres for their first home series win this season
Angels’ Mickey Moniak remains optimistic amid search for even modest success
Angels produce in the clutch for a 1-run victory over Padres
Angels’ Patrick Sandoval believes new sweeper is already his best pitch
Far less intimidating but even more effective, Angels left-hander Matt Moore pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his first save and did not throw a pitch above 94.4 mph. Moore was used in the save situation after closer Carlos Esteves earned the save in the first two games of the series.
MACHADO LEAVES WITH LEG INJURY
Padres star Manny Machado came out of the game after running out a ground ball during the fourth inning.
Machado grimaced after reaching first base and appeared to injure his upper right leg as he ran out an attempted double play. The third baseman was looked at by a trainer before walking gingerly back to the first-base dugout.
Machado has a .249 batting average, but was hitting 344 clip in his last 17 games entering Wednesday. He also had a hit in 12 of his last 14 contests.
More to come on this story.
Leave a Reply