ANAHEIM — The twists and turns of a baseball season — trades and injuries and ineffectiveness — have brought a couple Angels veterans back to roles they filled when they were young.
Right-hander Carson Fulmer is getting to start, and right-hander Hunter Strickland is getting to close.
Fulmer’s success was overshadowed by Strickland’s failure in the Angels’ 5-4, 10-inning loss to the Colorado Rockies on Thursday night.
Fulmer was in line for a victory after working six innings, but that vanished when Strickland gave up a two-run homer to Jake Cave with two outs in the ninth inning. The Rockies won with a run in the 10th against Hans Crouse, whose errant throw on a bunt set up the run.
Although Crouse took the loss, it was Strickland who threw the critical pitch of the night. He threw a 3-and-2 fastball over the middle, and Cave hit it over the center field fence. Strickland had walked Ryan McMahon to start the inning.
“It’s definitely a frustrating one,” Strickland said. “These guys pitched their tails off all game. The hitters battled it out. And we were in position to win. This one hurts a little bit.”
Strickland got the chance to close because the Angels traded both Carlos Estévez and Luis Garcia. Ben Joyce, who ran his scoreless streak to 21-1/3 innings in the eighth inning, is the Angels closer of the future. Strickland, who has a 3.35 ERA, is getting the chance as a bridge until manager Ron Washington feels Joyce is ready.
Asked how he felt about the chance to close, which he did regularly with the 2018 Giants, Strickland said he was just happy to be in the majors. He was out of baseball last season, before the Angels invited him to revive his career with a minor league deal.
“I’m honored just to be here, to be honest with you,” Strickland said. “We got a great group of guys. We got a group down there that can take the ball in any leverage situation. To have the trust with the coaching staff and management and our teammates (to close), it’s an honor. I’ll take it whenever and keep battling.”
As Strickland spoke, Fulmer stood 20 feet away, having a different story for this night but a similar career trajectory.
He was a former top prospect who reached the big leagues as a starter in 2016, but ever since 2019 he’d been mostly pitching in relief as he bounced from team to team. He was also out of baseball briefly at the start of 2023, before signing a minor league deal with the Angels.
The Angels finally gave him a shot to start in July, after a handful of others had failed to adequately replaced injured Patrick Sandoval and demoted Reid Detmers.
Fulmer lasted 4⅔ innings in each of his first two starts, and then 5⅔ the last time and then he finally finished the sixth on Thursday. He hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any game.
Related Articles
Angels’ Mike Trout to miss rest of season with another tear in his knee
Angels’ hitters waste solid start from Davis Daniel
Angels’ Jo Adell ditches leg kick in effort to find consistency at the plate
Jo Adell’s late homer lifts Angels to comeback victory over Rockies
Angels’ Mike Trout sent for further evaluation after a setback in his rehab
On Thursday, he gave up a two-run homer in the second to Michael Toglia, and then nothing else. Left fielder Taylor Ward caught a fly ball against the wall to get Fulmer out of the fifth. He went through the heart of the Colorado order in the sixth, striking out the last two.
He was pulled after just 79 pitches.
“I was pretty upset about getting taken out tonight, but I have to trust the coaching staff based on matchups and stuff like that,” Fulmer said. “Hopefully next time out I’m able to go into the seventh or a little later… I earned quite a bit of respect from the coaching staff and hopefully I’m able to go a little further in games now.”
Washington said that Fulmer gave the Angels all they wanted in his six innings.
“He gave us what he needed to give us at that point,” Washington said. “When it’s time to be stretched out, we’ll let him go. He gave us six innings, and that was good.”
The other half of the Angels’ battery provided the bulk of the power in this game.
Catcher Logan O’Hoppe belted his 16th homer of the season, a 454-foot blast into the rocks beyond the center field fence. It was the third-longest homer of the season for the Angels, and the longest at Angel Stadium.
O’Hoppe’s homer tied the score at 2-2, and then Mickey Moniak hit a homer to give the Angels a lead in the sixth. Ward added an RBI double in the seventh to provide some insurance, but not quite enough.
Leave a Reply