On Sun, Sept 7, the Los Angeles Angels hosted the vagabond Athletics in their season series finale and the game was filed with oddities such as batters being hit by pitchers(the A’s pitchers hit Angels’ hitters four times), foul balls on the first base side not being able to be caught by the starting first baseman for the home side Halos and a load of runners left on base between both teams. With the temperature warm and most of the 33,000+ fans in attendance sitting in shaded seats at Angel Stadium, this was a close and intense game for both AL West rivals on the verge of being completely eliminated from playoff contention.

The starting pitcher for the Angels was Mitch Farris, who made his major league debut on Tues, Sept 1 against the Kansas City Royals, a game in which he threw six total innings and received his first major league win after being called up from Double-A Rocket City. Farris only surrendered one run to the Royals and some late offensive support allowed him to be the winning pitcher with his family in attendance at Kauffman Stadium. Making his Big A debut, Farris sought to have a good encore to his first MLB start on short rest. Meanwhile, the Athletics countered with Luis Severino as their starter and they were originally going to go with a different “Luis” as their starter(Luis Morales, who had a good start against the Angels a few weeks prior in West Sacramento, Calif). Notable players not in the lineup for both teams were Shea Langeliers and Darrel Hernaiz for the A’s and Luis Rengifo and Zach Neto for the Halos. This was a series finale to a three-game weekend set that had the Athletics win the first two games by large margins(10-4 on Fri, Sept 5 and 17-4 on Sat, Sept 6), so the Angels were looking to avoid another home sweep and seeking to break a five-game home losing streak.

The game started with a clean 1-2-3 first inning by Farris, who retired Nick Kurtz, Brent Rooker and Colby Thomas in order. A surprising edit to the starting lineup for the Halos was that Mike Trout would have a rare opportunity to hit in the lead-off spot in the batting order. With Neto not in the lineup, it made more sense for the 34-year old designated hitter to be in the one spot in the order. Trout hadn’t hit a home run since Wed Aug 6 and was still seeking to achieve 400 career home runs, being two big flies away from that milestone. Trout struck out in his first at bat against Severino, who then proceeded to plunk Yóan Moncada on the second pitch he threw in that at-bat. Taylor Ward was due up next as he thankfully made his return to the playing field on Wed, Sept 3 after suffering that horrific injury in Houston a week before this game. Ward flew out to right field and Jo Adell came up with two outs and a runner on first base. On the first pitch he saw, Adell hit a blast out to deep center field and the ball traveled well over the fence for a two-run homer. Adell hit his 35th home run of the season in extending his hot slugging streak and continuing to add onto his team lead in big flies. The Halos had an early 2-0 lead for Farris to work with entering the 2nd inning.

In the top of the second, Farris gave up a leadoff single to left-fielder Tyler Soderstrom, then proceeded to get Jacob Wilson to line out to Adell in right field, forced Zach Gelof to pop out to Chris Taylor at second base and struck out Lawrence Butler to end the inning with no damage incurred. In the bottom of the 2nd, Severino took care of the three Angels’ batters due up, including Logan Davidson, who was previously on the Athletics’ roster earlier in the season. The Angels had claimed him off waivers recently due to first baseman depth issues they have suffered through since Nolan Schanuel was placed on the 10-day injured list because of a wrist contusion. Davidson had some issues in catching foul balls at first base, dropping a couple of them that he tried to catch near the A’s dugout. Thankfully, neither of those drops fazed fellow Charlotte, North Carolina native Mitch Farris, who had a strong outing other than a couple of misplaced pitches. In the top of the 3rd, after getting a groundout to start the inning, Farris had a fastball hammered by Athletics catcher Willie MacIver for a solo home run to deep center field. The A’s were only down 2-1 as Farris worked through Kurtz and Rooker to end the inning strong.

The Angels had some missed scoring opportunities in this game, reflecting an offensive decline that they have gone through since sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Freeway Series. In the bottom of the 3rd, Trout hit a double to left-center field with one out and then Moncada got hit by another pitch, this time on a dirt ball thrown by Severino that hit him in the foot. With runners on first and second, this looked like a sure scoring chance for the Halos, but Ward struck out and Adell hit into a fielder’s choice to end the inning with no runs scored. After a clean top of the 4th pitched by Farris, the Angels offense had another opportunity come up for them when Severino hit his third batter of the game as Chris Taylor got skimmed by a sinker to start out the inning. After Oswald Peraza(who started at shortstop in this game) struck out, Logan O’Hoppe came up and drew a walk after Taylor stole second base. Davidson came up and hit a good ball that could have been an RBI hit, but it was caught by Soderstrom in left center field. With two outs and two runners on, Bryce Teodosio came up and hit another sinker thrown by Severino down the right-field line. The ball landed fair and bounced into the stands, making it a ground-rule double by Teodosio. Taylor scored and O’Hoppe had to be held at third, but the Angels had a 3-1 lead. Mike Trout had a multi-RBI situation on his hands, but he struck out on six pitches to end the inning. A missed chance to add on, but at least there was a multi-run lead for Farris to work with again.

Farris had another solid inning in the fifth with another strikeout on Butler, a groundout by Harris and a flyout by MacIver to be in line for his second career big league win. In the bottom of the fifth, Moncada hit a lead-off single to start the inning but Ward grounded into a double play and Adell struck out to end the inning. In the top of the sixth, Farris came back out and got the top third of the A’s lineup out in order. There was a potential chance for him to come back out to pitch in the seventh inning as a reward for his solid outing. In the bottom of the sixth, a new pitcher came in for the Athletics and it was Tyler Ferguson, who would hit Taylor on a 1-1 count with a fastball. The fans in the stands started to get antsy as this was the third time that an Angels batter had been hit in this game. Mark Kotsay would challenge this play to be sure if Taylor was hit in his hand or on his bat. After reviewing the play, the crew chief announced that the ruling on the field stood as called. Peraza came up to bat and flew out to Butler in center field, then O’Hoppe came up and ended up hitting a ball pretty hard. But it was caught in the hot corner by Harris, who threw the ball to first base as Taylor had been running before the pitch was even thrown. It was a double play and the Halos had another missed chance to score occur. That was tough luck for O’Hoppe, who unfortunately had something worse occur to him in the top of the 7th.

Farris did come back onto the field to start the seventh, but he gave up an immediate solo home run to Soderstrom, who hit a fastball into his team’s bullpen. Ray Montgomery came out of the dugout and took Farris out of the game after six-plus innings of solid work with mostly ground ball outs with four strikeouts as well. Luis Garcia came in to pitch on a clean slate with no outs and nobody on base. Garcia got Wilson to ground out to Peraza, but then walked Gelof and gave up a single to Butler. With a right-handed pitcher now in, Kotsay decided to bring in a pinch-hitter for Brett Harris. Carlos Cortes was the pinch-hitter for the A’s third baseman and he hit a Garcia splitter to Taylor at second, who threw it Peraza, who stepped on second base and then threw it to Davidson at first for the double play. The Angels escaped this jam, but not without losing Logan O’Hoppe to a concussion. Apparently during the Garcia at-bat versus Jacob Wilson, O’Hoppe got his head hit by an accidental random movement by Wilson with his bat and spent some time down on the dirt behind home plate. Montgomery and one of the Angels’ trainers came to check on O’Hoppe, who was assisted off the field with a potential concussion. Travis d’Armand came in to catch and finish the inning(and game) behind the plate.

In the bottom of the 7th, Sean Newcomb came in to pitch for the A’s, who also had Darrel Hernaiz come in to play at third base. Because of a left-handed pitcher in the game, Zach Neto was coming in to pinch-hit for Davidson. Neto would hit a line drive to right field that was caught by Colby Thomas. Teodosio came up and lined out to Wilson for the second out of the inning. Trout then drew a walk on six pitches and Moncada came up to bat from the right side of the plate against Newcomb. Moncada hit a single to right center field and Trout sprinted to third base. With runners on the corners, another RBI opportunity for Ward presented itself. But Ward unfortunately hit a line out to Soderstrom in left to end the inning. Another missed chance for the Angels offensively, but they were still in the lead going into the 8th inning.

Reid Detmers entered the game to pitch in the top of the 8th and he had Peraza now playing at first base, with Neto now being at shortstop. Detmers got MacIver to fly out, then gave up back-to-back singles against Kurtz and Rooker. With runners on the corners and one out, Detmers needed to do damage control and not allow the Athletics to take the lead. Colby Thomas hit an 0-2 pitch out to deep center field, where Teodosio made a spectacular catch and Kurtz scored on the sacrifice fly. The A’s had tied the game at three, robbing Mitch Farris of the win but the catch by Bryce was undoubtedly crucial. Detmers would get Soderstrom to line out to Adell in right field to end the inning. A 3-3 tie score now required the Halos bats to come through and score in the bottom of the eighth. Osvaldo Bido entered to pitch for the Athletics and he started the inning by getting Adell to fly out on a ball that looked like it had the distance, but it just didn’t have that long of a trajectory arc to get over the left-field bullpen wall. Soderstrom caught it for the first out and then Chris Taylor nearly got hit again on a full count pitch inside. Taylor ducked as the fans started booing Bido for being the third opposing pitcher to throw near an Angels player’s head. The intensity only rose when Bido hit Peraza, who had to be checked out by the training staff. With runners on first and second base, this was the Halos’ golden chance. The guy who took advantage of it was Travis d’Arnaud, who hit a 2-2 slider to right center field. The ball dropped in and went up the wall as Taylor scored on the RBI double. Peraza was at third base as d’Arnaud had come through in the clutch again.

After intentionally walking Neto, Kotsay came out of the dugout and removed Bido from the game, bringing in Michael Kelly to pitch with the bases loaded. Luis Rengifo was used as a pinch-hitter for Teodosio and Kelly struck out Rengifo on five pitches. Trout came up with the bases loaded and with a chance to clear the bases, Trout hit the ball well but would line out to Butler in center field to end the inning. But the Angels had grabbed the lead, even if it was only one run. And that meant Kenley Jansen was coming in to pitch in a save situation.

Some defensive changes were made behind Jansen(who I was seeing appear in a game this season for the fifth time), as Rengifo came in to play at second base, Taylor was forced into center field and Matthew Lugo came in to play defensively in right field in place of Adell. Jansen faced Jacob Wilson first and got him to ground out to Neto to start the inning. Then, Kenley had to face a pinch-hitter in the form of J.J Bleday, who came in to hit for Gelof. Bleday hit a lazy fly ball to left field for the second out of the inning. Then, with one out left to get, Jansen got Butler to fly out to Ward again to end the game. The Angels had won 4-3 in this grinder of a game on a hot Sunday afternoon game in Anaheim. Detmers was the winning pitcher and Bido took the loss for the Athletics, who failed to sweep the Halos. Jansen achieved his 26th save of 2025 as he crept closer to Lee Smith for third place on the all-time MLB saves list. With a good game pitched by Farris and timely scoring, the Angels barely won their 67th game of the season and their ninth game against the A’s to conclude the season-series with a 9-4 edge over the green and gold team in transitional limbo between Oakland and Las Vegas.

This was a personally satisfying win, in spite of the lack of scoring and nine runners left on base. Travis d’Arnaud played the role of unlikely hero again and he did so on Grandparents’ Day at Angel Stadium, where graphics of some Halos’ players’ grandparents(either from the past or in the recent present) were shown on the big screen throughout the game. There were even messages from the living grandmas and grandpas of Angels players such as Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel, Bryce Teodosio and Jo Adell. Very nice to see that as there were hundreds(or thousands) of grandparents in the stands on the first Sunday of September.

The Halos were able to keep themselves ahead of the Athletics in the AL West standings as they seek to avoid finishing in last place for a second straight season. With only 19 games remaining in their season, the Angels are seeking a strong September to lead them well into an offseason where some big decisions might have to be made. Until that happens, they will be playing 13 of their remaining games against teams competing for a playoff berth or playoff positioning. There will be a few more chances for young starters Mitch Farris and Caden Dana to show their worth on the big league level as potential future roster arms. So far, it’s been pretty solid for both of them. Let’s see if that continues for the next few weeks.