Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Thur, Mar 26, the Los Angeles Angels opened up their 2026 regular season against the Houston Astros. José Soriano was getting the Opening Day start for the Halos against Houston, who countered with Hunter Brown. After the opening ceremonies at Daikin Park, the first pitch was set to be thrown in a new era where the automated ball-strike challenge system was in effect for the first time league wide. Both teams are allowed two challenges to use at any time during the game, with only the pitcher and catcher being able to challenge a called ball that they believe to be a strike and the batter being the only one who can challenge a called strike by the home plate umpire.

This game was a pitcher’s duel with missed opportunities on both sides. The Angels had at least one runner left on base in each of the first six innings, with a bases loaded chance missed in the fourth inning after singles by Yoán Moncada, Jo Adell and Logan O’Hoppe. Soriano escaped out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the third inning and even avoided giving up a home run to Yordan Alvarez after a high-hit ball by the mighty slugger made contact with one of the top beams in the indoor ballpark in the bottom of the first. Soriano had a solid outing with seven strikeouts across six innings and no runs surrendered. Meanwhile, Brown was driven out with a lot of pitches thrown before the fifth inning as A.J Blubaugh entered to pitch for the Astros.

In the top of the seventh inning, after walking in his first three at-bats, Mike Trout stepped up to bat. Following a called strike, Trout swung at a four-seam fastball from Blubaugh and the ball went high into the air inside the closed-roof park. The ball went over the left-field stands and onto the train tracks at Daikin Park for a solo home run. The Halos had finally scored and Trout had his fourth career Opening Day home run and his first one since 2017. Following a couple of fly outs to end the top of the seventh, the bottom of the seventh inning occurred as Walbert Ureña came in to make his first career big league appearance out of the bullpen. The first pitch he threw was hit by Christian Walker for a lead-off double. Nick Allen came in to pinch-run for Walker, with Ureña facing Yanier Diaz next. Diaz struck out on five pitches for Ureña’s first career strikeout at the big league level. After getting Jake Meyers to ground out, Ureña walked Jose Altuve and that forced Kurt Suzuki, in his first game as an MLB manager, to go to the bullpen and bring in Chase Silseth to face Alvarez. Thankfully, Silseth only needed one pitch to get Alvarez to ground out to end the inning.

In the eighth inning, the Halos were looking for an add-on score and they got it after Adell got hit by a pitch, O’Hoppe hit a two-out single and Oswald Peraza had an RBI single that scored Adell. In the bottom of the eighth, Drew Pomeranz entered the game and retired the all of the Astros hitters that he faced. In the ninth inning, the Angels got another add-on run on a solo shot by Nolan Schanuel, who increased the lead to 3-0. In the bottom of the ninth, Jordan Romano came in to get the save and he did just that. The Halos had won their first Opening Day game in five years and their first one on the road since 2013.

Soriano was the winning pitcher and a solid bullpen behind him combined for a shutout of Houston. Trout and Schanuel hit solo blasts and even though the Halos left 13 men on base, they still managed to win. The Astros only had three hits and were defeated handily. With three more games left in this opening series, the Angels are seeking at least a split or a series win in Houston. So far, they are 1-0 for the first time since the 2021 season.