Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Sat May 2, the Los Angeles Angels hosted the New York Mets in an attempt to end their tough seven-game losing streak that was fueled by blown leads by the bullpen and some inefficient offense. A winless road trip to Kansas City and Chicago, which included some miserable weather and rain delays along with some massively blown leads and two walk-off losses, was already bad enough, but losing to a 10-21 Mets team to open up the homestand was even more grueling because of Walbert Ureña being taken out after being hit on the knee by a line drive ball by Bo Bichette and then the bullpen proceeded to surrender four runs to New York that ended up being enough for a win by the opposition. This losing streak needed to end sooner rather than later and with Reid Detmers on the bump, there would hopefully be a good chance that it would on Saturday night. On the other side, Nolan McLean was the starter for the Mets. Let’s see how this game went.

The drama started early in the bottom of the first inning with singles by Nolan Schanuel and Jorge Soler setting up a scoring opportunity for Jo Adell, who hit a ball to right field that seemed to be deep enough to score Schanuel. But Austin Slater aimed a throw to third base because Soler was advancing there. Schanuel would get to home plate, but Soler was tagged out at third base by Bichette at exactly the same time. The Mets’ manager Carlos Mendoza opted not to challenge the play that could have led to the run at home being wiped off the board because it appeared the tag on Soler’s foot by Bichette happened before Schanuel stepped on the plate. Alas, New York did not challenge and the Angels had a lucky run on the board.

Meanwhile, Detmers had a clean first two innings pitched, but in the top of the third the Mets finally got a hit on a double by Slater. With two outs, Bichette came up to the plate and hit a clean line drive to center that scored Slater. The score remained tied at one until the bottom of the fourth, when Soler walked and Adell hit a single and both runners advanced a base on a wild pitch by McLean. With two outs, Vaughn Grissom(who was activated off the IL two weeks prior and has been a feature in the mix-and-match lineup of the Halos) came up to bat and he hit an 0-2 sweeper out to right center field and both runners came home to score. The Angels had a 3-1 lead, but blew a chance to add on with runners on the corners. Detmers pitched through the fifth inning and the Angels blew another chance to score with Zach Neto and Mike Trout on base with no outs. In the top of the sixth, Detmers got out of a jam with a double play against Francisco Alvarez.

A two-out double by Oswald Peraza in the bottom of the sixth against Tobias Myers led to nothing. In the top of the seventh, Detmers returned to pitch and he gave up a load of hits. A lead-off double by Mark Vientos and a single by Marcus Semien led to a sac fly by Andy Ibáñez. Semien stole second base during an at-bat with Tyrone Taylor, who hit an RBI single that tied up the game. Another single by Slater and a tight play on a ground ball hit by Ronny Mauricio, who beat out a dive to first base over Schanuel, eventually led Kurt Suzuki to take Detmers out and go to the bullpen.

The entire pen had basically been on self-destruct mode for the whole week, as after Jordan Romano and Shaun Anderson got designated for assignment, Drew Pomeranz failed miserably in back-to-back outings and gave up a walk-off hit later in the road trip. But one of the better relievers for the Halos during this miserable stretch was Sam Bachman, who was being thrown into the fire with the bases loaded. Bichette came up with a chance to blow the game open, but Bachman forced him to hit into a force out with a clean throw by Peraza to Travis d’Arnaud to get Taylor out at the plate. Juan Soto came up with the sacks full and two outs, and Bachman got him to chase a low slider to end the inning. In spite of the Mets tying the game, the Angels prevented them from taking control.

In the bottom of the seventh, Trout hit a single but the Halos didn’t do anything after that. Bachman returned to pitch in the top of the eighth and he had a clean 1-2-3 inning. Huascar Brazóban did the same thing in the bottom of the eighth. In the ninth inning, Ryan Zeferjahn came in to pitch for the Halos and this was a few days after he failed to close out a game against the Chicago White Sox with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. In this case, Zeferjahn had a more clean outing with a solid top of the ninth. The Angels looked to get their second walk-off of the season as Craig Kimbrel tried to force this game to extra innings. After Peraza grounded out, Yóan Moncada came in to pinch-hit for d’Arnaud and he delivered an immediate clutch swing with a double to right field. Moncada would be pinch-run for by Bryce Teodosio and Neto came up with a chance to walk it off. Unfortunately Kimbrel struck him out and Trout was wisely intentionally walked. Schanuel looked to get his second walk-off after his first one on Easter Sunday, but he grounded into a force out to end the inning. This crazy game was going into extra innings, which have not been kind to the Angels in recent days.

To start out the tenth, MJ Melendez, who was the last out of the top of the ninth, was the automatic runner at second base and Brett Baty had his first at-bat of the game. The new catcher in the game was Sebastian Rivero, who was called up after Logan O’Hoppe was placed on the injured list a week ago with a fracture in his left wrist. On a 1-1 count, Baty made contact with Rivero’s glove while swinging at the ball and Rivero was called for catcher’s interference. That was a seemingly rough break for Zeferjahn, who was back for his second inning of action. Bichette came up next with a chance to give the Mets the lead again, but just like earlier, another clutch double play happened. With two outs and Melendez at third, Suzuki wisely intentionally walked Soto. Alvarez was coming up with another chance to be a hero, but instead he hit a lazy fly ball to shallow center that was caught by a backtracking Grissom to end the inning. The Halos now had a chance to walk this thing off in the bottom of the tenth.

The automatic runner for the Angels was not Schanuel, but the last available man off the bench in Adam Frazier. Soler led off the inning with a solid walk against Austin Warren, a former Halos reliever for three seasons earlier in this decade. Adell came up with a chance to walk it off and he made good contact against his old teammate in hitting a line drive to right field. The ball fell in front of Carson Benge and he threw the ball in fast enough to hold Frazier at third base. Josh Lowe now had a legit chance to win the game and he hit a line drive to right field that was caught by Benge, who threw the ball in turbo fast and Frazier was once again held at third base. Grissom had a chance to win the game, but he popped out to Benge for the second out of the inning. The only man standing between a potential 11th inning in this game was Oswald Peraza, who looked to get his first walk-off hit at Angel Stadium. On an 0-2 count, after fouling off a couple of balls, Peraza hit a curveball out to left center field and it landed down on the grass. Frazier came home to score and it was game over. The Halos had walked off the Mets. The seven-game losing streak with so many close and torturous defeats was finally over.

Without a doubt, the heroes of the game were the two relievers in Bachman and Zeferjahn, who delivered the first clean game for the bullpen since their most previous win on Wed, Apr 22. Nine men were left on base for the Angels, but the Mets had eight men stranded on the base paths. It was a sloppy win, but a good one to end a tough losing streak. Hopefully this amazing result means a better stretch ahead for the Halos, who are tied for last place currently in the AL West with the Houston Astros.