Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Mon, May 18, the Los Angeles Angels played host to the Athletics in the first game of a four-game series at Angel Stadium. The Halos were on a six-game losing streak where their offense looked extremely inefficient in not scoring any more than two runs in those games against the Cleveland Guardians and Los Angeles Dodgers. Falling to the worst record in MLB in the span of a month with a 5-21 skid, the Angels were desperate for a win and in their first matchup of the 2026 season against their Northern California division foes who happened to be in first place in the mediocre AL West, they sought to get some offense going while hoping for Walbert Ureña to have another solid outing in this month.

The starting pitcher for the A’s was J.T Ginn, who had some good solid numbers for a back-end of the rotation starter. This game was a pitcher’s duel in an unequal sense due to Ureña having to pitch out of jams while Ginn breezed through the Halos’ bats for the most part. Ureña faced an early jam in the third inning due to him walking Carlos Cortes for a second time(he did so to start the game) and Shea Langeliers beating out a throw by Yoán Moncada for an infield single. But he got the hot-hitting Nick Kurtz to pop out to Moncada to end the inning. In the top of the fourth, Ureña had some more two-out trouble develop when the center fielder for the team calling West Sacramento home Henry Bolte got an infield single and Jeff McNeil reached after Zach Neto committed a fielding error. Then Ureña hit Zach Gelof to load the bases and Darell Hernaiz had a chance to put some runs on the board. But Hernaiz hit into a force-out to end the inning.

Meanwhile, Ginn was using his solid arsenal of pitches to tear through the Angels’ bats. With a good combo of pop outs, groundouts and strikeouts, Ginn was having a career night in having a low pitch count through four innings(39 pitches). In the top of the fifth, Ureña gave up a two-out double to Kurtz, but he got Brent Rooker to hit a line drive fly ball that was caught by a diving Jo Adell to end the inning. Another clutch catch by Adell in right field after he made a home-run robbery catch last week in Cleveland. In the bottom of the fifth, the Halos got their first base runner of the night when Moncada walked on a 3-1 count against Ginn, who got Adell to strike out and got Josh Lowe to ground out to end the inning. Ureña had a good sixth inning in spite of another hit given up to McNeil with two outs. In the bottom of the sixth with two outs, Ginn hit Neto on the jersey to give up another runner. Mike Trout came up to bat, but he grounded out to Gelof at third base to end the inning. Six no-hit innings for Ginn, who was pitching without any run support in this scoreless duel.

In the seventh inning, Sam Bachman came in to pitch after Ureña threw over 90 pitches in the game. Bachman only gave up one hit in the top of the seventh, while in the bottom of the seventh Ginn came in and got the three batters he faced all to strike out. This was now a seven-inning no-hit bid for Ginn. In the top of the eighth, Bachman returned to pitch another inning and he got all three of the batters due up out. In the bottom of the eighth, as fans in the outfield stands were waving their shirts and chanting out “Sell the team!”, the Halos had a couple of unlucky line outs to center field and a pop out by Logan O’Hoppe ended the inning. Ginn was three outs away from a no-hitter, but he needed run support to ensure that he could go for a no-hitter that would end the game.

In the top of the ninth, Ryan Zeferjahn entered to pitch and he got McNeil to fly out to start the inning. But then, he gave up a single to Gelof, who stole second base while the pinch-hitter in the nine spot of the Athletics’ lineup Lawrence Butler was up to bat. Butler would hit a 2-2 sweeper out to center field and the ball dropped in. Gelof would score and the A’s had finally scored a run to support Ginn. They were hungry for more and they got a couple of runners on two straight free passes issued by Zeferjahn, who threw eight straight balls out of the strike zone. With the bases loaded and big-bad Kurtz coming up, Kurt Suzuki decided to bring in a new reliever and it was Chase Silseth who was being thrown into the frying pan. Silseth threw a 2-1 sinker that Kurtz swung at and the ball was fielded by Adam Frazier, who threw the ball to second base and Neto got the first out and then he threw the ball to Nolan Schanuel at first base to end the inning. The A’s had failed to add-on to their 1-0 lead, but John Thomas Ginn was in line to do something to the Angels that hadn’t been done since the end of the 20th century.

The last time that any Halos team was no-hit came on Sat, Sept 11, 1999 at the Hubert H. Humphrey MetroDome against the Minnesota Twins, whose starting pitcher that day Eric Milton threw a no-hitter against the Anaheim Angels. There have been a few close calls in recent years for the Halos to be no-hit in a game, including Clayton Kershaw’s perfect game bid in a Freeway Series game on Jul 15, 2022 and Bowden Francis of the Toronto Blue Jays nearly having a no-no on Aug 24, 2024 at the Rogers Center. But the Angels escaped barely in both those instances and others. Now, with Frazier, Neto and Trout due up, the Halos needed that magic to occur again.

With a new right fielder in Butler and a new shortstop in Alika Williams, the Athletics were seeking to be the first team to have a no-hitter in an MLB game since Blake Snell on Aug 2, 2024 for the San Francisco Giants. Frazier got down 0-2 in his at-bat with Ginn, who threw a sinker that Frazier made contact with. The ball went over the shortstop Williams and it was a single to center field. The Halos had broken up another no-hitter in the ninth inning. Now they were seeking a comeback win. With Jose Siri pinch-running for Frazier at first as the game-tying run, Zach Neto came to the dish looking to provide magic. Ginn remained in the game and on a 1-0 count, he threw a sinker that hit the outside corner of the strike zone. The home plate umpire Nestor Ceja called the pitch a strike, but with the Angels having one ABS challenge remaining, Neto challenged the call and the replay showed that the ball barely missed hitting the strike zone. It was ball two and on the next pitch, Neto unloaded on a 93-mph sinker. The ball went high up into center field and it was drifting away from Bolte. The ball traveled over the wall into the bushes in center and Neto had hit a walk-off two-run shot. This was an amazing feat done by the Halos, who went from being on the edge of getting no-hit for the first time in 27 years to winning the game in thrilling fashion. Neto was serenaded at home plate as the Angels had their third walk-off win of the season. An incredible way to break a six-game losing skid and in similar fashion to how they ended a seven-game losing streak a few weeks earlier when Oswald Peraza hit a walk-off single in the tenth inning against the New York Mets.

J.T Ginn had to settle for being the losing pitcher after throwing 105 pitches in a game where he had 10 strikeouts for a near no-hitter. Ginn had a very low pitch count that was increased with him throwing 19 pitches each in the fifth and sixth innings. The Halos took a while to get going, but when they did it was a sweet and tender ending. Silseth was the winning pitcher on his 26th birthday and that gift was awarded to him via Neto, who had his second career walk-off hit on his eighth home run of the season. The Angels might have the worst record in MLB still, but they just gained a game in the division standings against the Athletics, who are now under .500 in still leading the AL West. Baseball once again showed why it’s one of the most wildly unpredictable sports in the world with an insane ending in Anaheim on a Monday night in May.