Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Sun, Jun 7, the Los Angeles Angels played against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the final game of the 2026 Freeway Series at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers won the first five games of the series, as they swept the Halos in Anaheim and won the first two games of this series at Chavez Ravine. The Dodgers won on a walk-off home run by Freddie Freeman in the series opener and scored nine runs in the first inning to win their first Freeway Series at home since 2023. Seeking their fourth Freeway Series sweep since 2020, the Dodgers would have to face José Soriano, who they had a good game against in spite of only getting one hit on him on Sat, May 16. Los Angeles would counter with Emmett Sheehan, whose record was relatively good entering this game.

The starting lineup for the Dodgers was without a couple of key batters as Andy Pages and Mookie Betts were receiving an off day after playing in the first two games of this series. The top of the first had the Angels strand Wade Meckler at second base after he got a two-out double and the bottom of the first featured a single from Freeman, who was unable to be brought in to score from second base with two outs. In the top of the second inning, the Angels had an unlikely rally occur after Jo Adell got a one-out single and Nick Madrigal, who has been on the big-league roster since being called up from Triple-A a couple of weeks ago, worked a 14-pitch at-bat against Sheehan that was extended due to a couple of ABS challenges by him that were successful, including on what would be ball four. Jose Siri came up next and he worked a walk against Sheehan, who was potentially robbed of a strikeout on a pitch that went inside and appeared to hit the bat of Siri on a full count. However, home plate umpire Dan Iassogna did not hear the ball deflect off the bat and the Dodgers were unable to challenge the call. With the bases loaded and one out, Sebastían Rivero came up to bat as the starting catcher in the nine spot of the Angels’ batting order. On an 0-2 count, Rivero hit a ball out to center field that dropped in and Adell and Madrigal scored. The Halos had an early 2-0 lead over the Dodgers. Dave Roberts went out to the mound and took Sheehan out of the game after throwing roughly 50 pitches across 1 1/3 innings. It would be a bullpen game for L.A the rest of the way. Edgardo Henriquez came in and struck out Zach Neto and got Mike Trout to ground out to end the inning. In the bottom of the second, Soriano got into a jam as he gave up two straight singles to start out the inning. But in his groundball fashion, Soriano got left fielder Ryan Ward to ground into a double play and got Miguel Rojas to ground out to Neto to end the inning.

The third inning featured a 1-2-3 inning pitched by Henriquez against the Halos and one run scored by the Dodgers on an RBI groundout by Kyle Tucker following singles by Shohei Ohtani and Freeman. In the top of the fourth, Blake Treinen entered to pitch and he gave up a leadoff infield single to Adell, who advanced to second base on a passed ball. Madrigal drew another walk and Siri hit a sacrifice bunt that advanced both runners into scoring position. Rivero came up again looking to do some damage like he did in the second inning. On another 0-2 count and with the infield in, Rivero hit a bloop single into right field that scored Adell and Madrigal again. It was a four-RBI game by the backup catcher in the fourth inning. Once again, Neto and Trout couldn’t keep the gravy train going and Rivero was stranded on first base. It was 4-1 Angels as Soriano had another clean inning end with a double play.

In the top of the fifth, Alex Vesia entered to pitch for the Dodgers and he gave up a leadoff walk to Meckler and then proceeded to strike out the next two batters. Adell came up with two outs this time and he hit a fastball out to right field for a single that advanced Meckler to third. A three-hit game for Adell and Madrigal came up again, with him drawing a walk after he seemingly checked his swing and crossed the plate. Dalton Rushing wanted that pitch appealed down to the first base umpire as he tagged Madrigal, who challenged the call and it was overturned at the plate as ball three. This at-bat for Madrigal went 12 pitches and resulted in another walk. Roberts went back to his bullpen and brought in right-handed reliever Jonathan Hernández, who faced Siri with the bases loaded. On a full count, Siri hit a sinker out to right field as Meckler and Adell came home to score. But Madrigal tried to score as well rounding third base and was thrown out at home plate on a good throw by Alex Freeland at second base. The Halos had gone up 6-1, but Rivero would have to wait until the sixth inning to continue his hot hitting and with nobody on base. Soriano pitched another solid inning in the bottom of the fifth to get himself in line for his seventh win of the season.

In the top of the sixth, Rivero came up to bat and hit the first pitch he saw from Hernández out to center field. It was a three-hit game for Rivero, who was unable to be brought home by any of the top three hitters in the batting order. In the bottom of the sixth, the Dodgers attempted a rally as Tucker walked against Soriano to start the inning. In spite of a fly out by Muncy to left field, Alex Call came up and reached on a throwing error by Neto, who tried to get a double play by stepping on second base and throwing Call out at first. He achieved neither of those things as both runners advanced a base with the ball going into the Angels dugout. Dalton Rushing came up and hit a 1-2 fastball out to deep right field. The ball made it barely over the wall for a three-run shot. The Dodgers were down now 6-4 and on the very next at-bat, the young Ward hit an 0-2 knuckle curve out to right field and the ball landed deeper into the bleachers for a solo home run. The Dodgers were now down by a run and Soriano thankfully got the last two batters out to end the inning. But now it was 6-5 in favor of the Halos, who needed to score a big amount of add-on runs to feel comfortable in the late stages of this game.

In the top of the seventh, Hernández came back in to pitch and he got Oswald Peraza to line out to Call in center field. Nolan Schanuel came up in his second game of being activated off the injured list after a hamstring injury kept him out for two weeks and he drew a walk. Adell then came up and on the first pitch he saw launched a sinker out to deep left field. The ball went high into the bleachers and it was a two-run shot for Adell, who hit his 10th homer of the season. The Angels had taken an 8-5 lead and Adell had his fourth hit of the day. Madrigal was coming up after drawing three walks, but he decided to get on base the classic way in getting a single that went up the middle into center field. Siri kept the bottom of the lineup’s production going with a single to left field. Rivero came up once again with runners on base and he hit another single to right field that brought in Madrigal to score. It was a five-RBI, four-hit game for Rivero, who started the day with only 2 RBIs and a sub-.150 batting average for the season. Neto came up with two runners on and a four-run lead for the Angels and decided to turn on a first-pitch sinker that went out all the way to deep center field. The ball went over Call’s head and over the center field wall for a three-run shot. It was Neto’s second home run of this series after he hit a solo shot the night before in the ninth inning as he now had 13 big flies for the season. The Angels had cracked double-digit runs for the fourth time over the last few weeks. It was a 12-5 lead for the Halos in the seventh inning.

That score remained the same for most of the final few innings as the bullpen took care of business. In the top of the ninth, Siri got an infield single with one out against Kyle Hurt and that had Sebastían Rivero come up to make some personal history of his own. Rivero hit a fastball out to left center field and it landed down and went into the gap. Siri raced home as Rivero reached second base with an RBI double. A 5-5 game for the backup catcher and six RBIs to outscore the Dodgers on his own. The game ended with Mitch Farris closing it out and the Angels defeated the Dodgers by a final score of 13-5. An amazing performance from Rivero fueled this victory and the bottom four batters in the Halos lineup made some significant history. For the first time in the live ball era, the 6-7-8-9 batters in a team’s lineup had reached base in four consecutive times up to the plate. An incredible accomplishment as Jo Adell, Nick Madrigal, Jose Siri and Sebastían Rivero were the main scorers for the Halos’ bats. Soriano pitched a mostly clean game to get his first win in four weeks and his seventh of this season. The Angels avoided getting swept in the Freeway Series after delivering a sweep of the Dodgers in 2025. After being outscored 41-5 in the first five games of the series, the Halos decided to swing things back into their favor and win their 25th game of the 2026 season.

Still in last place in the AL West and holding one of the worst records in MLB this season, the Angels will play a six-game homestand against the Houston Astros and the Tampa Bay Rays. Then, a seven-game road trip away from Southern California will take place as they take on the Arizona Diamondbacks and Athletics in a western turn. In spite of their bad record, days like this can remind the Halos and their fans that there is still room for exciting things to happen. Sebastían Rivero serving as the unlikely hero of this game against the two-time defending World Series champions proves that point perfectly.