Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Sun, Jul 26, the Los Angeles Angels played against the San Francisco Giants in the series finale of a three-game set at Oracle Park. The Giants won the first two games with offensive chunks in innings, including a walk-off victory in the tenth inning in the series opener. The Halos had once again fallen to their low-point of 23 games under .500 and held the worst record in baseball entering the day. The final Sunday of July is the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony day and this year, three ballplayers from the Contemporary Era were inducted. That trio included Jeff Kent, a Giants legend at second base who was a part of the 2002 World Series team that lost to the Anaheim Angels in seven games. Ironically, the Angels were wearing caps with the team’s original logo in their first five seasons in franchise history when they actually played in Los Angeles proper. José Soriano was making the start and looking for his first win since Jun 13 and first road win since Jun 7. San Francisco countered with Carson Whisenhunt, a left-hander that they called up from Triple-A to make his third career start.

The game started with an early scoring chance for the Halos as Mike Trout slapped a ball down the left field line for a double. Trout advanced to third on a wild pitch by Whisenhunt against Vaughn Grissom, who walked on four pitches. Jorge Soler was up next and his offensive numbers have been greatly stagnant ever since late April. But Soler hit a 2-2 changeup to shortstop Willy Adames, who fell back and had to throw the ball to second base for an out there. Looking to turn the double play, Luis Arraez looked to throw the ball to first base to get Soler, but Soler beat out the throw as Trout scored. It was an RBI force-out for Soler and the Angels had the early 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the first, Soriano gave up a leadoff single to Arraez, who sprinted towards second in looking to get a double. But Jose Siri picked up the ball and threw it to Grissom, who tagged Arraez out at second base. A clutch defensive play there early on. Soriano got the next two batters out to breeze through the first inning.

Both pitchers had solid outings through the first three innings as Whisenhunt used his offspeed pitches to jam the Halos’ bats. Meanwhile, Soriano continued getting soft contact outs and strikeouts. In the bottom of the third, Soriano escaped from a runners on first and second jam with two outs by striking out Bryce Eldridge on a splitter. In the top of the fourth, the middle of the Angels order came up and Soler led it off by hitting a first-pitch fastball out to deep center field for a solo home run. It was the 12th homer of the season for Soler, who had a multi-RBI game for the second time in the past five games. Nolan Schanuel worked a walk by winning an ABS challenge on a 1-1 count and Jo Adell came up next. Adell would swing at the second pitch thrown by Whisenhunt and launched a ball out to left center field. The ball traveled into the bleachers for a two-run shot. It was Adell’s 16th homer of the season and it was now a 4-0 lead for the Halos. Some good run support for Soriano definitely would go a long way in determining this game.

Soriano pitched a clean fourth inning and meanwhile, Mike Trout had gotten on base two more times with an infield single in the third inning and a ball that dropped into the outfield in the top of the fifth. Trout tried to stretch out that hit into a double, but he got thrown out sliding into second base by Grant McCray, who threw a solid ball to Adames for the put-out. In the bottom of the fifth, Soriano gave up a leadoff double to Adames and walked catcher Drew Cavanaugh to have two runners on base. After striking out McCray, Soriano faced Arraez, who hit a 2-1 splitter to second base. Grissom flicked the ball to Zach Neto for the out at second, but when Neto threw the ball to Schanuel at first, the ball went off Schanuel’s mitt and Arraez was safe. Adames scored on the error as Arraez advanced to second. The Giants were on the board due to an unfortunate throwing error by Neto. Thankfully, Soriano got Heliot Ramos to ground out to end the inning. Now eligible for the win, Soriano just had to hope that this 4-1 lead would hold up.

Both starters were done after five innings as Adrian Houser entered to pitch for Whisenhunt while Soriano was relieved by Samy Natera Jr. Following a scoreless sixth inning by both teams, the Angels had a chance to score in the top of the seventh when Denzer Guzman hit a leadoff single and advanced to third base after a wild throw by Cavanaugh to second base on a successful stolen base attempt. Siri was up and he hit a ball straight back to Houser, who initially struggled to field the grounder but would recover to throw Siri out at first. Guzman had to hold at third and Siri slowed up his run to first to shout out to Guzman to go for home plate. A poor baserunning gaffe there by Siri. Houser got Logan O’Hoppe and Neto out to end the inning with Guzman unable to score.

Chase Silseth pitched an efficient bottom of the seventh with only one hit given up. In the top of the eighth, Trout led off and hit an 0-2 changeup off Houser for a bloop single to right field. Trout had four hits in the game and this was the first time that he had done that since April 2021. An impressive feat by a future Hall of Famer on the day of the Class of 2026 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Unfortunately, Grissom popped out and Soler hit into a double play to end the inning. In the bottom of the eighth, Ryan Zeferjahn entered to pitch and he gave up a leadoff single to Ramos. But Zeferjahn struck out Eldridge and Rafael Devers, then got Casey Schmitt to ground out to Schanuel at first to end the threat.

In the top of the ninth, the Halos looked to get an add-on run as Schanuel walked for the second time and advanced to third on a wild pickoff throw by Houser with one out. But Guzman grounded out with the infield in for San Francisco and Siri flew out to center field to end the inning. With a three-run lead, the Angels had Sam Bachman come in to pitch in the bottom of the ninth. Looking for his third career big league save, Bachman had some jitters as he walked Jesus Rodriguez and after getting Adames to hit into a force out, he walked Cavanaugh on a full count. With the game-tying run coming up for the Giants, Kurt Suzuki decided to make a pitching change after Bachman had satisfied the three-batter minimum. Mitch Farris came in to try and get his first major league save as he faced a pinch-hitter in the nine spot in Daniel Susac, who lined out to Trout for an easy swift out. Down to their last out, the top of the San Francisco order came up in Luis Arraez, who doesn’t possess the prowess to be a home run threat. But as the game-tying run, Arraez hit a fastball from Farris out to right field and the ball went off the wall with Adell being unable to catch it. Adames and Cavanaugh scored as Arraez had a two-run double get the Giants down by one run. All the pressure was on Farris as he faced the game-winning run at home plate in Ramos. After three straight foul balls on a 1-2 count, Farris threw a changeup in the dirt to even the count. On the 2-2 pitch, Farris threw an inside fastball that clearly missed the zone, but home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt called the pitch strike three. The Giants didn’t have any more ABS challenges as they lost their second challenge on a 3-0 pitch from Bachman that Adames challenged and lost. It was game over on a controversial strike three call that would have been overturned if San Francisco had a challenge. The Angels barely escaped out of the Bay Area with a win and avoided getting swept on the road.

Soriano was lucky to get his ninth win of the season and only his third one since late April. With the trade deadline approaching, Soriano could be traded due to his high quality pitching that leads to a good combo of strikeouts and groundouts. With two RBIs each from Soler and Adell, the Halos won their 42nd game of the 2026 season and even though they still hold the worst record in the American League, their style of play doesn’t always make them look like a last-place team. The upcoming six-game homestand against the Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers will lead to the trade deadline on Mon, Aug 3 at 3 pm PDT/6 pm EDT. Key players such as Soriano, Reid Detmers, Zach Neto and Jo Adell could be making their final appearances as Angels, with all of them having the potential to be traded by interim general manager John Mozeliak. We shall see what comes next as the Beach Week homestand takes place at Angel Stadium.