Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Tue, Aug 18, the Los Angeles Angels played the first game of a six-game road trip in the Lone Star State as they faced the Houston Astros at Daikin Park. The Angels were making their first appearance in Houston since the Opening Weekend of the 2026 season when they split a four-game series against the Astros, who are currently leading the mediocre AL West division. Having a 4-6 record against Houston entering this game, the Halos were seeking a good start to this road trip in Texas as George Klassen took the mound for his fifth start of the season at the big league level. Klassen got his first big league win in his previous start against the Texas Rangers at the Big A and he looked to follow up that performance with a stellar encore. Houston countered with Cristian Javier as their starter, with Javier having good numbers against the Angels in his career.

The game started with Javier making quick work of the top three hitters for the Halos. Meanwhile, Klassen got the first two batters for Houston out but he walked Isaac Paredes with two outs and gave up a single to José Altuve that put runners on the corners. Klassen got down 3-1 against Daulton Varsho, who swung at two straight low sliders for the inning-ending strikeout. After getting out of that jam, Klassen had a stellar game the rest of the way.

Following a smooth second inning pitched by Klassen, the Angels sought to give their young starter some run support. With two outs in the top of the third, Wade Meckler hit a ball up the middle into center field for a single. During the next at-bat for Mike Trout, Meckler attempted a steal of second base and he slid in successfully under a tag from Altuve. Trout ended up drawing a full count walk and Nolan Schanuel came up to bat with two runners on base. Leading the team in batting average, Schanuel kept his good hitting ways going as he hit a 2-2 fastball from Javier out to center field that scored Meckler. The Halos had the early lead and had made Javier throw a lot of pitches in the third inning.

In the bottom of the third, Klassen got all three batters he saw to ground out. In the top of the fourth, with two outs, Josh Lowe came up to bat and he hit a 2-0 fastball from Javier out to left field. The ball cleared over the Crawford Boxes in the ballpark for a home run. It was Lowe’s 10th one of the season and the Angels doubled their lead over Houston. Klassen’s next three innings pitched were very effective, as he only allowed one batter to reach for the Astros.

Meanwhile, the Halos got another run in the fifth inning as Schanuel hit a single with two outs against reliever Bryan King. Joe Espada went to his bullpen and brought in Enyel de los Santos to face Zach Neto, who hit the first pitch he saw out to left field and off the wall for an RBI double that scored Schanuel. With a 3-0 lead, Klassen had enough run support to work with.

Klassen appeared in the bottom of the seventh as he was looking to go the distance. After walking Altuve, Klassen got Varsho to line out to Trout, Christian Walker to strike out on a slider, and Taylor Trammell to strike out on a foul-tip fastball. An amazing performance for Klassen, who was seeking his second consecutive win in the big leagues.

The Halos’ bats couldn’t do much in the top of the eighth as AJ Blubaugh got Moisés Ballesteros to ground into a double play following a one-out single by Neto. José Fermin entered to pitch for Klassen in the bottom of the eighth and immediately gave up a solo home run to Cam Smith that lowered the Angels’ lead to two runs. Yanier Diaz got a single against Fermin, who was lucky to have Denzer Guzman stop a line drive ball hit by Jeremy Peña and a force out of Diaz occurred at second base. Kurt Suzuki went to bring in another reliever to face the mighty Yordan Alvarez, who is currently leading the American League in home runs, RBIs and batting average in seeking the first Triple Crown by an MLB player since Miguel Cabrera in 2012.

Ryan Watson entered to pitch against Alvarez, who represented the game-tying run at the plate. Watson trailed behind in the count 3-0, but he was able to use a curveball, sweeper and fastball to strike out Alvarez. Paredes came up next with two outs and worked the count full. But Watson was able to get Paredes to fly out to Meckler in left field to end the inning.

In the ninth inning, the Halos couldn’t get any add-on runs, but Ben Joyce was warming up to get his third save of the season. Joyce faced Altuve first and got down 3-0, but he used his 100+ mph fastballs to strike out Altuve on seven pitches. Joyce then got Varsho to swing at a 102.7 mph fastball on the first pitch for an easy flyout to Trout. Down to their last out, the Astros had Walker come up, but he swung and missed at a 103.4 mph fastball to end the game. The Angels had won this series-opening game in Houston 3-1 and had secured their 50th win of the 2026 season. With a stellar seven-inning, one-hit performance from Klassen, the 24-year old Halo hurler achieved his first career big league win on the road. An incredible encore with seven strikeouts and a lot of soft-contact outs as well.

With this rare road-trip opening win, the Angels are now seeking their first road series win over a division opponent this season. Walbert Ureña will take the mound tomorrow night in seeking to make that possibility come true. With only a few runs(all of them with two outs) and great pitching from two of the brightest young pitchers in their organization, the Halos definitely have a lot to look forward to in their future in spite of a bleak record this season.