Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Sat, Sept 5, the Los Angeles Angels played against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the middle game of a three-game series at PNC Park. The Pirates won the series opener 1-0 as the Halos failed to score any runs in a shutout loss. Now facing the prospect of their first 100-loss season in franchise history, the Angels looked to get back on the winning track in the second game of a nine-game road trip. Yusei Kikuchi would take the mound in seeking his first win of a tough 2026 season that he missed four months in due to a shoulder injury. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh countered with Braxton Ashcraft, who had 14 wins coming into this game for a Pirates team looking to stay alive in the National League Wild Card chase.

The game started with both pitchers having solid first innings pitched. Kikuchi gave up a double in the second inning to catcher Rafael Flores Jr but got the next two batters out to end the threat. Following an actionless third inning, the Halos found an opportunity in the top of the fourth as Wade Meckler hit a fastball that he got jammed on to left field and the ball dropped in fair. Meckler ran to second base for a double and after Vaughn Grissom flew out to right field for the second out of the inning, Moisés Ballesteros came up and hit a first-pitch slider from Ashcraft on the ground. But the ball rolled past Nick Gonzales at second base and into the outfield as Meckler ran home. It was an RBI single from Ballesteros, who is starting to hit better after a rough first few weeks in the Angels’ lineup.

With a 1-0 lead to work with, Kikuchi got into another jam after he got Oneil Cruz to hit into a double play. Gonzales hit a ball that landed fair down the right-field line and it bounced out of play for a ground-rule double. But Kikuchi got Flores to line out to Mike Trout in center field to end the inning. At the start of the fifth inning, Ashcraft faced Josh Lowe, who hit a 2-0 fastball out to deep center field. The ball traveled over the wall and onto the batters eye for a home run, which was Lowe’s 11th one of the season. The Angels now had a 2-0 lead and they sought to add onto it as Denzer Guzman hit a line-drive single and Adam Frazier advanced him to second base on a sac bunt. Zach Neto came up and during his at-bat, Ashcraft got called for a balk and that advanced Guzman to third base. On the next pitch following the balk, Neto hit a fastball out to center field and the ball dropped in for an RBI single. It was now a 3-0 lead for the Halos, who were unable to add on any more runs in the inning in spite of a single by Trout after the Neto RBI.

Kikuchi continued pitching well in spite of giving up some baserunners as another double play was turned behind him in the bottom of the fifth. In the next inning, Kikuchi got himself into some trouble as he gave up a leadoff walk to Esmerlyn Valdez and Bryan Reynolds hit a single to left field. With two runners on, Pittsburgh had a golden chance to score. But Kikuchi struck out Cruz again and then got Gonzales to ground into a force out at second base. With runners on the corners and two outs, Kikuchi faced Flores and got him to fly out to Trout to end the threat. An incredible six-inning scoreless effort from Kikuchi, who usually struggles on the road as a Halo hurler.

In the seventh inning, the Angels saw Isaac Mattson pitch in a second straight inning after he breezed his way through the order in the sixth. With one out, Frazier came up and hit a 2-2 fastball down the right field line for a double against his old team. Neto would hit the first pitch he saw out to left field and Frazier was held up at third. Trout came up next and hit a slider from Mattson out to left field. Frazier scored to make the lead 4-0 and then Meckler delivered another clutch hit as he swatted a ball that went off the right center field wall. Neto came in to score and Trout raced around the bases as he slid in safely to home plate. It was a two-run double from Meckler as the Halos had doubled up their scoring total and lead over the Pirates.

The Angels’ bullpen was mostly efficient as Ryan Watson pitched a clean seventh inning, but Luke Murphy gave up a solo home run to Reynolds with two outs and Cruz got a single, then stole second base. But when Cruz attempted to steal third base, he got thrown out by Ballesteros, who threw a stellar ball to Guzman for a good tag to end the bottom of the eighth. The Halos’ bats couldn’t get any more runs in the ninth and José Fermin came in to pitch in the bottom half of the final frame. Fermin allowed a couple of runners to get on base for Pittsburgh, but he didn’t surrender any runs as he struck out Brandon Lowe to end the game. The Angels had won 6-1 and evened up the series with Pittsburgh.

Kikuchi earned his long-awaited first win in the 2026 season as he got six strikeouts and didn’t give up any runs in a very efficient start. With some good run support provided from the bottom and top parts of the lineup, Kikuchi had his season ERA lowered below the 5.00 mark. Now with their 54th win of the season, the Halos will seek to win a series against the Pirates as the rubber match will be a pitcher’s duel between Walbert Ureña and Paul Skenes, whom the Angels have never faced before. A good first win in September will hopefully boost the Halos to a strong finish in an otherwise frustrating season with plenty of changes ahead in the offseason.