Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Thur, Sept 17, the Los Angeles Angels hosted the Minnesota Twins in the first game of a four-game series at Angel Stadium. The Halos had just defeated the Seattle Mariners in two out of three games to start their final homestand of the season strong. This game was a chance for Walbert Ureña to earn his 10th win of the season and his good pitching numbers at home gave him a good chance to do that. In his final home start of the season, Ureña was seeking his ninth win at the Big A as well. The Twins countered with Taj Bradley as their playoff chances were diminished entering this game.

The game started with Minnesota getting a couple of runners on base with two straight two-out singles against Ureña, who managed to strike out Emmanuel Rodriguez to end the scoring threat. In the bottom of the first, the Halos gave some run support to Ureña as Mike Trout walked against Bradley to start a rally. Wade Meckler hit a ball in the infield that ended up being a single and Moisés Ballesteros hit a first-pitch fastball out to center field that scored Trout. Denzer Guzman then came up and brought Meckler home on an RBI single to left field and following a strikeout by Bradley against Josh Lowe, Oswald Peraza came up and smacked a full count fastball to right field that scored Ballesteros. The Angels left two runners on base, but had established an early 3-0 edge over the Twins.

Both pitchers locked in for the rest of their outings after the first inning, as both Ureña and Bradley gave up very few baserunners and pitched into the seventh inning. Ureña recorded a career-high nine strikeouts while giving up only three more hits after the first inning. Meanwhile, the Angels only managed to get one man on base against Bradley for the rest of his outing as he jammed the batters with soft contact and strikeouts.

In the eighth inning, Luke Murphy entered to pitch for Ureña and he immediately got into some trouble as he gave up a leadoff single to Walker Jenkins and shortstop Ben Ross hit a fastball out to left field for a double. With two runners in scoring position, Murphy was in a very tough pickle, but he got lucky to strike out Luke Keaschall on an ABS challenge that was won by Tyler Heineman. Kurt Suzuki took out Murphy and brought in Tayler Saucedo to try and limit the damage. Saucedo gave up a sacrifice fly hit by Brooks Lee that scored Jenkins and then walked Kody Clemens on four balls out of the zone. But Saucedo turned around to strike out Josh Bell on a sweeper to end the inning and deny Minnesota a chance to tie the game.

After the top three hitters for the Halos couldn’t muster anything in the bottom of the eighth, Ben Joyce entered to try and lock down his sixth save of the season. This game occurred on Joyce’s 26th birthday, so it would have been perfect for him to get a save as a present. Joyce got the first two batters he faced to strike out, but gave up a two-out hit to Victor Caratini, who hit a 102.7 mph fastball to right field for a single. Jenkins came up in having two hits on the night and clobbered the second pitch he saw from Joyce out to right center field. The ball traveled far enough to go over the yellow line on the right field pavilion for a two-run shot. Joyce had blown his fourth save of the season and the second one in less than a week. But Joyce did strike out Ross to end the top of the ninth.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Angels tried to get a walk-off win against A.J Minter, who struck out Ballesteros and Guzman to start the inning. Lowe came up and hit the second pitch he saw from Minter out to right field. The ball was traveling towards the bullseye and it could have made it over, but instead it hit a sign below the LED scoreboard and Lowe hustled to second base for a double. Twins manager Derek Shelton took out Minter and brought in Jeff Hoffman, who tried to force the game into extra innings. Suzuki brought in Adam Frazier to pinch-hit for Peraza, who had two hits in the game at that point, and Shelton countered by intentionally walking Frazier with an open base at first. Hoffman faced José Siri, who had a walk-off hit earlier in the season against the Houston Astros on Jun 10. But Siri struck out on a 2-2 slider and the game was heading into extra innings.

The Halos’ record in games that go beyond the ninth inning is not good this season as they had lost 14 extra-inning games entering this night. With four extra-inning wins at home, the accursed “ghost” runner has sometimes helped the Angels, but hurt them in perpetuity at the same time with the opponents. Blake Weiman entered the game to deal with the “toast” runner in Ross at second base. Weiman made an immediate mistake as he gave up a leadoff single to Keaschall that advanced Ross to third and then Brooks Lee hit a line drive single to right field that scored Ross. With two runners on base, Weiman tried to limit the damage, but the situation got harder when Clemens put down a bunt that advanced both runners into scoring position. The out was made and a mound visit occurred with the entire infield discussing strategy with Bell coming up. Suzuki did not intentionally walk Bell to set up the double play and Weiman got him to pop out to Frazier for the second out of the inning. Shelton then attempted to use a pinch-hitter off his bench in Ryan Jeffers, who Suzuki intentionally walked to load up the bases. Austin Martin came in as a pinch-runner as the biggest at-bat of the game occurred with Weiman facing Royce Lewis, who looked to break the game open. Weiman ended up striking out Lewis on four pitches and the Angels had escaped the jam. With only one run surrendered to the Twins, the Halos’ toast runner would represent the game-tying run and the game-winning run would be up at the plate right away.

Siri was the automatic runner at second for the Angels as Suzuki put in Vaughn Grissom to pinch-hit for Heineman. Yoendrys Gómez was in to pitch for Minnesota in looking to get the save. Grissom worked the count full and hit the ball out to left field, where it was caught by Martin. But the ball was deep enough in the outfield for Siri to attempt to run to third and he slid in safely. With the game-tying run 90 feet away from scoring, Zach Neto came up in looking to deliver a clutch hit. Neto won an ABS challenge on the third pitch of the at-bat and then he worked a walk against Gómez. With the game-winning run on base, Trout came up in looking to do something clutch in extra innings, which has been hard for him throughout the years. In a long at-bat with plenty of delays, Trout was able to win an ABS challenge on a called strike three by home plate umpire Laz Diaz. After winning that challenge, Trout hit a 2-2 sweeper out of the infield and past Ross at shortstop for an RBI single. Siri scored and Neto raced to third base as Trout had tied the score at four runs apiece. With Meckler coming up, Shelton went into his bullpen again and Kody Funderburk entered to try and force the game into the 11th inning. The Twins had played a game that went 13 innings the day before against the New York Yankees and they won the game on a walk-off on their home field. But in this case, Minnesota got walked-off on as Meckler hit the first pitch he saw from Funderburk to right field. Neto scored and Meckler was serenaded by his teammates as he had delivered his first career walk-off hit. As a hometown hero from Anaheim, Meckler delivered a magical moment at the Big A.

The extra inning win against the Twins was the eighth walk-off victory of the season for the Angels and their first one in nearly two months. With this being the third win of the final homestand and the 59th win of the season, the Halos are now only four wins away from avoiding their first 100-loss record in franchise history. With three more games against the Twins and a six-game road trip against the Athletics and Mariners, there is a chance for history to be avoided. Close wins like this one can help avoid the ultimate futility mark that this franchise has never seen. But close losses are the reason that the Angels are so close to 100 losses to begin with as bullpen implosions and the inability for the lineup to add-on enough runs to their score have been major problems for this team.

This Halos squad has suffered 28 one-run losses this season and if they had won half of those games, then they would be only a few games behind the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers for the AL West division title. Alas, a season of one-score results has landed on the wrong side too much for this team and they are instead looking at a third consecutive last-place finish in the division. But that can be potentially avoided in the next week as the A’s face a much more challenging remaining schedule than the Angels do. The two-game set in West Sacramento could determine which one of the two California rivals finishes in last place in the AL West, which is in its worst season ever in terms of combined records and run differential. The future is bright for this Angels franchise if they believe that they can reinstall a winning culture with a new ownership group incoming and big changes on the horizon. A walk-off win like this one can remind the players on this team that they have the potential within themselves to be great in the near future.