6/9/23

Angels 5, Mariners 4

(Anaheim, CA) Apple TV was the host of an excellent pitching matchup on Friday night as the Seattle Mariners visited the Los Angeles Angels for the opener of a three-game series. Both teams had their aces on the mound as the Mariners’ Luis Castillo took on the two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani. While neither guy had their A+ stuff, Ohtani would still have that powerful bat which played a big role in the outcome of the game. The Mariners tried to fight back from a couple Angel home runs, but the rally fell just short as the Angels took the opener 5-4.

Seattle drew first blood in a long first inning for the Angel ace. J.P. Crawford drew a walk to begin the ballgame and it took a total of 12 pitches for Ohtani to retire Julio Rodriguez and Ty France. That would be when Seattle struck. Jarred Kelenic ended his home run drought with a no-doubter into right center for his 11th homer of the season. The two-run shot put Seattle out in front 2-0. It looked like the M’s would get to Shohei bit more after Teoscar Hernandez and Cal Raleigh walked, but Ohtani would get out of it with a strikeout of Eugenio Suarez to kill the Mariner threat.

Luis Castillo was in complete control of the strike zone into the 3rd inning with just one Angel reaching base and that was on a weak infield single by Ohtani. With nobody on and two outs, it looked like it would be another quick inning for Castillo as he got Taylor Ward to hit a grounder to Crawford at short. The former gold glove winner booted the routine play for an E6 allowing Ward to reach. The Angels would make the Mariners pay for that error. Shohei Ohtani followed Ward and obliterated a changeup in the middle of the plate 440 feet to center field. Ohtani’s 17th home run of the season had all of a sudden tied the game 2-2.

Los Angeles would build off of that momentum in the bottom of the 4th. Anthony Rendon drove one to right center field for extra bases to begin the inning. Rendon’s fifth double of the season set up Luis Rengifo who cashed in with an RBI single into center field to give the Angels a 3-2 lead. Castillo would strikeout Jarred Walsh to take off some of the pressure, recording the first out. He would also punchout Mickey Moniak as Cal Raleigh caught Rengifo trying to steal for a strike ’em out throw ’em out double play to end the inning.

That double play sparked something for the Mariners into the top of the 5th. A walk for Jose Caballero and a hit by pitch for Julio Rodriguez had runners on first and second with one out. Ty France came through for the M’s with a line drive into center field. Caballero was able to score easily while Julio made it to third to tie the game 3-3. However, that would be the end of the threat for Seattle. The Mariners hit into another double play as Kelenic smacked a grounder to Walsh at first to end the inning, but Seattle had at least evened the score.

La Piedra pitched his way out of trouble in the bottom of the 5th, but wasn’t so fortunate in the 6th. After hitting Anthony Rendon to start the inning (it looked like the ball hit the knob of the bat but I digress), Castillo got both Rengifo and Walsh to hit pop ups on the infield for an easy two outs. After that, more damage was done to the M’s with two outs. Castillo got ahead of Mickey Moniak 1-2 but missed his spot badly. A fastball right in the heart of the plate was hammered by Moniak for another two out, two-run home run. Moniak’s breakout season continued with his fifth home run to give the Angels a 5-3 lead.

It was rally time as the score remained the same into the top of the 9th. Mike Ford took closer Carlos Estevez deep to right field for his first home run of the season to make it 5-4. Jose Caballero then walked and stole second for his seventh stolen base to put the tying run in scoring position with nobody out. Crawford couldn’t move him over as he popped out to Rendon at third for the first out. Then, on a 2-2 pitch Julio Rodriguez watched a fastball go right down the middle for a called strike three putting the Mariners down to their last out. Ty France would give one a ride out to right center, but Mike Trout would flag it down for the final out to end the Mariner rally, giving the Angels the 5-4 win.

Seattle (30-32) will try to even up the series on Saturday at 7:07pm as Bryan Woo (0-1, 27.00 ERA) makes his second career start and hopes for more success this time around. Los Angeles (35-30) will give the ball to Patrick Sandoval (3-5, 4.14 ERA) who has not been finding much success in his last couple of starts.

Notable Performances

Mariners

• Jarred Kelenic- 1-3, HR, 2 RBI, R, BB
• Mike Ford- 1-4, HR, RBI, R
• Luis Castillo (L, 4-4)- 6 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 10 SO

Angels

• Shohei Ohtani (ND)- 5 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 6 SO, 3-4, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, R
• Mickey Moniak- 1-3, HR, 2 RBI, R
• Anthony Rendon- 1-3, 2B, 2 R, HBP

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