Angels power up in 5-1 victory over Mariners in home opener
The Angels’ plan to win won’t always work, but when it does, this is how they’ll do it. Their elite defense elevated their middling starting pitching, their unproven bullpen bent but did not rupture, and the talented offense did enough to endure. Facing their first opponent of the season projected to be better than they are, the Angels toppled Seattle, 5-1, in their home opener Friday night at Angel Stadium.
Jesse Chavez pitched effectively for 5 2/3 innings, Cameron Maybin and Kole Calhoun homered, and the Angels improved to 3-2, best in the American League West (along with Houston) at this early stage in a 162-game season.
“We played a good game,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We didn’t play a perfect game, but we played really good defense early. We scratched out a couple runs and we kept going.”
Chavez’s career earned-run averages by month are either encouraging or depressing, depending how much value is placed on the present. He entered Friday night with a 2.60 ERA in April. That mark rises to 3.69 in May, 4.56 in June, and 5.79 in July. There’s a respite in August, down to 4.82, but in September it ascends all the way to 6.27.
Signed to a one-year, incentive-laden deal in November, he opened 2017 as the Angels’ fifth starter. At 6 feet 2 and a listed 175 pounds, there is a reason he’s never completed a full season as a starting pitcher. He is aware of the common criticism, of his body’s frailty and his corresponding inability to handle a starter’s workload. He’s intent on adjusting the narrative, but that’ll take all year to correct.
Until then, there’s April. And on Friday night he was as good as he usually is in the opening month. Chavez walked Seattle’s leadoff batter, former Angels prospect Jean Segura, then retired six consecutive Mariners, then allowed a single to Mike Zunino, then retired 11 consecutive Mariners. He pitched efficiently, benefiting from the elite defense assembled behind him.
In the second inning alone, Maybin saved a single with a sliding snag of Kyle Seager’s drive to left field, and first baseman C.J. Cron prevented a double with his stop of a Jarrod Dyson grounder earmarked for the right-field line.
So, Chavez marched into the sixth inning unscathed, and leading 2-0, until Mitch Haniger, Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz all singled in a span of seven pitches, making it 2-1. With the tying run on third base, Scioscia decided Chavez’s night was done. But he didn’t have a reliever ready, so he had to stall. Chavez threw to first, and eventually Scioscia emerged, held a meeting at the mound, and called in left-hander Jose Alvarez.
Alvarez jogged in, completed his warmup, and fired three pitches toward the outside edge of the plate and just below the zone. Seager struck out and Alvarez slammed his fist into his glove.
Bud Norris entered for the seventh and yielded a second-pitch single to Danny Valencia and hit Jarrod Dyson in the ankle with a pitch. But he struck out Zunino and induced back-to-back grounders shortstop Andrelton Simmons turned into outs.
The Angels scored a run in the first and another in the third. Both times, there were two men on for Mike Trout. He produced a sacrifice fly and was intentionally walked.
Maybin led off the sixth with home run to right-center, at the outer edge of the imaginary band over the middle of the field in which he envisions hitting every pitch he sees. That’s where his power is best found, Maybin believes. The approach prevents him from jumping too eagerly at a pitch that appeals to him.
After Yunel Escobar hit his third single of the night in the seventh, Calhoun launched a two-run homer to right field. Mariners reliever Casey Fien hung him a slider. Before Calhoun’s strike, Cam Bedrosian was warming in the Angels’ bullpen, apparently to handle the Mariners’ vaunted Nos. 2-4 hitters in the eighth inning.
When the Angels’ lead doubled, Bedrosian sat down, and right-hander Andrew Bailey began to warm. He handled the eighth inning without trouble. Blake Parker pitched the ninth.
Follow Pedro Moura on Twitter @pedromoura
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