Los Angeles

Angels

Urena gave up just three hard-hit balls tonight, but one of those was a 111-mph homer. The bigger problem, though, was that he was simply all over the place. He now has a 13/10 K/BB over 11 1/3 innings in his four appearances this season. The Angels might send him down after this, especially since they won’t need a fifth starter next time through the rotation.

Ouch. Brought in with the Angels down 8-0. Romano gave up a single, a double, a walk, another single and a HBP before being pulled. Second baseman Adam Frazier replaced him before his pitch count could get too high and, as you might imagine, allowed both inherited runners to score. Just one of the three hits against Romano came in a hard-hit ball. It wasn’t the nightmare performance that the line suggests, but that doesn’t change the fact that his ERA now stands at 10.13. He’s still probably the favorite for saves in the Angels pen for now, but it wouldn’t take much at all to change that.

He was hit by a foul tip. This sounds like a day-to-day situation, but since the Angels don’t have much flexibility to send down someone and add a third catcher, they’ll probably put O’Hoppe on the IL if they think he’ll be unavailable for more than a day or two. Travis d’Arnaud replaced O’Hoppe, who was 0-for-3 on the night.

Grissom had the Angels’ only two extra-base hits of the night, with both doubles coming off Royals starter Noah Cameron. Grissom’s double in the seventh inning would kick-start the best offensive inning for the Angels on the night, and he eventually came around to score three batters later thanks to an RBI single by Zach Neto. These doubles were the first extra-base hits of the season for Grissom, who isn’t known for his power. There’s nothing to get too excited about here.

Kikuchi’s record now sits at 0-3 on the season. The veteran lefty got off to a strong start in this one, retiring the side in order in the first inning while keeping the Royals off the board until the fourth. Things came apart in the fourth frame for Kikuchi after he allowed two of the first three batters he faced to reach base, which led to Bobby Witt Jr. scoring on a fielder’s choice. The Royals would then string together four straight hits, including back-to-back doubles, to push their lead to 5-0. Kikuchi would pitch a scoreless fifth before exiting, but the damage had already been done. He’ll have a good chance to pick up his first win of the season next Wednesday when he takes the mound against the White Sox.

Moncada, a switch-hitter, has now found himself on the bench against three straight left-handers in favor of Oswald Peraza. If he’s now in a platoon situation, expect him to also sit out on Saturday against Cole Ragans. Otherwise, it’s possible that he’s dealing with an underlying physical issue. Fantasy managers may want to get him out of lineups for the weekend if possible.

Yates threw 11 of his 16 pitches for strikes, but both of the hits off of him were hard hits. He was also sitting 90.2 mph on his four-seam fastball, which is 2.6 mph down from where he was last season. It’s still early in his rehab, but he may need a few more outings to get back to a place where we can consider using him in fantasy leagues.

Schanuel, who is getting over an ankle problem that was bothering him earlier this month, is hitting a middling .239/.308/.380, but he’s up to 18 RBI in 23 games on the season. He’s already one-third of the way to his totals of 54 RBI in 147 games in 2024 and 53 in 132 games last year. There should be some mixed-league value here now that he’s back playing every day.

Soriano exited with a 3-0 lead after 84 pitches, but it disappeared in the top of the seventh before the Angels came right back with four in the bottom of the inning. So, no win for Soriano. He did bring his ERA down from 0.28 to 0.24. He settled for four strikeouts, but he generated 16 whiffs. He walked none and gave up just four hard-hit balls. He’ll face the White Sox next week.

Romano gave up two well-struck singles, but he also struck out two before getting Ernie Clement to ground out to end the game. Romano hasn’t had a save chance since blowing two games against the Yankees last week, but he has bounced back with two scoreless innings, striking out five of the eight batters he’s faced.