New Angels manager Joe Maddon was barely wiped out by a 60-game pandemic-shortened schedule that included six games – one-tenth of the season – against seven-time National League West champion Dodgers, who is out of a franchise -record 106 came -win season.
“I love that our schedule is considered difficult – that’s how you get better,” Maddon said for the season. “I always said you have to hit the best to become the best.”
It was clear after the first of two Freeway Series that the Angels did not measure up to the Dodgers, who completed a three-game sweep with an 8-3 victory over a staggering 93-degree Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium.
In fact, the gap between the teams could be as wide as that between Santa Clarita and San Clemente.
The Dodgers have superior rotation and better young pitching, a more dominant bullpen, a more powerful lineup – even though the Angels lead the American League in home games and have three-time AL valuable player Mike Trout – and a deeper and more talented pitching system.
All were seen Sunday, when Keibert Ruiz, the highly regarded Dodgers who got a chance, produced a home game with his first major league game, a solo to right field in the third inning, making him the seventh player in the franchise history was around homer in its first appearance of the big league record.
Dustin May, the 22-year-old right-hander with the shock of flaming red hair and sizzling 98-mph fastball, left two runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings, two hits and no runs, and relief Brusdar Graterol, Scott Alexander and Dennis Santana combined to allow one run in 4 2/3 innings.
Max Muncy continued to emerge from a funk with an early season with a two-run homer to right center in the third, Corey Seager grabbed a fourth run with a three-run shot to the right, and Matt Beaty hit a solo shot to right in the sixth, giving the Dodgers a big league-high 43 homers, including 14 in their last 37 innings.
The Dodgers’ first sweep game in Anaheim improved their NL best record to 16-7. The Angels (7-15) have the third worst record in the AL and have agreed to their worst 22-game start in club history, set in 1976 and 2012.
“At the moment they are better than us, there is no question of that,” Maddon said. ‘We need to get better. They beat us in the first place with pitching. They have a nice group on the field, but I love our group on the field as well. We will play again this year and see where we are at the end of the season. “
Dodgers reliever Dennis Santana smashed during an 8-3 victory over the Angels on Sunday.
(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)
The Dodgers won the series opener 7-4 on Friday. They won a 6-5, 10-inning game on Saturday, with Muncy hitting a game-winning sacrificial fly in the 10th and Kenley Jansen pulling the side back in order at the bottom of the inning, and knocking out Trout in search of three straight lanes to end the game.
The Dodgers, after seeing the Angels take a 1-0 lead in the second, bid Sunday to extend their winning streak to five.
Homers by Ruiz and Muncy – his fifth of the season – off Angels starter Julio Tehran gave the Dodgers a 3-1 lead in the third. Seager followed Mookie Betts’ run-scoring single in the fourth by hooking his fifth homer of the season to Angels reliever Matt Andriese for a 7-1 lead.
Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon hit his fifth homer in six games, a solo shot to center in the fourth, and Brian Goodwin added a solo shot in the sixth. But Muncy, who moved from second base to third in the second inning, helped stop potential rallies by starting crisp double plays in the sixth and seventh innings.
“It’s encouraging,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts about his team’s late game. ‘And not just the gains we’ve made together, it’s how we’ve done it. I think it was not synchronized at first in the season, which is understandable. But this past week it seemed collective, all 28 players playing as one. If we do that, we can be pretty good. ”
Short hop
David Fletcher’s fifth straight single to center extended his hit streak to 15 games, the longest by an Angels player since Trout hit 17 straight in 2017. … Slumping players Albert Pujols and Justin Upton were not in the lineup for a second straight game, he marked the first time in Pujols’ nine-year Angels career, he did not start two games in a row when he not suffering from an injury. Pujols, 40, is batting .186 (11 for 59) with a .594 on-base-plus-slugging percentage and three homers in 15 games. Upton, 32, pitched .107 (six for 56) with a .405 OPS and two homers in 16 games. … The Angels flip-flopped Dylan Bundy and Griffin Canning in rotation this week to give Bundy an extra day of rest after throwing 16 innings, including a full game, into his last two starters. Canning will begin Monday night against the San Francisco Giants on regular rest and Bundy will begin Tuesday. … Catcher Jason Castro missed his second straight game due to neck stiffness.
Highlights of the Dodgers’ 8-3 victory over the Angels on Sunday.
Three observations about the Angels
- Jo Adell is still looking for his first homer of the big league, but the right feeler of the rookie made solid contact. producing four belts with exit speeds exceeding 100 mph, a 106.3-mph single to second base, an 111.5-mph single to right field, a 115.5-mph single to left v – the 10th hardest hit of 2020, according to Statcast – and a 101.4-mph flying to the right field.
- Adell also flashed his five-tool potential with a strong throw to second base to nail Matt Beaty, who tried to stretch a two-out single to right-center after a double in the second. The yard saved a run, as Beaty was marked before Edwin Rios, who was jogging home from second onwards due to a left hamstring injury he appeared on a double, crossed the plate.
- Administrator Joe Maddon said before the game Julio Tehran was still “caught” after being slowed down by the coronavirus in July. The veteran right-hander won no ground, giving up four runs and six hits, including third-place homers to Keibert Ruiz and Max Muncy, in 3 1/3 innings, three outings and one run. His ERA after three starts: 12.38.
Three observations about the Dodgers
- Dustin May showed a rather little-used change on Sunday, effectively mixing in the field during a 41/3 inning, with two runs. In 18 previous MLB appearances, the hard-throwing right-hander used the change only seven times. But on Sunday, he threw it on 12 occasions, causing three swings and misses and one strikeout.
- Corey Seager recorded his first multi-hit game since returning from a back injury Thursday, collecting his fifth home team and 13th RBI of the season, while raising his batting average to .294, second-best on the team behind Mookie Betts.
- Brusdar Graterol got two key outs in a fifth-inning relief appearance against the Angels’ two biggest hitters, and got Mike Trout to line up and induce a field goal field choice against Anthony Rendon to become the runner who he inherited from May to strangle.
