St. Louis Cardinals @ Los Angeles Angels
We open with an interleague series against the 2021 A.L. West champs (84-79). It’s our misfortune to face two of MLB’s best pitchers (Strasburg and Wiener) right off the bat, but we were bound to see somebody’s ace. The Opening Day pairing of Odorizzi and Strasburg is a marquee matchup.
04/04/2022 (G001): LAA 1, STL 0
WP: Strasburg (1-0), LP: Odorizzi (0-1)
HR: LAA – Ramsey (1)
Stephen Strasburg shut out the Cardinals on 7 hits, striking out 11 while walking none. Jake Odorizzi allowed a solo homer by James Ramsey in the 5th inning to account for all of the scoring in the game. Odorizzi also went all the way, allowing 6 hits and striking out 8 without a walk.
04/05/2022 (G002): LAA 11, STL 1
WP: Wiener (1-0), LP: Walker (0-1)
HR: LAA – Espinosa (1), Cecchini (1), Lopez (1)
The Angels jumped on starter Taijuan Walker for six runs in the first four innings, and went on to a blowout 11-1 win in game 2 of the series. Danny Espinosa put the game out of reach with a grand slam in the 5th off reliever Wayne Conley, who was making his major league debut. Angels RF Armando Lopez was 2-3 with a HR. David Wiener went 8 innings for the win, allowing only 4 hits.
04/06/2022 (G003): LAA 3, STL 1 (11)
WP: Gray (1-0), LP: Montgomery (0-1)
HR: LAA – McKinney (1)
Travis McKinney’s walk-off home run in the 11th gave the Angels a sweep over visiting St. Louis. A.J. Schugel held the Cardinals to 1 run over 8 innings, scattering 8 hits and 3 walks while striking out 7. St. Louis wasted a great performance by starting pitcher Jose Flores, who went 8 2/3 innings and allowed just 1 run.
An observation: Lack of timely hitting is a serious concern. We had the potential winning run on second with no outs in the 10th inning of game three, and stranded him with three strikeouts. We left 18 men on base over the three games, many of those in scoring position. It goes without saying that scoring less than one run per game is unacceptable.