The Angels have made it no secret that they are monitoring the workload of Heaney, who has thrown a combined 129 2/3 innings for Triple-A Salt Lake and Los Angeles this season.Danks suffered his first loss since June 22 despite permitting just three runs on five hits in six innings of a 3-2 setback to Kansas City on Friday.
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But where other Rodon starts might have gone astray, this is where his dominance on Tuesday began. Rodon struck out Mike Trout and Albert Pujols, before getting Erick Aybar to fly out to left and end the inning. Shoemaker hadn’t allowed a run in his previous three starts, which made him just the third pitcher in Angels history to post that many scoreless outings in a row with at least seven strikeouts in each start.
It looked as if the mere task of facing Trout is what locked in Rodon for the rest of the night. Joe Torre and Jim Leyland, representing Major League Baseball, visited with the Angels on Tuesday to deliver an update on various topics, including baseball’s use of instant replay. “Hats off to him”.
“My whole focus is to go out there and put up zeros”, Shoemaker said. Melky Cabrera hit a two-run double to left-center in the fourth, and Trayce Thompson, the former Santa Margarita High standout and brother of Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson, hit his first career homer, a solo shot to center, in the fifth.
Abreu saved a run by ranging right to glove Trout’s grounder, but Alexei Ramirez dropped the throw for an inexplicable E-6 to load the bases. “I’ve been working on that”, Garcia said.
“It was amusing”, Thompson said. 389 (7-for-18) with a home run over his last six games. “But, yeah, it was just nice to help the team and contribute”.
Sale was back in All-Star form, and Avisail Garcia homered twice to drive in four runs as the Chicago White Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels 8-2. Below average play has been the norm lately for the Chicago pitchers.
“[Rodon] is a top three pick in the nation, and everyone knows about him; he was drafted third for a reason last summer”, Thompson said. It’s just one of them days. He’s fantastic. “It doesn’t really change how 25 guys in (the clubhouse) and the coaching staff goes about their business. And Carlos Sanchez, we played every single stop together, so it’s fun to do this with them”. Dating to May 18, 2013, Los Angeles has won seven of its last eight games vs. Chicago. And in Thompson’s case, they know how to give credit the right way, as well. “Everything was painted. He got me 0-2 right away and from there I was on the defensive”. “It’s been a lot of fun, for sure”.
That wasn’t enough to prevent the Angels from losing their eighth straight on the road, their longest streak since dropping nine in July 1993.
“It’s big”, manager Robin Ventura said.
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“I think early on, he was hitting the ball better than some of his numbers showed”, Scioscia said. Guys respond to that. “The best way to look at things is to make as good a decision as you can at the time, based on the information you have at that time”.
