ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Angels faced a left-handed pitcher for the sixth time this season, and Jared Walsh assumed what has become an all-too-familiar position — a spot on the bench for Friday night’s game against the Baltimore Orioles, the fifth straight game he did not start against a lefty.
So, the Angels first baseman marched into the manager’s office, reminded Joe Maddon of his All-Star credentials and the .277 average, .850 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 29 homers and 98 RBIs he compiled last season and demanded to be inserted in the lineup, right?
“No, no, no, I’m trying to stay out of trouble,” the left-handed-hitting Walsh said with a hearty laugh before a 5-3 loss to the Orioles before a crowd of 31,679 in Angel Stadium. “If I make it an issue, it’s an issue, so it falls on me.
“I have the right attitude, and I’m a firm believer in that it’s all gonna work out in the end. I can’t control it. I don’t write the lineup. I respect management’s decision. I come in and bust my butt.”
As good as Walsh was in 2021, he hit .170 with a .565 OPS against lefties, a big reason the right-handed-hitting Matt Duffy (first base) and Jack Mayfield (second base) started against Orioles lefty Bruce Zimmermann Friday night.
Both entered with .400 averages and two RBIs against left-handers this season, Duffy going six for 15 and Mayfield four for 10. The Angels also lost the one game Walsh started against a lefty, the April 7 season opener against Houston, and won the next four games Walsh didn’t start against a lefty.
“For now,” Maddon said before the game, “it’s working too well to mess with.”
It did not work well for most of Friday night. Zimmermann, mixing a 91-mph fastball with a changeup, curve and slider, held the Angels to two earned runs and five hits over six innings, striking out slugger Shohei Ohtani three times, and the Orioles backed their solid pitching with four double plays.
Baltimore took a 2-0 lead off Angels starter Reid Detmers in the second when, with runners on second and third and the infield shifted to the left side, Robinson Chirinos grounded a two-run single through a vacated second-base spot.
Right-hander Archie Bradley relieved Detmers in the sixth and gave up four straight singles to Trey Mancini, Ryan Mountcastle, Anthony Santander and Austin Hays. Santander’s infield hit scored a run, and Ramon Urias and Chirinos knocked in runs with groundouts to give Baltimore a 5-0 lead.
The Angels cut the deficit to 5-1 in the sixth when Max Stassi singled, took second on an error, third on Jo Adell’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Andrew Velazquez’s sacrifice fly.
Mike Trout led off the seventh with a walk, and Anthony Rendon drove a 2-and-2 changeup from Zimmermann over the left-center field wall for a two-run homer to pull the Angels to within 5-3.
Right-hander Felix Bautista replaced Zimmermann and got Taylor Ward to fly to the wall in center. Duffy singled to left-center. Walsh, representing the tying run, hit for Mayfield but tapped out to first. Stassi popped out to first to end the inning.
The Angels threatened again in the eighth when Velazquez reached on a one-out infield single, but Ohtani hit a 103-mph one-hopper right at Urias, and the second baseman started an inning-ending double play.
Walsh, who is two for eight against lefties this season, believes he’ll get better “with more at-bats, more reps,” against left-handers, but the only way for him to improve is to face them more often, and he can’t do that from the bench.
“You’re right — how do you get better if you don’t do it?” Maddon said. “But then you have Matt Duffy or Jack Mayfield sitting on the bench. Isn’t it a wiser thing to do, in the short term, (to play them)? Jared will keep getting better with it. He’ll still get opportunities. But right now, we have the right personnel mix.”
—Short hops
Infielder David Fletcher, sidelined for 10 days by a left-hip strain, started a rehabilitation assignment with triple-A Salt Lake on Friday and went hitless in five at-bats as the designated hitter. When Fletcher, who started four of the team’s first five games at shortstop, returns, Maddon said he will play “more second base than he had before,” a nod to Velazquez’s superb defense at shortstop in Fletcher’s absence. ... Maddon said he would not have pulled Ohtani from a perfect game, but his leash on the right-hander, who retired 16 straight batters to open Wednesday’s game before giving up a one-out single to Jason Castro, was not limitless. Ohtani exited after six innings and 81 pitches.
