ANAHEIM — Perry Minasian is correct when he says that “good teams, teams that have been playoff teams in the past, go through stretches” like the brutal whiff-a-thon the Angels have been mired in for three weeks.
But it seemed like a false equivalence for the general manager to use San Diego’s recent four-game losing streak or Atlanta’s season-opening seven-game losing skid compared to the Angels’ recent struggles, as Minasian did this weekend.
The Braves have made the playoffs for seven straight years, a stretch that included two 100-win seasons and a World Series title in 2021. The Padres have made the playoffs in three of the past five years. Both teams’ rosters are filled with established veterans with proven track records.
In other words, they are everything these relatively young Angels, who lost a franchise-record 99 games last season and appear no closer to ending their 10-year playoff drought, are not.
The Angels lost 15 of 19 games entering Saturday night’s game against the Detroit Tigers, scoring just 46 runs, an average of 2.4 runs per game, and batting .194 with a .574 OPS, 198 strikeouts and 29 walks in 645 plate appearances during the stretch.
They’ve shown some power, ranking fifth in baseball with 44 homers, but they entered Saturday ranked last in on-base percentage (.268) and walks (67), second-to-last in average (.213) and 25th in strikeouts (296).
Only three players in a lineup that is in desperate need of left-handed-hitting pop – catcher Logan O’Hoppe (.280, nine homers, 15 RBIs), outfielder Jorge Soler (.243, six homers, 13 RBIs) and shortstop Zach Neto (.283, three homers, six RBIs in 12 games) – are having decent seasons.
And the Angels will have to play at least another week without their best hitter, Mike Trout, who was placed on the 10-day injured list on Friday because of a bone bruise in his left knee.
“Teams go through stretches where they don’t swing the bat well, and when you don’t swing the…
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