Angels Lose A Tough Pitchers Duel, 2-1, As they Waste Fine Substitute Start By Urena

The Los Angeles Angels dropped the rubber game of their three-game set against the San Diego Padres, 2-1, as they wasted a fine start by Walbert Urena. This one started with an unexpected change by the Angels, who made Reid Detmers a late scratch as they called up Walbert Urena from Triple-A Salt Lake to make a surprise start. The Angels didn’t completely reveal why they made the move before the game, but Detmers threw seven shutouts against the Yankees last week, so it may have been just to give him an extra day of rest.

Whatever the reason, the move worked. Urena gave the Angels six  strong innings, although Suzuki did make the mistake of running him back out for the seventh even though the young pitcher was clearly gassed. The Padres did score first  as Xander Bogaerts drove home Fernando Tatis Jr.

with an RBI single in the fourth inning. Their second run scored on an RBI single by Bryce Johnson, but reliever Sam Bachman managed to rescue Urena from further damage to keep the count at 2-0. Michael King spun the shutout for Padres for the first five innings as he allowed one hit.

King did walk four, but the Angels were unable to capitalize. Rod Marinaccio followed with a scoreless inning despite walking two, but the Angels finally broke through against Kyle Hart, with Zach Neto driving in the run on a groundout to short to make it 2-1. The Angels couldn’t add more against Padres reliever Bradgley Rodriguez, despite the fact that they were able to get the tying run to third.