Angels defeat Shohei Ohtani and rival Dodgers, but they aspire for much more
The Dodgers entered the weekend with the best record in the National League. The Angels are last in the American League West.
The Dodgers are the reigning World Series champions. The Angels have made the playoffs just once since 2010.
Clearly there’s more than 30 miles of freeway separating the two teams. So you’d think the Angels would look at this weekend’s Freeway Series as a chance to measure themselves against the best.
But Angels manager Ron Washington was having none of it.
“I don’t think like that,” he said testily. “We all know to get to that level, that’s when you become a championship team. So I’m not going to stick it to my players by saying that, ‘you know, we need to be at the level’.
“We don’t have what they’ve got over there. It’s easy for them to stay at that level. We have to compete at the level of talent that we have and grow from there.”
In that case, Washington’s team did a lot of competing and growing Friday when right-hander Jack Kochanowicz pitched the Angels to a 6-2 win over the Dodgers in the first regular-season meeting of the season between the Southern California rivals.
The night before the Dodgers (29-16) had scored 19 runs. Against the Angels they had just seven hits — while hitting into five double plays, matching a franchise record.
“That’s baseball,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said with a shrug.
As Washington spoke from his seat in the Angels dugout before the series opener, Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts, who have four MVPs awards between them, took batting practice. Only two players in Washington’s lineup had even made an All-Star team.
So if the Angels (18-25) aren’t at that level, what level are they at?
“We should be at least fighting for a chance in the middle of the pack,” Washington said. “But the injuries and the people that we lost and the things that’s been happening with our youth, just got us where we are.
“The day will come,” he added. “that we can get to that level where I feel like we can compete for a championship.”
The Dodgers are already at that level, of course. They lead the majors in hitting (.271), slugging (.479), OPS (.825) and runs (259). Ohtani hit his MLB-leading 16th home run Friday.
And the team, Roberts said, isn’t even complete yet. Clayton Kershaw returns from the injured list Saturday, but they’re still missing starters Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki, outfielder Teoscar Hernández and infielder Tommy Edman.
