Angels

The deeper he wades into the conversation, the deeper Al Michaels is transported back in time, 35 years doing nothing to dull the memory of that warm Sunday afternoon in Anaheim, where the Angels and Boston Red Sox staged one of the most thrilling and head-spinning 75 minutes of October baseball ever.

“To this day, man, I can still feel everything,” Michaels, now 76, said in a recent phone interview. “That freaking game … I mean, the drama from the top of the ninth inning through the bottom of the 11th was just insane.”

One strike away from delivering the Angels to their first World Series, closer Donnie Moore gave up a crowd-silencing, two-run homer to Dave Henderson in Game 5 of the 1986 American League Championship Series, a dagger that capped a stunning, four-run ninth inning and gave the Red Sox a one-run lead.

Dave Henderson watches the flight of his ninth-inning homer that put Boston ahead of the Angels, 6-5 in Anaheim, Oct. 12, 1986.

(Jim Gerberich / Associated Press)

The Angels rallied to tie it in the bottom of the ninth and had the bases loaded with one out, needing only a sacrifice fly or well-placed grounder to restore the full-throated roar to an Anaheim Stadium crowd of 64,223. Two of their top hitters, Doug DeCinces and Bobby Grich, failed to bring home the winning run.

Boston left fielder Jim Rice made a game-saving catch of a Gary Pettis drive at the wall to end the 10th inning, and Henderson’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the 11th gave the Red Sox a 7-6 comeback victory.

The shellshocked Angels barely put up a fight in Games 6 and 7 losses in Fenway Park. Three-and-a-half decades later, however, it’s Game 5 that still eats at the left-hander who got the final out in the top of the 11th inning but had been bypassed for another southpaw for a key at-bat in the ninth.

“You can’t get any closer,” former Angels pitcher Chuck Finley said. “You almost feel like you can touch it. When you have something in your hands, it’s almost like you were pick-pocketed.”

Tuesday, Oct. 12, marks the 35th anniversary of the most devastating loss in Angels history, 3 hours and 54 minutes of twists and turns that played out like a Shakespearean tragedy.

This is a look back at Game 5 through the eyes of a 23-year-old rookie reliever on that team and a Hall-of-Fame broadcaster who ranks the game just behind the “Miracle on Ice,” the U.S. hockey team’s upset of the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics, on his list of greatest sporting events he’s called.

PROLOGUE

The 1986 Angels, managed by 60-year-old Gene Mauch, were an eclectic mix of crusty veterans, eager youngsters and a sprinkling of players in their prime.

The lineup included designated hitter Reggie Jackson (40), catcher Bob Boone (38), second baseman Grich (37), third baseman DeCinces (35), outfielders George Hendrick (36) and Brian Downing (35) and infielder Rick Burleson (35).

The kids were first baseman Wally Joyner (24) and shortstop Dick Schofield (23).

Don Sutton (41) was the dean of a rotation that included 25-year-old right-handers Mike Witt and Kirk McCaskill. Terry Forster (34) was the elder in the bullpen. Finley was called up from Class-A Quad Cities in late May and saw a blend of personalities and temperaments that was borderline toxic.

Chuck Finley of the Angels pitches during a game circa 1988 in Anaheim, California.

(Rick Stewart/Getty Images)

“It was almost like a Desperate Housewives for Men the whole year,” said Finley, who lives in Newport Beach and does charity work for the team. “That clubhouse was a mess. Guys were just fighting all the time. There was so much pressure on Gene just to keep that team together.”

Finley recalled the team bus ride in which Moore, angered after being told Mauch had called a workout for an off day, hurled a piece of fruit at the skipper, only to have it splatter on the windshield of the bus. Players could be prickly with the media. And each other.

“It was a mixed bag of nuts,” Finley said. “It was like going to a bar and they give you that bowl. Some are a little sweet, some are a little sour, some are a little salty, but you just keep putting your hands in there and eating it, you know?”

The clubhouse tension, however, did not affect their performance. The Angels went 23-25 in April and May but caught fire in June, going 69-45 over the final four months to finish at 92-70. They sealed the division title with a 21-5 run from Aug. 24 through Sept. 22.

Joyner (.290, 22 homers, 100 RBIs), DeCinces (.256, 26, 96) and Downing (.267, 20, 95) paced the offense. Witt (18-10, 2.84 ERA, 208 strikeouts), McCaskill (17-10, 3.36, 202) and Sutton (15-11, 3.74) led the rotation.

Angels relief pitcher Donnie Moore.

(Charles Bernhardt / Allsport)

Moore fought through shoulder and rib-cage injuries to go 4-5 with a 2.97 ERA and 21 saves in 49 games, and Doug Corbett (4-2, 3.66 ERA in 46 games), Forster (4-1, 3.15 in 41 games) and left-hander Gary Lucas (4-1, 3.15 in 27 games) were reliable in relief.

“Man, once that national anthem was played, it was just true professionalism,” said Finley, who went 3-1 with a 3.30 ERA in 25 games after his summer call-up. “Those guys knew how to win.”

PENNANT FEVER

The Angels closed the season at Texas and flew to Boston to start the ALCS. Two sloppy, half-well-pitched games yielded two lopsided scores. Witt threw a complete game in an 8-1 Game 1 victory, and Red Sox left-hander Bruce Hurst threw one in Boston’s 9-2 Game 2 win.

The series shifted to Anaheim, where the Angels scored three seventh-inning runs in a 5-3 Game 3 victory and rallied in Game 4 for three ninth-inning runs off Roger Clemens, with DeCinces (homer) and Pettis (RBI double) providing the big blows, in a 4-3, 11-inning win.

The Angels were up 3-1 in the series.

A sense of anticipation filled Anaheim Stadium the next day when the teams met at high noon under sunny, 80-degree skies. The Angels started Witt, their best pitcher. Hurst started for the Red Sox on three days’ rest.

But across the 57 Freeway in a St. Joseph’s Hospital bed sat Joyner, the Angels’ rookie-of-the-year candidate who had a staph infection in his right shin and would watch the game on a 19-inch TV. (That was a fairly big size in those days, kids.)

Grich moved from second base to first, and Burleson started at second. The Red Sox took a 2-0 lead when Rich Gedman, their left-handed-hitting catcher, lined a two-run homer just inside the right-field foul pole in the second inning. Boone’s solo shot to left made it 2-1 in the third.

Grich followed DeCinces’ two-out double in the sixth with a drive to deep center, where Henderson, who had replaced injured starter Tony Armas in the fifth, nearly made a leaping catch on the warning track.

But Henderson’s momentum sent him smashing into the fence, and his left arm hit the top of the wall. The ball squirted out of his glove and over the fence for a two-run homer and a 3-2 Angels lead, which Anaheim increased to 5-2 in the seventh on Rob Wilfong’s pinch-hit RBI double and Downing’s sacrifice fly off reliever Bob Stanley.

Witt, meanwhile, was cruising. He took a six-hitter into the ninth with three of the hits — the second-inning homer, a fifth-inning double and seventh-inning single — coming off the bat of Gedman, who was due up fifth in the inning. With that in mind, Mauch had Lucas warming up alongside Moore as the inning began. Lucas had struck out Gedman twice during the season and again the night before.

An interview platform was constructed in the Angels clubhouse. Clear plastic wrapping was draped over each locker to protect against the anticipated fusillade of champagne. Officers on horseback gathered in the bullpen. California Highway Patrol officers manned the dugouts.

In a 1987 story about the game, former Times staff writer Mike Penner wrote that Jackson walked over to congratulate Mauch, who was on the verge of finally shedding his reputation as the best manager to never win a pennant. But Mauch kept staring ahead from the third-base dugout, watching Witt warm up for the ninth.

“It isn’t over yet,” Mauch said quietly.

“It had merely begun,” Penner wrote.

HEARTBREAK HILL

Bill Buckner opened the ninth with a ground-ball single to center, just beyond the reach of a diving Schofield. Dave Stapleton came on to pinch-run. Rice struck out looking.

Up stepped Don Baylor, the former Angels designated hitter who led the team to its first two playoff appearances in 1979 and 1982. Witt thought he struck out Baylor with a 2-and-2 curve on the inside corner, but umpire Rocky Roe called it a ball.

Witt’s full-count offering was another breaking ball, this one down and away, a pitch Witt later said he “would throw him 100 out of 100 times, and I guarantee you he wouldn’t hit a home run.” Baylor yanked it over the left-field fence for a two-run homer to cut the lead to 5-4.

Dwight Evans popped out to third for the second out. Pitching coach Marcel Lachemann went to the mound and raised his left arm to summon Lucas. The crowd groaned. So did a few Angels players.

“When they took Witt out, it was like, ‘Wow,’ ” Finley said. “He was dominating that game. I know Gedman had decent numbers against him, but I thought Witt was on a roll and he’d figure out a way to get through this.”

Lucas had not hit a batter in four seasons. His first pitch rode up and in and hit Gedman on the right hand.

Out came Lachemann again to summon Moore to face Henderson, who hit .196 with one homer and three RBIs in 36 games for Boston after an August trade from Seattle.

Henderson fouled off a pair of 2-and-2 pitches, a split-fingered pitch and fastball. Moore, whose shoulder was so sore he took a cortisone injection after the game, threw another splitter on the outer half, but this one tumbled instead of breaking sharply toward the dirt.

Henderson reached out and swatted a high fly to left. Four steps out of the box, he leaped high into the air. Finley, from the right-field bullpen, had a perfect view of the ball’s flight. He knew from the sound of the bat, the arc of the ball and the atmospheric conditions, this was not good.

“I watched it come off the bat and went, ‘Oh, sh–,’ because it was a day game and the ball flies,” Finley said. “Then I saw [Henderson] jump and went, ‘Uh-oh.’ We’re one strike away from going to the World Series and boom, that ball goes flying out, and that stadium went silent.”

Michaels called Henderson’s homer “unbelievable” and “astonishing” on the broadcast. Henderson floated around the bases and was greeted by jubilant teammates in the dugout.

Dave Henderson, left, and Rich Gedman of the Red Sox cheer after Henderson’s ninth-inning homer gave Boston a one-run lead in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS against the Angels.

(Reed Saxon / Associated Press)

“Anaheim Stadium was a strike away from turning into Fantasyland,” Michaels said on the air, “and now the Red Sox lead 6-5!”

Moore got Ed Romero to fly to right to end the inning. A stoic Mauch stood in the dugout, arms folded across his chest, a blank look on his face.

“He looked frozen in time,” Michaels said.

PUSH BACK

The Angels clawed back in the bottom of the ninth. Boone singled and was replaced by pinch-runner Ruppert Jones and was bunted to second by Pettis.

Red Sox manager John McNamara summoned left-hander Joe Sambito to face Wilfong, who singled sharply to right. Jones beat a one-hop throw from the strong-armed Evans with a head-first slide to the back of the plate to tie the score 6-6 and re-spark pandemonium in the stadium.

Angels baserunner Rupert Jones slides safely into home plate under the eyes of Boston Red Sox catcher Rich Gedman in the ninth inning.

(Lennox McLendon / Associated Press)

Wilfong should have advanced on the throw home but froze at first. Right-hander Steve Crawford replaced Sambito and gave up a single to right to Schofield, moving Wilfong to third. Had Wilfong taken second on the play at the plate, he likely would have scored on Schofield’s hit.

Downing was intentionally walked to load the bases to set up a force play at home. That brought DeCinces to the plate. Crawford, who was making his first appearance of the series, was so nervous he couldn’t produce any saliva to spit.

“If there was a toilet on the mound,” Crawford said after the game, “I would have used it.”

Instead, the Angels flushed an opportunity down the drain. DeCinces swung at a first-pitch fastball and flied to shallow right, Wilfong holding at third. Grich hit a soft liner that Crawford snagged to end the inning.

“I got no place to sleep tonight,” Mauch quipped after the game. “I bet my house that DeCinces would get that run in from third.”

Moore escaped a first-and-third, one-out jam in the 10th by getting Rice to ground into a double play. Crawford walked Jerry Narron with two outs in the bottom of the 10th, and the switch-hitting Pettis, with Narron running on a full-count pitch, drove a pitch to deep left.

Pettis had hit a similar ball over Rice’s head during the big ninth-inning rally the previous night, so Rice took a few steps back for this Pettis at-bat. That allowed him to make a leaping, two-hand catch near the top of the wall to rob Pettis of a game-winning double.

“He had to look in his glove to make sure he caught it,” Michaels said. “Narron was running with the 3-2 pitch, and he scores easily if Rice doesn’t catch it.”

Michaels recalled the stadium becoming “eerily quiet” as the 11th inning started.

“I remember saying on the air that the crowd is wrung out,” Michaels said. “They had been screaming for 45 minutes and were just wrung out.”

Moore hit Baylor with a pitch to open the 11th. Evans singled to center. Gedman, the unsung hero of the game, popped up a sacrifice-bunt attempt that fell in front of DeCinces for a single to load the bases with no outs.

Henderson’s sacrifice fly to center scored Baylor to give Boston a 7-6 lead. Downing made a leaping catch of Romero’s drive before slamming face-first into the wall for the second out, saving a run, maybe two. Finley replaced Moore and got Wade Boggs to ground out to second to end the inning.

Red Sox closer Calvin Schiraldi struck out Wilfong and Schofield to open the bottom of the 11th, and Downing lofted a fly ball into foul territory near first.

“Popped up … here comes Stapleton,” Michaels said on the broadcast. “Next plane to Boston!”

POSTSCRIPT

The Angels’ team flight to Boston was funereal. “It was mute,” Finley said. “Everybody was staring out the windows going, ‘What happened?’ ”

Angels pitching coach Marcel Lachemann, right, consoles relief pitcher Donnie Moore in the locker room at Fenway Park on Oct. 15, 1986. The Angels lost to the Boston Red Sox in the final game of the ALCS.

(Bob Child / Associated Press)

Run-scoring doubles by Jackson and DeCinces in the first inning of Game 6 provided some hope, which was dashed when Boston scored twice in the bottom of the first and five runs in the third in an eventual 10-4 win.

The Red Sox steamrolled the Angels 8-1 in Game 7 to reach the World Series, where they suffered their own one-strike-away collapse against the New York Mets, when Mookie Wilson’s 10th-inning grounder in Game 6 famously rolled through Buckner’s legs to allow the winning run to score. The Mets won Game 7 two nights later.

The career of Moore, who had a history of alcohol abuse and domestic violence, spiraled in the wake of Game 5. He struggled in two more injury-marred seasons with the Angels and was released by the Royals in 1989.

In July 1989, Moore had an argument with his wife, Tonya, and shot her three times with a .45 pistol in their Anaheim Hills home. While the couple’s 17-year-old daughter drove Tonya to the hospital — she survived — Moore, with two younger sons in the house, put the gun to his head and committed suicide. He was 35.

“He was a great guy, he just had some demons he couldn’t tame,” Finley said of Moore. “It’s sad the way it ended up and the way Donnie’s life ended.”

Orange County Coroner personnel remove the body of former Angels pitcher Donnie Moore from his home in Anaheim on July 18, 1989. Moore shot his wife several times, critically wounding her before turning the gun on himself.

(Alan Greth / Associated Press)

Finley can’t help but wonder if he could have ended Game 5 in the top of the ninth had he been summoned instead of fellow lefty Lucas.

“I think about it all the time,” Finley said. “I don’t know if I would have gotten Gedman out, but I’d like to have had the chance to try. Gary was kind of thumbing it. He was a finesse guy, and I was throwing pretty hard back then. But Gene wanted to go with veterans, so he made what he thought was the book move.”

Finley went on to have a stellar 17-year career, going 200-173 with a 3.85 ERA in 524 games and making five All-Star teams. But he left the Angels to sign with Cleveland in 2000, hoping for a chance to win a championship, two years before the Angels won their only World Series title in 2002.

Finley made seven playoff appearances for the Indians and St. Louis Cardinals in 2001-02 but never reached the World Series.

The closest he would come, it turned out, was with the Angels in 1986.

“I was 23, up from A-ball and one strike away from the World Series — you think it would happen every year,” Finley said. “Then you have a 17-year drought, you’re retired and you don’t have a ring … man, you get that close, it makes you appreciate how hard it is to win one.”

Vaughn Grissom drove in the tying run with a one-out double in the ninth inning and Jo Adell was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to give the Angels a 3-2 comeback win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night.

Nolan Schanuel, batting .367 since June 21, sparked the late rally with a one-out single off All-Star closer Riley O’Brien, who is tied for the National League lead with 25 saves.

Jorge Soler was hit by a pitch and Grissom sent a line drive off the right-field wall that eluded a leaping Jordan Walker. Pinch-runner Oswald Peraza scored from second base and pinch-runner Jose Siri reached third.

Josh Lowe was walked intentionally to load the bases. Adell, who homered in the third inning, took three straight balls from O’Brien (3-4) before getting plunked by the next pitch to force in the winning run.

Angels reliever José Fermín (3-1) struck out two in a scoreless ninth.

O’Brien’s fifth blown save laid to waste a strong start by St. Louis right-hander Kyle Leahy, who gave up one run and three hits in six innings. He struck out four and walked none.

Angels starter José Soriano threw his best game since early May, giving up two runs and four hits in seven innings while striking out seven and walking one.

The right-hander, who went 3-6 with a 5.15 ERA in his previous 14 starts, retired the side in order five times and became the first Angels starter to get an out in the seventh since June 16.

Walker sparked the Cardinals’ second-inning rally with a leadoff double over Lowe’s head in left field. He went to third on Lars Nootbaar’s single and scored on Nathan Church’s one-out single for a 1-0 lead.

Blaze Jordan followed with a potential inning-ending, double-play grounder to third base, but Denzer Guzman bobbled the ball and his only play was to first as Nootbaar scored for a 2-0 lead.

The Angels cut the deficit to 2-1 in the third when Adell, mired in an 0-for-24 slump that dropped his batting average to .237 entering the game, led off with his 14th homer of the season.

Up next: Cardinals LHP Matthew Liberatore (5-6, 5.00 ERA) faces Angels RHP Walbert Ureña (5-7, 2.88) on Tuesday night.

Ryan Johnson struck out five and gave up one run in five solid innings, Jorge Soler and Zach Neto delivered RBI hits and the Angels ended a four-game skid with a 3-2 win over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday.

Johnson (2-4) gave up two hits and walked three. The right-hander escaping a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the fifth when he struck out Dillon Dingler with an 82-mph sweeper. Samy Natera Jr., Chase Silseth and Sam Bachman worked scoreless innings of relief.

Ryan Zeferjahn, who gave up just two earned runs in 19 1/3 innings of his previous 18 games since June 1, gave up a homer to Riley Greene in the top of the ninth as Detroit closed within 3-2. But, Zeferjahn retired the next three batters and earned his third save.

Tigers reliever Drew Anderson (3-4) issued a pair of walks that set up the Angels’ tiebreaking rally in the fifth. Nolan Schanuel, who had three hits, singled to load the bases, and Soler followed with an RBI groundout for a 2-1 lead.

The Angels pushed the lead to 3-1 in the sixth when Oswald Peraza singled, stole second, took third on Tyler Heineman’s groundout and scored on Neto’s RBI single to right.

Detroit starter Casey Mize gave up one run and five hits in 3 1/3 innings, striking out five and walking one. He left after being struck on the left hand by a 109-mph comebacker off the bat of Jo Adell in the fourth inning.

Tigers shortstop Kevin McGonigle homered to leadoff the game. The Angels tied it at 1 in the second when Vaughn Grissom led off with a double, took third on Josh Lowe’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Peraza’s infield single.

Tarik Skubal pitched seven dominant innings, Spencer Torkelson homered twice and drove in four runs, and the Detroit Tigers cruised to a 7-0 win over the Angels on Saturday night.

Skubal, winner of the past two AL Cy Young Awards, gave up five hits and struck out nine without issuing a walk. He induced 19 swinging strikes for the third straight start. Of his 87 pitches, 60 were strikes.

The Angels (38-61) advanced only one runner to second base against the left-hander when Logan O’Hoppe and Mike Trout singled with one out in the sixth, but Skubal (6-5) got Vaughn Grissom to ground into an inning-ending double play.

The Tigers (46-52) have won 11 of 14 games and are 24-14 since June 1 to move within 5½ games of the first-place Chicago White Sox in the AL Central and 3½ games of Boston for the third AL wild card. Detroit was 22-38 and 11½ games back in the division on May 31.

It took only five batters for the Tigers to build a 4-0 lead. Kevin McGonigle opened the game with a double, Dillon Dingler was hit by a pitch, Colt Keith hit an RBI single and Torkelson crushed a three-run homer to left-center with one out.

Detroit tacked on two runs in the second after loading the bases with no outs on singles by James Outman and McGonigle and another Dingler hit by pitch, his third in two games. Keith and Riley Greene followed with sacrifice flies for a 6-0 lead.

Torkelson led the fifth with 18th homer, a 420-foot shot to center off left-hander Brent Suter for a 7-0 lead. That gave the Tigers first baseman his first multihomer game since Sept. 7, 2023, at Yankee Stadium.

Grayson Rodriguez (3-3) lasted only four innings, giving up six runs and seven hits in a shaky start that sent the last-place Angels to their fourth straight loss and 12th in 14 games.

Up next: Tigers RHP Casey Mize (4-6, 2.79 ERA) opposes RHP Ryan Johnson (1-4, 6.75) in Sunday’s series finale.

NEW YORK — Lost amid the headlines about Tarik Skubal, the Dodgers face this unexpected reality as the trade deadline looms: They would like to add a starting pitcher, but they need to add a catcher.

Will Smith has not played in six weeks. In a “best case” scenario, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Friday, Smith would miss another month.

That left Roberts to make a jolting admission, when I asked him if the team really can count on Smith returning this season.

“We don’t know,” Roberts said, “but we certainly are counting on it.”

Would it be nice for the Dodgers to get their three-time All-Star catcher back in time for October? Of course.

Should the Dodgers count on it? Of course not.

The Dodgers won’t know where Smith stands by the Aug. 3 trade deadline. That means now is the time to acquire a catching option they may or may not need later.

Dalton Rushing, the primary catcher in Smith’s absence, has a .799 OPS. Among the 24 major league catchers with at least 200 plate appearances entering play Friday, Rushing ranked fifth in OPS.

He is hitless in his last 13 at-bats. His batting average: .266 before Smith’s injury, .233 since then.

On defense, Rushing ranks next-to-last in defensive runs saved among major league catchers, ahead of only the Angels’ Logan O’Hoppe. On Friday, in the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees scored their only run on Rushing’s passed ball.

In past Octobers, the Dodgers have prioritized defense at catcher. In the 2020 World Series, Austin Barnes caught ahead of Smith in four of the six games, including the final two.

In 2025, with Smith recovering from a hand injury, Ben Rortvedt started ahead of Rushing in the Dodgers’ first four postseason games. Rortvedt was a trade deadline acquisition last summer, picked up with pitcher Paul Gervase from the Tampa Bay Rays for catcher Hunter Feduccia.

Will Smith bats for the Dodgers against the San Francisco Giants on April 22.

(Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

Rortvedt, currently playing in triple-A for the New York Mets, fits the profile of what the Dodgers need now: a defense-first catcher with major league readiness. With Smith injured, the Dodgers first tried and then cut minor league journeyman Chuckie Robinson at backup catcher. Their current backup, Eliezer Alfonso, made his major league debut in his ninth professional season; he is hitless in nine at-bats.

Could the Dodgers pursue an established catcher, say Ryan Jeffers of the Minnesota Twins or Francisco Alvarez or Luis Torrens of the New York Mets? Possible, but probably not necessary.

Rushing could be their guy. Smith could be back.

Smith has started and re-started baseball activities, only to find out that the inflamed disk in his neck flares up.

“He hasn’t been able to get over the hump,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers are trying another round of complete rest before asking him to try hitting or throwing again.

“We felt that, if he’s inactive, it gives it a good chance to get all the inflammation out, the soreness out, the pain, increase flexibility, all of it,” Roberts said. “Then he has a fighting chance to work his way back. Trying to do everything — even at a lesser dosage — just wasn’t feasible.”

Trying to trade for Skubal might not be feasible, at least so long as his Detroit Tigers remain in the American League wild-card race. The Tigers won seven of their final 10 games in the first half, and they face teams with losing records in 13 of their 16 second-half games ahead of the trade deadline, starting with the Angels this weekend in Anaheim.

The Dodgers do not need a depth starter. However, they might do well to find someone they would feel comfortable starting the third or fourth game of a playoff series, lest they count on Blake Snell (elbow) and Tyler Glasnow (back) and Shohei Ohtani (knee) all returning to the mound healthy and effective.

Important, yes. As important as another catcher, no.

For a team that will spend almost half a billion dollars on its player payroll and luxury tax this season, its most important trade deadline pickup could be a catcher making maybe $1 million.

Hao-Yu Lee lined a two-run double with two outs in the ninth inning to lift the Detroit Tigers over the Angels 2-1 on Friday night.

Detroit reliever Keider Montero (6-5) struck out five in 3⅓ scoreless innings to earn the win, getting Denzer Guzman to ground out with runners on second and third to end the game.

Tigers third baseman Kevin McGonigle preserved the lead when he leaped to grab Oswald Peraza’s high chopper behind the bag with two on and made a long throw to first for the second out of the ninth.

Angels reliever Kirby Yates (0-5) hit a batter with a pitch to open the top of the ninth, walked another with one out and got Kerry Carpenter to fly to shallow left field for the second out. But the right-hander couldn’t put away Lee, whose clutch hit gave Detroit (45-52) its 10th win in 13 games.

Angels starter Reid Detmers, a top target of contenders looking to acquire a starter before the Aug. 3 trade deadline, gave up four hits, struck out seven and walked none in six shutout innings, effectively mixing his 95-mph fastball with an 86-mph slider and 72-mph slow curve.

Ryan Zeferjahn retired the side in order in the seventh, and Sam Bachman struck out three of four batters in a scoreless eighth for the Angels, who have lost 11 of 13.

Tigers starter Troy Melton, a 25-year-old right-hander who attended nearby Anaheim Canyon High School, gave up one run and four hits in 5⅔ innings. He struck out nine and walked four in his first appearance at Angel Stadium.

Zach Neto‘s leadoff single and two walks loaded the bases for the Angels (38-60) in the first inning, and Josh Lowe drove in Neto with a grounder to second.

Before the game, the Angels announced they signed first-round draft pick Jared Grindlinger, a two-way standout from nearby Huntington Beach High School who will start his pro career as an outfielder.

Up next: Tigers LHP Tarik Skubal (5-5, 3.09 ERA) will oppose Angels RHP Grayson Rodriguez (3-2, 7.55) on Saturday night.

The Major League Baseball draft is filled with unfamiliar names. Even the most knowledgeable fans have difficulty knowing much about the mostly anonymous high school and college players taken by the 30 teams through 20 rounds.

Every year, however, a handful of names ring a bell. This year’s draft, held the last two days in Philadelphia ahead of Tuesday’s All-Star Game, was no exception.

Bonds. Thome. Pettitte. Sabathia.

The accomplishments of the fathers or uncles of those draftees loom large. Other high picks hope to eclipse the accomplishments of relatives who had brief MLB or long minor league careers: No. 1 overall pick Roch Cholowsky out of UCLA is a prime example.

And draft picks whose relatives have ties to the Dodgers or Angels draw interest: Salmon, Ebel, Gasparino, Willits and Bard qualify.

No player wants to be branded as a “nepo pick” — taken as a favor to a relative. But even those can turn out to be brilliant. The Dodgers took Mike Piazza in the 62nd round of the 1988 draft largely because his father, Vince Piazza, was a childhood friend of manager Tommy Lasorda. Piazza, of course, became a Hall of Fame catcher with the Dodgers and New York Mets.

A brisk walk through this year’s picks with intriguing bloodlines:

— Roch Cholowsky, SS, UCLA. First overall pick by the Chicago White Sox.
His father, Dan Cholowsky, was the 39th pick in 1991 by the St. Louis Cardinals and played eight minor league seasons. He’s now a scout for the Cincinnati Reds. To focus on baseball, Roch gave up a scholarship offer to play quarterback at Notre Dame. He is the Bruins’ first No. 1 pick since Gerrit Cole in 2011.

— Jacob Lombard, SS, Gulliver Prep (Fla.). No. 14 pick by the Miami Marlins
His father, George Lombard, played parts of six seasons with four MLB teams from 1998 to 2006 and is the Detroit Tigers’ bench coach. Jacob’s brother, George Lombard Jr., was the 26th pick in the 2023 draft. Jacob was one of 11 shortstops taken in the first 40 picks this year.

— Trey Ebel, SS, Corona High. No. 25 pick by the Milwaukee Brewers
Milwaukee made his brother, Brady, the No. 32 pick a year ago. Their father, Dino Ebel, has been the Dodgers’ third base coach since 2019 and spent the previous 13 years as a coach for the Angels. Strength and conditioning training with MW Athletix’s Keith Coury helped lift Trey into the first round.

Landon Thome, the 34th pick in the MLB draft, and his father, Hall of Famer Jim Thome.

(Nam Y. Huh/AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

— Landon Thome, 2B/3B, Nazareth Academy (Ill.). No. 34 pick by the White Sox.
His father, Jim Thome, ranks eighth on the career home run list with 612 and was a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2018. Like his dad, Landon is a left-handed hitter with a sweet swing. He also has something his dad lacked: speed. Landon stole 54 bases this spring.

— Gavin Grahovac, 1B, Texas A&M. No. 81 pick by the Angels.
His cousin Garrett Mitchell was the No. 20 pick out of UCLA in 2020 and is in his fifth MLB season with the Brewers. His father, Mike Grahovac, was a fourth-round pick in 1989 but topped out in class A. Scouts project Gavin as having the potential to hit 30 homers a year.

— Peyton Bonds, OF, Rutgers. No. 90 pick by the San Francisco Giants.
His uncle, Barry Bonds, is a seven-time MVP who holds the MLB record with 762 home runs. His grandfather Bobby Bonds hit 332 homers during a 14-year career that ended in 1981. And his father, Bobby Bonds Jr., played 11 seasons in the minor leagues. Peyton is a 6-foot-5, 230-pound center fielder with speed and improving power.

— Rylan Lujo, OF, Georgia. No. 109 pick by the Angels.
His grandfather is Rennie Stennett, a versatile player whose nine seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates were bracketed by World Series titles in his 1971 rookie season and 1979 finale. Lujo converted from the infield to center field at Georgia and has plus speed.

— Jaxon Willits, SS, Oklahoma. No. 141 pick by the Angels.
His brother Eli was the first pick in last year’s draft, going to the Washington Nationals. Their father, Reggie, played parts of six seasons with the Angels and is now a coach at Oklahoma. Jaxon, 21, is older than Eli, who was the youngest player to go No. 1 overall at 17 years 216 days. Both are switch-hitters.

— Will Gasparino, OF, UCLA and Harvard-Westlake High. No. 161 overall to the Phillies.
His father, Billy Gasparino, has been a Dodgers executive for 11 years. He is the vice president of baseball operations after being promoted in 2024 from vice president of amateur scouting. Will, a 6-6 right-handed power hitter, transferred from Texas to UCLA before the 2026 season.

— Luke Pettitte, RHP/DH, Dallas Baptist. No. 248 to the New York Yankees.
His father, Andy Pettitte, won five World Series pitching for the Yankees. While Andy remains on the Hall of Fame ballot the next two years, his son will be working through the minor leagues, perhaps as a two-way player. Luke had Tommy John surgery after two years pitching for Dallas Baptist, then batted .337 with 16 home runs as a designated hitter last spring.

— Jack Salmon, OF, Nevada Las Vegas and Corona del Mar High. No. 559 by the Angels.
His uncle Tim Salmon is an Angels legend, a key component of their 2002 World Series championship team who played his entire 14-year career in Anaheim. His father, Mike, had a short stint in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers and played football at USC.

— Luke Bard, C, Houston Christian. No. 583 by the Dodgers.
His father, Josh Bard, spent 10 seasons in the majors with five teams and is the Dodgers’ bullpen coach. Luke batted .345 last season at Houston Christian.

— Carsten Sabathia III, 1B, Houston. No. 611 by the Brewers.
His father, CC Sabathia, was a first-ballot Hall of Famer last year who finished his 19-year career with 251 wins and 3,093 strikeouts. He spent one memorable half-season with the Brewers, going 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA to help them to the playoffs in 2008. Carsten played two years at Georgia Tech before transferring to Houston. He was the third-to-last pick in the draft.

MINNEAPOLIS — Trevor Larnach homered and drove in two runs, Ryan Jeffers added a two-run double, and the Minnesota Twins beat the Angels 4-2 on Sunday and head into the All-Star break with eight wins in their last nine games.

Larnach’s single in the third inning scored Luke Keaschall, tying the score at 1. Jeffers followed with a double that knocked in Ryan Kreidler and Larnach for a 3-1 lead.

Larnach added a 405-foot homer to right in the eighth inning, his seventh of the season, as the Twins (48-49) won their fifth straight series.

Minnesota starter Taj Bradley (9-3) worked seven innings, giving up six hits and two earned runs with six strikeouts and a pair of walks. Andrew Morris struck out two over the last two innings and earned his third save.

Josh Lowe and Denzer Guzman hit solo home runs for the Angels (38-59), who dropped their fourth straight series. Lowe’s eighth of the season came in the second inning, and Guzman added his fourth in the seventh inning.

José Soriano (8-6) gave up five hits, three earned runs and two walks in five innings.

Up next for Angels: Host the Detroit Tigers for a three-game series starting Friday.

PHILADELPHIA — “It just means more” is a fine slogan. When it comes to the baseball draft, however, the Southeastern Conference can take a back seat to our oceanfront pitching factory.

First pitcher selected in last year’s draft: Tyler Bremner, UC Santa Barbara, taken second overall by the Angels.

First pitcher selected in this year’s draft: Jackson Flora, UC Santa Barbara, taken fourth overall by the San Francisco Giants.

Bremner followed the first round of Saturday’s draft from an airplane, watching from the screen on the back of the seat in front of him.

“It was cool to see someone I knew get picked that high,” Bremner said. “He’s stoked.”

Under former general manager Perry Minasian, college players would be stoked to be drafted by the Angels, who did not hesitate to promote top prospects to the major leagues after the briefest of stints in the minor leagues.

American League catcher Nathan Flewelling greets American League pitcher Tyler Bremner, left, during the MLB All-Star Futures game on Sunday in Philadelphia.

(Chris Szagola / Associated Press)

Bremner has yet to rise above Class A, but he did participate in Sunday’s Futures Game. He retired the only batter he faced.

The pitchers the Angels might well have taken in place of him, Kade Anderson and Seth Hernandez, each pitched a scoreless inning in the Futures Game.

After the Angels drafted Bremner with the second pick, the Seattle Mariners selected Anderson, an LSU product considered the most polished pitcher available. Anderson is 8-1 with a 1.36 ERA at double-A, likely the next man up should the Mariners’ rotation need one.

The Mariners had alerted him after the first pick — infielder Eli Willits, by the Washington Nationals — that they would take him with the third, he said.

“I got to watch the Angels make their pick, and then it was my turn,” Anderson said. “I never talked to them.”

Anderson signed for $8.8 million, Bremner for $7.7 million. Under Minasian, the Angels chose to spend less on the first-round pick and spread the savings among players drafted in lower rounds.

The first high school pitcher selected last year, Seth Hernandez, played at Corona High, about 20 miles from Angel Stadium. Hernandez is 6-foot-1 with a 2.61 ERA at Class A for the Pittsburgh Pirates, with 111 strikeouts in 69 innings.

He said he had talked with the Angels but did not expect them to select him because he “knew what direction they were going.” (Translation: trying to save money in the first round.)

“It would have been cool to go there,” Hernandez said, “but I’m happy with where I’m at with the Pirates.”

Whatever success the Angels might have in developing players drafted in the lower rounds, their 2025 draft will be remembered for this: They had their choice of any pitcher in America, and they chose Bremner.

Today, the league website ranks Anderson and Hernandez as the game’s top pitching prospects, and among the top six overall. Bremner ranks 44th overall, the only Angels prospect among the top 100.

His season started well, with a 1.08 ERA over five starts. He then missed a month because of illness and arm fatigue. Since his return, he has a 5.63 ERA over six starts.

The 48 strikeouts over 34 total innings is good news. The 34 innings to this point means his season grade can only be marked as incomplete.

“I’m just trying to stay on the field the rest of the year,” Bremner said. “That’s the main goal.

“I think it all comes down to how I perform and how I execute. They gave me all the opportunity in the world this year.”

In addition to adjusting to the first season of his professional career, Bremner is playing his first full season without his mother, who died from breast cancer last June.

“I feel like I am still dealing with that a good amount,” he said.

“It’s not something that gets brought up too much. I don’t want to say people move on, but it has been a year, and people start looking toward the next thing. That’s just how life moves.

“It’s still on my mind a lot. I’m trying to focus on what I need to be focusing on, and that’s being present and competing and having success in the sport. It’s my job right now. It’s not easy, but I’m getting through it.”

Same, really, for his pitching.

In a year in which three of the starters in the Angels’ opening rotation have been (a) injured; (b) demoted; or c) demoted and recalled, it’s hard not to imagine that a healthy and productive Bremner might have made the majors by now.

“I think about it sometimes,” he said, “but I’m content: not really contentment with where I’m at, but content going day to day and figuring out the process as I go through it.

“You can’t really think about getting to the big leagues before going through the other steps. Just kind of enjoying where I’m at right now, and realizing I need to have success here to make it there.

“You can’t just expect it to be handed to you. That’s something they made clear to me: It’s not going to be handed to me. It needs to be earned. I think I have a little ways to go, but I’m confident I can get there.”

He is confident, too, that Santa Barbara was an optimal launching pad toward getting him there.

“They develop pitchers well,” he said. “It’s a good location. It’s a fun school. I can’t say enough about my time there.

“Playing a lot of guys who have played in those big stadiums and in those big settings — Omaha, whatever — you do realize it’s the same game once you get here. It’s an even playing field. I feel like I fit in just fine.”

He should. The number of Cy Young winners this decade from the SEC is the same as the number from UCSB: one.

MINNEAPOLIS — Vaughn Grissom went two for three with a home run and two RBIs, and the Angels beat the Minnesota Twins 4-3 on Friday night to break a five-game skid at Target Field.

Grayson Rodriguez (3-2) gave up three runs and six hits in 5⅓ innings while Kirby Yates pitched a scoreless ninth for his third save this season.

Wade Meckler and Tyler Heineman also had two hits apiece for the Angels, whose previous win at Minnesota was in September 2024.

Brooks Lee and Josh Bell each went two for four with a double for the Twins (46-49).

The Angels (38-57), who have lost eight of their last 10 games, have the worst record in the major leagues.

Grissom hit the first pitch of the fourth inning over the wall in left field. Jorge Soler followed with a double and later scored on a balk by Twins starter Zebby Matthews (4-6) that gave the Angels a 2-1 lead.

Matthews surrendered four runs and nine hits in six innings.

Meckler scored when Nolan Schanuel hit the last of four consecutive singles to lead off the fifth inning before Grissom followed with a sacrifice fly that made it 4-1.

Trevor Larnach doubled to lead off the first inning and scored on a sacrifice fly by Kody Clemens. Lee hit a run-scoring double and pinch-hitter Austin Martin had an RBI groundout in the sixth that made it a one-run game.

Larnach walked with one out and moved to third when Ryan Jeffers doubled in the seventh, but Samy Natera Jr. retired Clemens and Bell to end the threat and preserve Minnesota’s 4-3 lead.

Minnesota is 10-4 with a plus-41 run differential in its last 14 against the Angels, dating to September 2023.

Up next: Angels RHP Ryan Johnson (1-4, 6.99 ERA) starts Saturday opposite Joe Ryan (6-5, 2.85) in the second of a three-game series.

Mike Trout last played in an All-Star Game seven years ago. It’s crazy, really. The best player of the previous decade, the link that ties Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols to Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, has not taken an All-Star at-bat this decade.

Injuries, mostly. And he turns 35 next month.

Next week’s All-Star Game takes place in Philadelphia, about 40 miles north of Trout’s hometown of Millville, N.J. Major League Baseball reserves a potential All-Star roster spot or two each summer for distinguished players: Bryce Harper and Justin Verlander this year, Clayton Kershaw last year, Pujols and Miguel Cabrera in past years.

That could have been Trout’s spot this summer: a worthy honor for a three-time most valuable player, a local hero feted on the national stage the Angels have failed to provide him.

“I wouldn’t have done it,” Trout said.

Not even at home?

“It’s an honor to get voted in and represent the American League,” he said. “For me, I don’t want any handouts.”

Trout is an All-Star for the 12th time, the old-fashioned way: He earned it.

Fans voted him into the starting lineup, with the most final-round votes of any AL outfielder. His peers voted him as one of the top three outfielders in the AL.

“It means a lot,” he said. “I’ve been through a lot of hurdles, a lot of adversity. I put some hard work in, and I did not let up. I could have easily got down on myself and not pushed through it and not come back.

“I know what I am capable of. I know I have the confidence to get back to the player I used to be.”

His .874 OPS entering play Thursday ranks second among AL outfielders, a career season for many players. In 11 of his 14 full seasons — all but the previous three — he has posted a higher OPS.

In April, in a four-game series against the New York Yankees, Trout hit five home runs and drove in nine runs.

“Everything was clicking,” he said. “When I first came up, that’s how I felt the whole season.

“Just to be able to get that feeling back, that little spark, to know it’s still in there, it makes you feel pretty good.”

For him, so does playing in Philadelphia. The first time he played there with the Angels, Millville basically closed down for the night, and just about everyone in town boarded a bus to the game. Then Trout had an exceptionally rare experience, a visiting player cheered at the home of the boo.

Mark Gubicza can testify to that. Gubicza, the two-time All-Star pitcher and now the Angels’ television analyst, grew up in Philadelphia.

“I don’t care if you were God himself, if you were wearing a different color uniform, I was still booing you,” Gubicza said. “But he was cheered.”

Still is. Trout is a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan, with his season tickets not in some climate-controlled luxury suite but along the sideline.

“The players all walk by him and say ‘Trouty!’ ” Gubicza said. “Before they all go out to get their heads beat in, they’re all saying hi.

“He’s not one of those guys that comes there to be seen. He’s going there to root. That’s why they love him: He’s one of us.”

Said Trout: “I know how passionate I am about the Eagles. From my experience as an Eagles fan, it’s just different.

“It’s like win or die.”

It’s not like that in Southern California, where almost no one listens to sports-talk radio, and where a nice day is always a day away.

No one would begrudge Trout for living year-round along the Orange County coast. (OK, maybe Philadelphia fans would.)

Roy Hallenbeck, Trout’s high school coach, remembered visiting years ago on what he called “a perfect day” and asking Trout how he could ever get tired of all that sunshine.

“Yeah, coach, I couldn’t live here,” Trout told him. “‘I need my seasons.”

Trout built a family home near his boyhood home. He built his Trout National golf resort, with a course designed by Tiger Woods, in Millville.

He is as loyal to the Angels as he is to Millville. He appreciates the team that “took a chance on a kid from a little town in southern New Jersey” and signed him to two nine-figure contract extensions.

Trout was the last Angels player to take a postseason at-bat, in 2014. Even amid baseball’s longest playoff drought, he still considers Anaheim a special place, and always will.

“It’s where it all began,” Trout said. “I think the fuel of people doubting us kind of makes it more of a fire for me to try to get back to the playoffs. I think that’s the biggest key for me.

“Could I take the easy way out and just leave? Yeah. But I think — I said this last year around this time, but it’s the same feeling I’ve been having — I really haven’t sat down and talked to anybody about it specifically, but I know there’s a time where, if things change, who knows? I don’t know. But, for me, right now, my focus is on trying to get this club back in the playoffs.”

At the All-Star Game, Trout might well hear Phillies fans beseech him to come play for the home team. However, Hallenbeck said, the hometown folks no longer are as strident in that long-held wish.

“I think the overriding sentiment of most people I talk with, even Phillies fans, is we would all — as people that know him, love him and care for him — love to watch him play relevant baseball in August and September,” Hallenbeck said. “It doesn’t matter where. It doesn’t matter who. Just being relevant late in the season would be something we would all love to see.

“Hopefully, it’s with the Angels. They’ve been so good to him. We’d love to see it there.”

So would we. In the meantime, in the absence of a World Series, Trout deserves to enjoy his homecoming game.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Wyatt Langford lined a shot off the wall in left field to bring home Alejandro Osuna in the ninth inning, lifting Texas to a 7-6 victory over the Angels after the Rangers blew a five-run lead Thursday night.

Langford struck out three of his first four times up as the designated hitter after getting activated from the 10-day injured list in his return from a left hamstring strain.

Osuna led off the ninth with a single and went to second on pinch-hitter Nicky Lopez’s sacrifice bunt. Langford lined a 1-and-1 fastball from former Texas closer Kirby Yates (0-4) over Jose Siri’s head for the winning single.

Jo Adell had a tying, pinch-hit single to cap a five-run seventh a night after homering twice in the Angels’ 13-1 victory.

Cole Winn (4-2) got Adell on a sharp liner to center field to end the ninth with the potential go-ahead run at third after replacing All-Star closer Jacob Latz, who went 1⅔ innings in his first outing in nine days.

Nathan Eovaldi struck out a season-high 10 for Texas but failed to get his 10th win for the fifth consecutive start. He exited with no outs in the seventh after Dezner Guzman reached on catcher’s interference, Logan O’Hoppe walked and Wade Meckler’s single scored Guzman.

Peyton Gray replaced Eovaldi and gave up a two-run single to Nolan Schanuel, who had four hits, and an RBI single to Jorge Soler.

Brandon Nimmo, Ezequiel Duran and Justin Foscue homered for Texas in the first four innings against Reid Detmers. The left-hander hadn’t given up more than one long ball in any of his first 18 starts.

Up next: Neither team announced the rotation for its final series before the All-Star break. Indications are the Angels will go with RHP Grayson Rodriguez (2-2, 8.06 ERA) on Friday at Minnesota. He has been on the injured list since mid-June because of lower back tightness. Texas is home against Houston.

ARLINGTON, Tex. — Mike Trout hit a two-run homer in his return from the injured list, Jo Adell had two home runs and drove in a career-high five runs and the Angels beat the Texas Rangers 13-1 on Wednesday night.

Trout, who missed 17 games due to a strained right hamstring, hit a 438-foot shot that gave the Angels an 11-0 lead in the eighth. Trout has 48 homers against the Rangers, the most by any player since the franchise moved to Texas in 1972 and the second-most ever against the club. Reggie Jackson hit 54 home runs against the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers.

Adell hit a two-run shot in the fourth inning and a three-run homer in the fifth that made it 7-0.

Vaughn Grissom went 4 for 5 with a double and four RBIs, and Zach Neto was 3 for 4 with two doubles and three runs. Denzer Guzman and Jose Siri each had two hits.

Angels starter Walbert Ureña threw 90 pitches and walked five in four scoreless innings before he was replaced by Samy Natera Jr. (1-0) to begin the fifth. Natera, a rookie left-hander, had five strikeouts in two perfect innings for his first career win.

Neto doubled to lead off the game, and scored when Grissom singled off MacKenzie Gore (5-8).

Pinch-hitter Kyle Higashioka hit a leadoff homer in the ninth for the Rangers.

Higashioka pitched the ninth — his second career appearance on the mound — and gave up two runs. The 36-year-old catcher also gave up two runs in a 12-2 loss to Minnesota on June 16.

Gore gave up seven runs and nine hits with seven strikeouts in five innings.

ARLINGTON, Tex. — Alejandro Osuna hit a three-run homer during a five-run eighth inning and the Texas Rangers pulled away for an 8-3 win over the Angels on Tuesday night.

Osuna’s first homer of the season followed RBI singles by Ezequiel Duran and Justin Foscue in the six-hit inning off Sam Bachman (1-2). Foscue also hit a pinch-hit home run in the seventh, tying the score 3-3.

Peyton Gray (4-0) pitched a scoreless eighth for the win for the Rangers, who pulled within one-half game of first-place Seattle in the AL West.

The last-place Angels have lost seven consecutive games, tying their longest losing streak of the season.

Rangers starter Jacob deGrom left after throwing 80 pitches in five innings because of an issue with his left hip and leg. DeGrom said he’s often felt tightness there between starts, but it usually goes away before he pitches again. This time it remained, preventing him from throwing changeups, and tightened in the fifth inning. He expects to make his next start.

DeGrom suffered first-inning struggles before settling in, his pattern this season. He gave up a pair of two-out runs in the first on Jorge Soler’s double that one-hopped the left-field wall and Josh Lowe’s single to shallow left after a wild pitch.

DeGrom didn’t give up another run, giving up five hits and two walks. In 18 starts this season, deGrom has a 9.50 ERA in the first inning and 2.29 afterward.

Texas tied the score 2-2 in the second on Nicky Lopez’s two-out, opposite-field single to left after two walks by José Soriano, who leads the AL with 51. Soriano didn’t walk another batter and gave up only two hits in six innings.

Rookie Wade Meckler’s RBI single off Chris Martin in the seventh gave the Angels a 3-2 lead before Foscue homered off Tayler Saucedo.

The Angels won the first three games against the Rangers this season.

In 2012, when Mark Walter and his partners bought the Dodgers, team president Stan Kasten declared mediocrity would no longer be acceptable.

Would the Dodgers improve their minor league system? Yes. Would the Dodgers improve their major league roster? Also yes. Would spending in one area preclude spending in another? Absolutely not.

“These fans expect and deserve a team that can win,” Kasten said then.

So do Angels fans. For the first time this decade, with the arrival of John Mozeliak as interim general manager, they have legitimate hope.

Mozeliak, whose St. Louis Cardinals teams reached the playoffs more often than not in his 18 years running baseball operations there, is here to end baseball’s longest postseason drought, or at least steer the Angels in that direction.

At first, I was shocked to hear him say he does not believe the Angels need to rebuild. Under owner Arte Moreno, the Angels have resisted rebuilding, preferring to add lower-tier free agents and rush college players to the major leagues in an effort to field a competitive roster. That has failed: For the first time in franchise history, the Angels could finish in last place for a third consecutive season.

But, when Mozeliak and I sat down in the Angels’ dugout the other day, he explained that the path forward in Anaheim should not be tanking. It should be acting like the major-market team the Angels are — and were, during Moreno’s first decade of ownership.

“The one thing you have to realize about the Los Angeles Angels is: they do have resources,” Mozeliak said. “From Mr. Moreno to the market size, this is a place that could be a very, very special place.”

In Moreno’s first decade, under Bill Stoneman and Mike Scioscia, the Angels were a player development machine. In 2003, in his first winter as owner, Moreno signed the best position player on the free-agent market in Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero and the best pitcher on the market in four-time All-Star Bartolo Colon.

The questions Mozeliak asks and answers now are the same ones Kasten did with the Dodgers. Can the team deploy resources to upgrade scouting and player development? Yes. Can the team do the same with the major league roster? Also yes.

“There are many franchises in the game of baseball that cannot do that,” Mozeliak said. “They have trade-offs. They have to make a decision: If I’m going to give you $20 million for your infrastructure, that’s $20 million less for your payroll.

“This place is different.”

The Dodgers parallel only goes so far. Walter and Kasten inherited a core of Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Jansen, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier. Mozeliak will work with Mike Trout and a long-touted “young core” that has shown by now it is not the foundation of a championship-caliber team.

No one expects Moreno to spend like the Dodgers do (and even Walter’s fellow owners want a salary cap in an attempt to stop the Dodgers). Yet, in St. Louis, Mozeliak built winners without the Cardinals owners ever paying a luxury tax.

The first step in revitalizing the Angels comes Saturday, in the draft.

“We’re going to take the best available player,” Mozeliak said.

Mozeliak said he is not interested in two recent Angels trends: paying less to a first-round pick in order to spread the savings around longer shots in the lower rounds, or targeting a polished college player in part because he could get to Anaheim in a hurry.

“I’m not wedded to a high school player or a college player,” Mozeliak said. “I want the best player.”

The second item on the agenda: the Aug. 3 trade deadline, which would afford Mozeliak the opportunity to collect prospects for such players as pitcher Reid Detmers and Jose Soriano and outfielder Jo Adell.

In 2020, Moreno nixed a trade that would have brought Andy Pages – then a Dodgers prospect, now an All-Star – to the Angels.

In 2023 and 2024, Moreno rebuffed trade offers for Shohei Ohtani that could have returned the likes of Junior Caminero or Jackson Merrill. No player of that caliber would be coming in return for what the Angels have to offer now.

Mozeliak said the Angels should not consider a trade proposal in isolation, without considering how to flex their major-market muscles to fill whatever hole a trade might create.

“If we understand what we’re doing today can help make us stronger tomorrow, and then look at potentially what we could do on the free-agent market,” he said, “that should be something we are doing in parallel thinking.”

Mozeliak said he does not believe any player should be untouchable. As if on cue, Trout walked by.

Trade Trout? That’s not happening, right?

“That’s not happening,” Mozeliak said.

In his hours of conversations with Moreno, Mozeliak said, the topic of whether the owner might sell the team “never came up.”

Does Moreno appear interested in staying for the long haul?

“Absolutely,” Mozeliak said.

Mozeliak said he had presented Angels President Molly Jolly with a 100-day plan for what the team calls a consulting role: run baseball operations on an interim basis; do a deep dive into how the Angels do things now and how they can do them better; recommend a new general manager. Maybe he stays in that role, or in a supporting role, or he simply leaves when his contract expires in December.

“I’m certainly confident in what we need to do, and I’m certainly confident this is a market that could be amazing,” he said. “It’s exciting times for me. I’m energized.

“I’m smart enough to know that one person cannot change everything. But one person can begin change, and that’s what I’m going to start to do.”

Distinguished executives, including the likes of Dave Dombrowski and Andrew Friedman, have wanted no part of the Angels. Then again, Mozeliak is only committed for six months. If Moreno does not do what Mozeliak believes should be done, and if Mozeliak is not allowed to begin that change, he can just walk away.

“I think I have that authority,” Mozeliak said, “and I think he understands that he can embrace change, because that is what is going to be required.”

Based on Moreno telling you that?

“Yes,” Mozeliak said.

The last time the Angels hired an experienced general manager from outside the organization: 35 years ago, when they also looked to St. Louis for Whitey Herzog. That didn’t work. Herzog won a power struggle in the front office, then quit anyway, amid disputes with ownership.

This might work, or might not. But think back to 2020, when then-Angels president John Carpino said this: “Obviously, we’re not doing it the right way. We’re not winning games. So something is not right in our organization.”

Carpino retired in April, without ever explaining what was not right in the organization or, based on the standings, repairing it.

Jolly replaced him and, within two months, secured Moreno’s approval to hire the architect of a World Series championship team to figure out what was not right in the organization, and to fix it.

In one bold step, the Angels admitted they had a problem and set out a path to remedy it. With three months to go in this wretched season, the MVP of the 2026 Angels is abundantly clear: Molly Jolly.

Jarren Duran and Willson Contreras homered, and five Boston pitchers combined to give up two runs over 6⅓ innings in relief of injured starter Ranger Suarez to lead the Red Sox to a 7-5 win over the Angels on Sunday night.

Boston’s eighth victory in 10 games completed a three-game sweep of the Angels, who have lost six straight and 12 of 19 since June 14.

Suarez, named to the American League All-Star team Saturday, exited with two outs in the third because of left adductor tightness, an injury he sustained when he jumped for Jo Adell’s chopper over the mound.

The left-hander was followed by Greg Weissert (1-2), Tyron Guerrero and Garrett Whitlock, who combined for 4⅓ hitless innings. Justin Slaten gave up a run in the eighth, and Aroldis Chapman gave up a solo homer to Zach Neto in the ninth before earning his 18th save.

The Angels scored twice in the first on Jorge Soler’s grounder and Adell’s RBI single. Boston tied it 2-2 in the second on Duran’s 13th homer, a two-run shot to right-center off starter Ryan Johnson (1-4).

Neto’s RBI double gave the Angels a 3-2 lead in the bottom half, but the Red Sox took advantage of Neto’s major league-leading 14th error to score three unearned runs in the third.

Tsung-Che Cheng led off with a bunt single. Anthony Seigler and Ceddanne Rafaela flied out, and Wilyer Abreu hit a routine grounder to shortstop that should have ended the inning.

Neto bobbled the ball for an error, though, and Contreras crushed Johnson’s next pitch for his 20th homer, a 446-foot shot to left-center that left his bat at 112 mph and gave Boston a 5-3 lead.

The Red Sox tacked on two insurance runs in the seventh on Abreu’s sacrifice fly and Masataka Yoshida’s RBI single for a 7-3 advantage.

The Angels scored in the eighth on Donovan Walton’s double and Adell’s RBI single.

Up next for the Angels: RHP Jose Soriano opposes Rangers RHP Jacob deGrom (7-5, 3.48 ERA) on Tuesday night in Texas.

Willson Contreras and Romy Gonzalez homered to back the superb pitching of Sonny Gray, who gave up one run and four hits in six innings of the Boston Red Sox’s 8-1 win over the Angels on Saturday night at Angel Stadium.

Wilyer Abreu added a two-run double, and relievers Jovani Morán, Greg Weissert and Alec Gamboa combined for three hitless innings for the Red Sox (39-48), who have won seven of nine games. The Angels (36-54) have lost five straight and 11 of 17 since June 17.

Gray (10-1) induced two of Boston’s three double-play grounders, struck out seven and walked one. The 36-year-old right-hander has six straight quality starts since May 30, a stretch in which he’s gone 5-0 with a 1.97 ERA.

Though he leads the American League in wins and ranks second with a 2.61 ERA, Gray was not named to the AL All-Star team Saturday.

Angels starter Sam Aldegheri (3-4) walked two ahead of Contreras’ 19th homer, a 421-foot blast to left-center that gave Boston a 3-0 lead in the first.

Josh Lowe’s one-out homer pulled the Angels to within 3-1 in the second. Jo Adell walked, and Wade Meckler singled, but Gray struck out Donovan Walton and Tyler Heineman to escape the jam.

Aldegheri did not give up a hit in the second, third and fourth, but with his pitch count at 88, he was pulled in favor of left-hander Samy Natera Jr., who gave up one run in his first nine big-league games.

Anthony Seigler led off the fifth with a double, Ceddanne Rafaela walked, and Abreu slammed a two-run double off the right-field wall for a 5-1 lead.

Gonzalez, robbed of a potential first-inning homer when Adell made a leaping catch of his drive above the wall in right, followed with a towering, 368-foot fly that cleared the short left-field wall for his first homer of the season and a 7-1 lead. Rafaela’s RBI single in the eighth made it 8-1.

Up next: Red Sox LHP Ranger Suarez (4-3, 2.94 ERA) will oppose Angels RHP Ryan Johnson (1-3, 7.40) in Sunday night’s series finale.

I will miss watching the greatest maestro and savant in the history of basketball, LeBron James. He is to basketball what Van Gogh was to painting, Coltrane to music, Hemingway to literature. He came from poverty and rose to a global hero and gave back. His after-game interviews were always intelligent and sometimes humorous. To all his detractors and haters? Eat your hearts out, he is a happy man.

Dell Franklin
Cayucos

I have always been in awe of LeBron’s athleticism and basketball IQ. And I greatly admire his dedication to maintaining his physical abilities throughout the years and his philanthropic pursuits.

But, as a lifelong Lakers fan, I will not miss LeBron. He was never a true Laker. He made it clear when he announced that he was taking his talents to South Beach that he cared only about LeBron, not the team.

So, as he closes out his career elsewhere, I will enjoy watching his superior playing prowess from afar. But I will be grateful that I can now cheer for my Lakers without the drama LeBron brings to every team he’s been on.

Linda Salzman
Rancho Palos Verdes

I agree that it was probably time to move on from LeBron simply in the interest to pursue a long-term player versus one more year from the King. But Bill Plaschke’s argument that he was tired of the mind games LeBron supposedly was playing is a terrible take. Losing 27-7-7 is not replaceable overnight, if ever.

George Metalsky
Redondo Beach

While acknowledging LeBron James as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, it never really felt as if he was selflessly committed to the Purple and Gold team concept like so many of the legendary players that preceded him.

During his eight years as a Laker there seemed to be countless occasions when Lakers brass capitulated to his “demands.” Year after year we endured a mishmash roster with his hand-picked players, just to appease LeBron.

During the Lakers’ dynasty we had championship teams. With LeBron we had a king shaping his fiefdom to first and foremost best serve him.

He’s a great player but a horrible GM. The Lakers will be a better team without him.

David Griffin
Westwood

I only have one question regarding LeBron James: What happens to Bronny now?

David Waldowski
Laguna Woods

Aroldis Chapman set the major league record for relief strikeouts after rookie Jake Bennett yielded five hits while pitching into the eighth inning for the Boston Red Sox in a 5-2 victory over the Angels on Friday night.

The 38-year-old Chapman broke Hoyt Wilhelm’s record with his 1,364th career strikeout as a reliever when he fanned Denzer Guzman leading off the ninth. The knuckleballing Wilhelm last pitched in 1972.

Chapman gave up back-to-back singles after his milestone strikeout, but got Jo Adell to ground into a double play to secure his 17th save.

Caleb Durbin hit a solo homer in the opener of a nine-game trip for the Red Sox, who have won six of eight.

In just his seventh career start, Bennett (3-3) struck out six with no walks while dominating the last-place Angels until the their two-run eighth.

Six days after the Yankees’ first 15 batters couldn’t get a hit off Bennett, the lanky left-hander retired the Angels’ first 13 batters before Vaughn Grissom’s fifth-inning single.

Bennett retired 22 of the Angels’ first 24 batters before Jose Siri homered in the eighth for the Angels, who have lost four straight.

Zach Neto added a two-out RBI single moments later to chase Bennett.

Reid Detmers (3-6) struggled through five innings while taking his first loss in eight starts since May 19 for the Angels, yielding five runs on seven hits with three walks.

Romy Gonzalez had three hits and drove in two runs for Boston. Durbin added his eighth homer leading off the fifth.

Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe was removed from the game and evaluated after taking a foul ball off his mask in the third. O’Hoppe went on the concussion injured list last September after getting accidentally hit by a backswing, and he went through the concussion protocol again two months ago after a home plate collision with Texas’ Josh Jung.

Trout hoping to return before All-Star Game

Angels center fielder Mike Trout bats against the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 16.

(Rick Scuteri / Associated Press)

Mike Trout believes he can return from a hamstring injury for the Angels next week, giving him enough time to be ready for the All-Star Game in Philadelphia on July 14.

Trout has been out since June 17, when he strained his right hamstring while running the bases against Arizona. He performed his normal pregame routine Friday and he expects to hit on the field this weekend.

Trout said he is optimistic about playing early next week, and manager Kurt Suzuki didn’t disagree.

“He looks good,” Suzuki said. “I saw him today when I first came in. He was working out. He was obviously on the road trip, doing his thing. He’s getting really close. Really, really close.”

The 34-year-old Trout hasn’t been officially selected for the All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park, but the two-time All-Star Game MVP is expected to be elected to the AL’s starting outfield in what would be his 12th All-Star nod.

The honor would be particularly special this year for Trout, who grew up 40 miles from Philadelphia in Millville, N.J.

The three-time AL MVP hasn’t participated in the All-Star festivities since 2019. He wasn’t able to play because of injury after being selected from 2021 to 2023, and he injured his knee early in the 2024 season before not being selected last year.

Trout has bounced back and stayed mostly healthy for the Angels this season, posting a team-leading .866 OPS with 17 homers and 36 RBIs in 74 games.

He said last week that he probably wouldn’t participate in the home run derby as he tries to stay healthy.

SEATTLE — Bryce Miller took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and the Seattle Mariners edged the Angels 1-0 on Thursday night to finish a three-game sweep.

Cal Raleigh coaxed a bases-loaded walk from rookie starter Walbert Ureña with two outs in the sixth to force home the only run. Seattle stayed tied with the Texas Rangers for first place in the American League West at 45-43.

Andrés Muñoz pitched a shaky ninth for his 16th save. Muñoz gave up a leadoff walk and two singles but retired Wade Meckler on a grounder with two runners aboard to end it.

Zach Neto walked to begin the inning but got picked off at first base attempting to steal second.

Seattle center fielder Julio Rodríguez was removed in the top of the third, two innings after being hit in the back of the helmet by a thrown ball while running the bases. He was replaced by Victor Robles, who got hit by a pitch on the right wrist in the bottom of the third and was lifted in favor of Weston Wilson in the fifth.

Miller (4-2) struck out eight and walked none in seven splendid innings. He lost his no-hit bid when Nolan Schanuel blooped a leadoff single to right-center in the seventh. Denzer Guzmán followed with a single, but Miller retired the next three batters to preserve the lead.

Eduard Bazardo struck out two in a perfect eighth.

The Angels’ lone baserunner through six innings came when Guzmán reached second on a throwing error by Mariners third baseman J.P. Crawford with two outs in the fourth.

Crawford, playing his 1,000th career game, doubled to start the bottom of the sixth for the first hit of the night. Dominic Canzone and Randy Arozarena walked to load the bases with one out before Josh Naylor struck out swinging. Raleigh fell behind 0-2 in the count but worked a nine-pitch walk that scored Crawford and chased Ureña (5-7).

Up next for the Angels: Host the Boston Red Sox for a three-game series beginning Friday night. LHP Reid Detmers (3-5, 3.88 ERA) starts the opener against LHP Jake Bennett (2-3, 3.27).

SEATTLE — Julio Rodriguez had three hits and scored twice, Bryan Woo took a shutout into the seventh inning and the Seattle Mariners put together a five-run sixth Tuesday night to beat the Angels 8-3.

Rodriguez and Colt Emerson both had three of Seattle’s 13 hits. Randy Arozarena and Cole Young scored two runs apiece.

Woo (7-6) gave up just four hits and struck out five in 6 1/3 innings. The Angels’ first two runs in their three-run seventh were charged to him after he gave way to reliever Eduard Bazardo. That ended Woo’s streak of home shutout innings at 32 1/3, which stretched over a span of five games dating to May 6 against Atlanta.

Michael Rucker pitched a scoreless eighth for the Mariners, and Andrés Muñoz set the Angels down in order in the ninth.

The Mariners batted around in the sixth, with their first five hitters reaching base on four hits and one walk. Rodriguez and Josh Naylor singled, then Arozarena singled to score Rodriguez with the first run and chase Angels starter José Soriano (8-5).

Cal Raleigh walked to load the bases, and Young singled to right, scoring Naylor. Arozarena scored on a wild pitch. Raleigh and Young came home on Weston Wilson’s single to right.

The Angels rallied with three in the seventh, the last two of those scoring on Zach Neto’s single to right.

Seattle answered with three in the bottom of the seventh. Emerson’s single that floated just above the outstretched glove of Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel drove in the first two.

Wade Meckler had two of the Angels’ six hits.

SEATTLE — Cole Young hit two home runs to back eight strong innings from George Kirby as the Seattle Mariners came from behind to beat the Angels 6-2 on Monday night.

Dominic Canzone also went deep to help Seattle (43-43) get back to .500 and stay a half-game behind the first-place Texas Rangers in the American League West.

Zach Neto doubled to center field leading off the game against Kirby (7-7), and Denzer Guzman singled two pitches later for a 1-0 lead. Neto hit his 18th home run in the third — a two-out shot that made it 2-0.

Kirby gave up a one-out double to Josh Lowe in the fifth but struck out the side — including Neto — to end the inning. The right-hander used 16 pitches to get six straight outs from there until Lowe doubled leading off the eighth.

Kirby issued his only walk, to Neto, with one out before striking out Guzman looking and Nolan Schanuel swinging on his 100th pitch.

Kirby gave up seven hits and fanned seven before José A. Ferrer pitched a scoreless ninth.

Young led off the third against Angels rookie Ryan Johnson (1-3) with his eighth homer to cut it to 2-1. Josh Naylor walked and stole second in front of Young’s two-out shot in the sixth off Mitch Farris to make it 6-2.

Randy Arozarena was hit by a two-out pitch in the fourth before advancing on a two-base fielding error by Guzman at third base on a grounder from Naylor. Both runners scored on Cal Raleigh’s bloop single for a 3-2 lead.

Canzone hit his 13th homer to make it 4-2 in the sixth, a leadoff shot against Farris.

Johnson gave up three runs (one earned) in five innings. Farris was tagged for three runs in three innings.