OC Register: Reliever Jose Alvarez has ‘quietly’ had his best season for the Angels

[AngelsWin.com]

CHICAGO — José Álvarez jogged to the mound Friday night, recorded his three outs, and then jogged off, finishing another workday in the anonymity of middle relief.

All the Angels’ lefty has done is pitch, more often than anyone else in the American League.

Álvarez’s league-leading 70th appearance was clean and boring, another zero for a player who has received little recognition for what he’s done.

“He’s quietly having a terrific season for us,” Manager Mike Scioscia said Saturday. “He’s really doing a great job for us.”

Over the previous three years, Álvarez had metronome-like consistency, posting ERAs of 3.49, 3.45 and 3.88. Each year he also pitched exactly 64 games.

This season, he’s pitched more often and better, lowering his ERA to 2.61 after Friday’s game. He’s allowed 7.7 hits per nine innings, a career-best. He’s also improved his strikeout rate each year, from 7.9 to to 8.0 to 8.3 to 8.6 per nine innings, although that could be more about the changing approach of hitters than anything Álvarez has done.

To pitching coach Charlie Nagy, Álvarez has been valuable for his durability and consistency.

“They are hard to find, (relievers) who have been as consistent as he’s been,” Nagy said. “I think he’s gotten better every year.”

Álvarez is one of only four players on the team to have been active every day of this injury-ravaged season. The other three are also relievers: Blake Parker, Cam Bedrosian and Noé Ramírez.

NEW SPOT FOR OHTANI

Scioscia tried a new lineup Saturday night, moving Shohei Ohtani into the cleanup spot, in between Mike Trout and Justin Upton.

He said they are going to take a look at this alignment against right-handed pitchers, with Upton hitting behind Trout against lefties.

Prior to Saturday’s game, Upton had hit immediately behind Trout in all but two of the games they both played. Those were in May, when Trout had a two-game cameo in the leadoff spot and Ohtani hit second.

Ohtani has been hot for about five weeks – hitting .361 with 10 homers and a 1.272 OPS in his previous 26 games – but for most of that time the Angels were without Trout or Upton. Trout jammed his wrist and then missed time for a death in his family, and Upton then suffered a lacerated finger and a concussion.

Since Aug. 1, the Angels have played only four games with Trout, Upton and Ohtani in the lineup together.

COUNTING INNINGS

Scioscia said the Angels have not discussed putting a cap on Felix Peña’s innings as he approaches the end of his first season as a major league starter.

“I think he’s still fresh,” Scioscia said Saturday, a day after Peña pitched seven innings for the second consecutive start.

Peña, 28, has pitched 109 innings this season, including 75-2/3 innings in the majors. As a reliever in the previous two years, he maxed out at 80 innings. Peña did throw 131-2/3 innings as a starter in the minors in 2015.

JC Ramírez, another reliever converted to starter with the Angels, doubled his innings from 2016 to 2017. He ended up requiring Tommy John surgery. Ramírez, however, was five years removed from being a starter.

ALSO

Tyler Skaggs (groin) had an extended bullpen session, simulating the break between innings, on Saturday in Arizona. Skaggs will be re-evaluated in the coming days and could next face hitters in a simulated game…

Nick Tropeano (shoulder) has not yet progressed to throwing off a mound, leaving a question about whether he’ll be able to return before the end of the season.

UP NEXT

Angels (LHP Andrew Heaney, 8-9, 4.16) at White Sox (RHP Reynaldo Lopez, 5-9, 4.37), Sunday, 11 a.m., Fox Sports West, KLAA (830 AM).

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