Duren, Duren

The old Trout wakes up. Wow! The power is still there when he makes solid contact.

Big power from Schanuel. Nice for his family! Good patience on that breaking ball.

Rendon looks really rough in the field. Every throw is an adventure.

Warning track power is part of Rendon's ' new normal.' But at least he tries to go with the pitch. Even if unsuccessful. Few other Angels even try.

Time for a rally? Meyer is fading.

Trout at least can still blast average thigh high pitches right down the middle of the plate. One positive this season.

I wonder if there is or will be some internal resentment towards Rendon on the team ? With his non enthusiastic attitude, lack of production and bloated contract you wonder how he'll be handled if he doesn't snap out of his 'new normal' form. The longer it continues the more he may be the cause of dissension.

Pitching and defense ... Can't even get through the early innings without being exploited. Let alone the sketchy hitting. Neto was supposed to be one of the young stars of the future. But so far he's anything but. Hitting can be worked on, but speed, instincts and mechanics at shortstop are critical for a good defensive player. He just hasn't shown encouraging signs so far in his career.

Quite a different and more patient approach than recent managers. Probably because he doesn't have the pressure of winning with Ohtani. And living up to unrealistic expectations. He's focussed on process more than immediate results.

Nice clean game mostly. Great pitching protected the early lead all the way. Nasty stuff from Soriano. A huge win to change the narrative and build confidence. But they need to string some good games together.

Watching an Orioles broadcast is annoying to fans of other teams. They are as rabid homers as possible. Always wearing Oriole branded clothes. Every inning is like an Orioles infomercial with constant ads for Oriole merchandise and promotions. And unending camera shots of their fans in the stands for no reason at all. Maybe I've just forgotten how local baseball broadcasts are so invested in promoting their product and brand. Nothing like that degree at all in other sports.

Funny, the Oriole broadcasters complaining about the ump strike zone when it goes against them. But not a word about the terrible calls yesterday.

Nice quick work by Detmers. He has to get through as many innings as possible.

Trout still can't catch up to belt high or higher heat.

It could have been disastrous for Detmers but minimal damage done. He has good stuff but a little wild. Still a long way to go and it looks like the Angels will need to keep scoring.

Now it's all about pitching and defense. Run support finally here.

Neto waking up! Nice to have their pitcher in trouble!

Not a bad at bat for Adell. He worked the count and hit the ball hard.

Nice to see Ward back in form. Now let's see how they do on the mound.

Rendon has only hit the ball hard a couple of times. He's slow and awkward in the field. Maybe it's the rust of missing so many games and he shakes it off. If he doesn't get better then what?

I was too busy to see game two live but endured watching it later. Admittedly fast forwarding after the bullpen got destroyed. What can you say? A historically bad and embarrassing start. Canning competed but his location was a problem. And multiple bad ball/strike calls didn't help. Obviously all phases of the game have been bad to terrible. Those runs both games in garbage time when the game was out of reach don't really compensate for what happened earlier. A win Sunday temporarily stops the bleeding and gives the team a chance to reset.

I met him when he was on the Expos. A real rah rah, positive motivator though just a fringe player. He had this phrase 'hey bud' when people would approach him. I never heard him or saw him as a broadcaster. But I guess his personality came through too.

Just looking at one area. Hitters overmatched. Again, far too many strikeouts. Not a lot of solid contact even. Granted it was against an excellent pitcher. But with the new manager and coaches I expected a bit more small ball. Try to get on base any way they could, go the other way, cut down the swing style. But it was just more of the same. But let's see how they do against other pitchers.

Just one game, but it could reaffirm the negative narrative because of how lopsided it was. The Angels now have to play much better the next two games to erase the smell of this one. And try to get some confidence going forward.

3 runs on 2 hits is actually good production. Unfortunately giving up 11 on 10 hits kind of negated that.