Angels hang on for victory after Chase Silseth suffers frightening injury
NEW YORK — The Angels were on their way to a blowout victory but they ended up suffering a frightening injury in what became a tight game.
It would have fit perfectly within this mind-numbing season except for the fact that they still won the game.
Right-hander Chase Silseth left the Angels’ 5-3 victory over the New York Mets on Saturday after he was struck in the head by a throw as he was running toward third base for a possible rundown.
Silseth was down for a few minutes before leaving the game under his own power. He was undergoing tests at a nearby hospital when Manager Phil Nevin spoke to the media after the game.
“He was talking the whole time,” Nevin said. “He was wondering if he covered the right base. Not to make light of it. It’s a scary moment, for sure. He was talking and alert. That part is good.”
The Angels had a 5-0 lead before the fourth-inning incident, with Shohei Ohtani contributing a double and a triple to the early scoring. Mickey Moniak hit a homer.
Silseth had just allowed his first two hits of the game in the fourth inning. Francisco Lindor was at second and Jeff McNeil was at first. McNeil took off for second but Lindor didn’t go to third. The Angels should have been able to get at least one of the runners because of the mixup, but catcher Logan O’Hoppe threw behind McNeil, to first base.
Lindor then took off for third, and first baseman Trey Cabbage’s throw to third hit Silseth in the back of the head. The ball bounced into foul territory as Lindor scored and McNeil took third.
A hush came over the ballpark, and players from both teams watched anxiously, as Silseth received medical attention for a few minutes.
“I heard he’s doing OK,” O’Hoppe said. “It’s a tough thing to see.”
Aside from the disturbing result of the play, it came after poor execution by O’Hoppe, who was not supposed to throw to first.
“You can walk it out to second base and as soon as somebody moves, you have an out,” Nevin said. “It’s a teaching moment. He’ll be fine.”
After Aaron Loup replaced Silseth, McNeil scored to cut the lead to 5-2. The Angels still had more than half a game’s worth of outs to find out of their bullpen, while the offense failed to provide any insurance.
Loup got through the fifth. Dominic Leone gave up a Daniel Vogelbach homer in the sixth make it 5-3.
José Soriano pitched a perfect seventh before getting into a jam in the eighth. He hit Pete Alonso in the head with a curve ball. Alonso had some words for Soriano and the benches briefly emptied, but no punches were thrown and no one was ejected.
“I watched a lot of Mets game I’ve seen Pete’s taken a lot of balls up top,” Nevin said. “I totally understand that. I mean, it was a breaking ball. We’re not trying to hit anybody, but I understand when you get hit up upstairs a lot, anything’s gonna set you off a little bit. I have no problem with it. He’s a competitor. Obviously Soriano is not trying to throw at anybody.”
Soriano ended up stranding two runners, holding the two-run lead for closer Carlos Estévez.
Estévez worked the ninth to record his 28th save of the season, and lock up the Angels second series victory in August.