Logan O’Hoppe’s late homer propels Angels past Tigers for 5th straight win
ANAHEIM — Zach Plesac only has to look down the Angels’ bench if he is looking for some inspiration on how to overcome adversity.
Plesac struggled to find the strike zone, while Luis Rengifo continued to produce offensively and Logan O’Hoppe delivered the big blow in the Angels’ 5-2 victory against the Detroit Tigers on Friday night that extended the club’s winning streak to a season-best five games.
One day after Rengifo took the lead in the American League batting chase with a .312 average, he celebrated by lifting a two-run home run to left-center field in the first inning. It was his second home run in as many nights against Detroit.
Rengifo also singled to start an eighth-inning rally and scored the go-ahead run on O’Hoppe’s two-out home run on the first pitch he saw from Tigers right-hander Shelby Miller. It was the 11th of the season for O’Hoppe and his fourth in the past 15 games.
“We knew at some point we’d start putting things together (at home) where we give the fans an opportunity to see what we’re capable of doing,” Manager Ron Washington said after his team started the season 5-17 at Angel Stadium. “Again, we’re still young. Again, we’re still learning.
“It’s nice to be doing this at home because it will attract more people to come out and recognize that we can play baseball.”
Rengifo has not only been effective on offense this season, he has managed to lift his game on defense as well and the turnaround started when he hit something of a rock bottom in April.
Defensive struggles on a road trip to Tampa Bay and Cincinnati in April inspired Rengifo to put a little focus on his infield work and the increased attention to detail has shown up on offense as well.
“I saw a shift (in Rengifo) in Cincinnati when (Jose) Soriano was throwing a no-hitter into the sixth inning and he started booting balls out there,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “We had just left Tampa and he was booting balls out there.
“But that last time in Cincinnati, that’s when things started clicking in. That’s when he started to take the game serious. That’s when he started to take his work ethic serious.”
Plesac can only hope to channel the same energy after he was unable to find his command in the second inning and could not protect the early two-run lead. After two quick outs in the second, the Tigers’ Ryan Kreider singled. Wenceel Perez was down 1-and-0 in the count before everything changed.
Plesac proceeded to throw 16 of the next 19 pitches out of the strike zone and the ensuing four consecutive walks tied the score at 2-2. Jose Marte came in from the bullpen and ended the threat by getting Colt Keith on a soft comebacker.
“I was cruising, I got two outs and my hands just got sweaty; I couldn’t get a grip,” Plesac said. “It seemed like I was just squeezing it tight. I just couldn’t get a grip on the ball. It just kept sliding out. You got to give it up to the bullpen.”
Marte’s out was only the start of the bullpen’s heavy lifting. Marte went 1⅓ scoreless innings before Matt Moore contributed a scoreless frame. Hunter Strickland went two scoreless before Luis Garcia (3-0) took over for a scoreless eighth.
Right-hander Carlos Estevez finished off his 16th save with a perfect ninth inning.
“It’s unbelievable,” O’Hoppe said of the bullpen’s performance. “I haven’t pitched before, obviously, but I would imagine that’s hard to do on short notice like that. They did a great job. They didn’t allow a lot of traffic and when they did, they went pitch by pitch. It was pretty cool.”
Tigers starter Kenta Maeda was removed from the game in the sixth inning after taking a 94-mph Taylor Ward comebacker to the midsection. Maeda gave up two runs on six hits over 5⅓ innings, while Miller (4-6) was charged with all three runs in the eighth.
Of Plesac’s 57 total pitches, just 29 were for strikes as he gave up just one hit but four total walks with three strikeouts in 2⅔ innings.
“He just couldn’t get the feel anymore. He just lost his feel,” Washington said. “First two innings he was going just the way he wanted to and all of a sudden, he lost his feel. I tried to give him a chance to get out of it. Once the game was tied, I had to go to the bullpen.”
Of the five Angels pitchers who followed Plesac, the group did not walk a batter in 6⅓ innings.
“Three ingredients you need to stay consistent: Pitch, play defense and get timely hitting,” Washington said.
As far as timely hits go, there was none better than the one from O’Hoppe.
“He seems to be clutch,” Washington said. “But you just got to wait until he gets more time under his belt before we name him ‘Mr. Clutch.’ But he has been clutch for us in many, many ways.”