ANAHEIM, Calif._The Angels' plan to win won't always work, but when it does, this is how it will. Their elite defense elevated their middling starting pitching, their unproven bullpen bent but did not rupture, and the talented offense did enough to endure. Facing their first opponent of the season projected to be better than them, the Angels toppled Seattle, 5-1, in their home opener Friday night at Angel Stadium.
"We played a good game," Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. "We didn't play a perfect game, but we played really good defense early. We scratched out a couple runs and we kept going."
Jesse Chavez's career earned-run averages by month are either encouraging or depressing, depending how much value placed on the present. He entered Friday night with a 2.60 ERA in April. That mark rises to 3.69 in May, 4.56 in June, and 5.79 in July. There's a respite in August, back down to 4.82, but, in September, it ascends all the way back up to 6.27.
Signed to a one-year, incentive-laden deal in November, he opened 2017 as the Angels' fifth starter. At 6-2 and a listed 175 pounds, there is a reason he's never completed a full season as a starting pitcher. He is aware of the common criticism, of his body's frailty and his corresponding inability to handle a starter's workload. He's intent on adjusting the narrative, but that'll take all year to correct.
Until then, there's April. And on Friday night he was as good as he usually is in April. Chavez walked Seattle's leadoff batter, ex-Angels prospect Jean Segura, then retired six consecutive Mariners, then allowed a single to Mike Zunino, then retired 11 consecutive Mariners. He pitched efficiently, benefitting from the elite defense assembled behind him.
In the second inning alone, Cameron Maybin saved a single with a sliding snag of Kyle Seager's drive to left field, and C.J. Cron prevented a double with his stop of a Jarrod Dyson grounder earmarked for the first-base line.
So, Chavez marched into the sixth inning unscathed, until Mitch Haniger, Robinson Cano, and Nelson Cruz all singled in a span of seven pitches. With the tying run on third base, Scioscia decided Chavez's night was done. But he didn't have a reliever ready, so he had to stall. Chavez threw to first base, and eventually the manager emerged, met with his team on the mound, and called in left-hander Jose Alvarez.
Alvarez jogged in, continued warming, and fired three pitches in the same location, toward the outside edge of the plate and just below the zone. Seager struck out and Alvarez slammed his fist into his glove.
Bud Norris entered for the seventh and yielded a second-pitch single to Danny Valencia and hit Dyson in the ankle with a pitch, But he struck out Zunino and induced back-to-back grounders Andrelton Simmons turned into outs. Norris escaped the mess he created.
The Angels scored a run in the first and another in the third. Both times, there were two men on for Mike Trout. He produced a sacrifice fly and was then intentionally walked. Trout led off the fifth with a single, but was doubled off first base when Albert Pujols' liner to center was caught.
In the sixth, Cameron Maybin drilled a leadoff home run to right-center, at the outer edge of the imaginary band over the middle of the field in which he envisions hitting every pitch he sees. That's where his power is best found, Maybin believes. The approach prevents him from jumping too eagerly onto a pitch that appeals to him.
After Yunel Escobar notched his third single of the night in the seventh, Kole Calhoun launched a two-run homer to right field. Mariners reliever Casey Fien hung him a slider. Before Calhoun's strike, Cam Bedrosian was warming in the Angels' bullpen, apparently to handle the Mariners' vaunted Nos. 2-4 hitters in the eighth inning.
When the Angels' lead doubled, Bedrosian sat down, and right-hander Andrew Bailey began to warm. He handled the eighth inning without trouble, striking out Nelson Cruz to cap it. Blake Parker pitched the ninth.
