LOS ANGELES _ People can rattle off the names without looking up the numbers � Vlad Guerrero Sr., Mark Teixeira, Adrian Beltre and Jose Altuve � come quickly to mind when discussing the hitters that seemed to do the most damage against the Mariners.
But really, the first name mentioned should always be Mike Trout. And while baseball's best player obviously puts up numbers against every team, playing against Seattle 19 times a season has allowed him to put up video game numbers off of Mariners' pitchers.
Coming into Tuesday's game at Angel Stadium, Trout had played basically a season's worth of games against the Mariners �155 total � in his career. Over that span, he'd amassed a .322/.428/.641 slash line with 33 doubles, 10 triples, 41 homers and 107 RBI.
Yet in the Angels home opener, Seattle pitchers held him to one hit � a single late in the game � in five plate appearances with two strikeouts.
So that means the Mariners had a prime chance for their second victory of the 2020 season?
Uh, that would be ... no.
Justus Sheffield's first start of the season didn't get out of the fourth inning and the Mariners' bullpen made a bad situation almost unwatchable in a 10-2 loss.
Expectations were high for Sheffield coming into his season before baseball was shutdown due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. The 25 starts and 175 innings the Mariners were hoping to accumulate for him this season � allowing him to work through a multitude of situations and working without the fear of being sent down � has been sliced almost in half.
And while he looked strong in his final outing of summer camp, it came against an array of players headed for the alternate training site in Tacoma. This season was about Sheffield learning to get MLB hitters out and keep him team in games. He wasn't completely unsuccessful, given a pitch limit of about 70 in this outing. Now, he'll have just nine more starts this season.
Sheffield worked through the first two innings facing the minimum number of hitters and getting four ground ball outs. He also got some help from his defense. After walking David Fletcher, the first batter of the game, Trout hit a low missile of a line drive to the right side of the infield.
First baseman Evan White made a layout dive for the ball, snaring it with his tan trapper for the out. He popped to his feet and hustled to first to double off Fletcher to end the inning.
Sheffield's second inning was very smooth with three ground-ball outs to shortstop.
But his started to fall apart in an interminable, pitch-filled third inning where eight Angels' hitters came to the plate.
A leadoff walk to Tommy La Stella and a passed ball started the problems. After striking out Max Stassi, Taylor Ward, the No. 9 hitter, dumped a RBI single into enter on a 1-2 slider that was at the bottom of the strike zone. David Fletcher followed with a single. With runners on the corners, Sheffield threw a beautiful slider to Mike Trout's back foot to strike him out swinging. But a missed strike call on a check swing from Anthony Rendon led to a walk to load the bases.
The Angels pushed a run across on Justin Upton's ground ball to third base. Kyle Seager made a diving stop on the play, but couldn't get the third out on a throw to second base. It allowed a run to score to make it 2-0. On his 39th pitch of the inning, Sheffield got Shohei Ohtani to pop out to end the inning.
That he got out of the inning, allowing just the two runs with two defensive miscues behind him, and the big strikeout of Trout, it was useful moment for Sheffield.
But his outing ended without getting an out in the fourth inning. He gave up a leadoff to the ageless Albert Pujols and then walked La Stella before being removed from the game. His replacement, former Yankees teammate, Nestor Cortes did him no favors, immediately serving up a three-run homer to Max Stassi. Two of those runs were charged to Sheffield, who was charged with four total runs allowed on three hits with four walks and two strikeouts.
Cortes was charged with two runs allowed in his two innings work, also giving up a solo homer to Albert Pujols.
Zac Grotz pitched the final three innings, allowing four runs on four hits with three walks and two strikeouts.
Seattle's offensive highlight came from Tim Lopes, who hit a solo homer to right field off of Angels starter Patrick Sandoval in the fourth inning. Seattle had seven hits on the night and went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.
