ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Los Angeles Angels rookie Patrick Sandoval was such an unknown before the season, and so far off the depth chart, the Angels didn't invite him to major league camp. He did not participate in the team's preseason photo day. As a result, the image that accompanied Sandoval's introduction at Angel Stadium on Wednesday was a still photo of him in a red spring training jersey. It stood in stark contrast to the images of others in the starting lineup, all of whom recorded short videos in their home whites in late February.
It also belied how far Sandoval, 22, has come since being denied a few innings of work in split-squad games in spring training. He made four starts in double A before being promoted to triple A in May. Fifteen starts after that, Sandoval was called up to the major leagues this month.
Sandoval is no longer much of a mystery to the Angels. He is a left-hander brimming with potential. He showed that by holding the Texas Rangers to one hit over five innings in the Angels' 3-0 loss to their American League West rival, one week after he was tagged for four runs on eight hits in 3 1/3 innings by the same team.
"It felt great," Sandoval said. "It felt like I had everything whenever I wanted it."
Sandoval entered the game with a gaudy 6.75 ERA, but he had impressed manager Brad Ausmus, who knew little about his new pitcher before his Aug. 5 debut, with his composure. He allowed four runs in two of his last four starts, but never more than that.
In his fifth start, Sandoval turned in his best outing yet. He walked three, but stranded all of the runners. The hardest-hit ball he allowed was a double rifled down the first-base line by Willie Calhoun. When he departed after the fifth inning of a scoreless game, he had thrown 52 of 84 pitches for strikes.
Sandoval kept the Rangers off-balance with a fastball that reached a high of 96 mph and a nearly untouchable changeup.
A move to the center of the rubber _ he had pitched from the third-base side of the mound since he was a teenage growing up in Mission Viejo _ made the difference.
"We were just thinking it would make pitching a little bit easier to throw and a little bit more deceptive," Sandoval said.
The Angels did not reward Sandoval's strong outing with offense, so his first major league victory continues to elude him.
Kole Calhoun grounded out with the bases loaded and one out to end the team's best scoring threat in the first inning. Brian Goodwin nearly hit a third-inning home run off Rangers primary pitcher Ariel Jurado, who allowed only two hits in six scoreless innings, but Delino DeShields Jr. reached over the center-field wall to rob Goodwin of what would have been his 14th homer.
While Jurado retired eight of the final 11 batters he faced, Miguel Del Pozo was charged a run in the sixth when Keynan Middleton allowed an RBI single in his first MLB game since undergoing Tommy John surgery last year. Fellow reliever Cam Bedrosian gave up a two-run double in the eighth to put the game out of reach for the Angels, who had just three hits.
