Angels GM Perry Minasian says he is hopeful that Trout can return at some point in the club’s final two weeks, but says there wasn’t much reason to “push it” with the Angels out of the playoff conversation
Shohei Ohtani isn’t the only Angels star who isn’t expected to finish out the season on the field. Mike Trout, who suffered a fractured hamate bone, has been taking dry swings but has done little else.
Angels general manager Perry Minasian said he is hopeful that Trout, 32, can return at some point in the final two weeks of the season but said there hasn’t been much reason to “push it” with the Angels out of the playoff conversation.
“It’s improving, but he hasn’t swung a bat in a while,” Minasian said. “It’s going to take some time. With that being said, the goal is for him to have a good peace of mind, which is important going into an offseason.
“I believe it would be really beneficial for him to play again but it has to feel good, and we understand that it’s still bothering him.”
Trout, who was hitting .263 with 18 home runs and 44 RBIs before he was injured, returned for one game but quickly was placed back on the injured list. The three-time American League MVP said earlier this month that his right hand was “getting a lot better,” but he was still experiencing pain.
“I do know he likes playing, he wants to play,” Minasian said. “It’s just something he has to work through.”
On Saturday, Ohtani joined Trout on the IL after it was disclosed that his oblique injury had not completely healed. Ohtani cleared out his locker Friday night and the Angels said before Saturday’s game that the two-way star, who needs some kind of procedure on his pitching elbow during the offseason, was put on the injured list and finished for the season.
Ohtani, the likely AL MVP for the second time in the past three seasons, watched from the dugout as the Detroit Tigers beat the Angels.
DIFFERENT DIAGNOSIS, SAME TREATMENT
Minasian downplayed the news that third baseman Anthony Rendon suffered a fractured tibia and not a bone bruise as the club had announced.
Rendon said earlier this week that he sought further imaging on his shin last month and received a different diagnosis. Rendon saw four doctors who all diagnosed a bone bruise before the fifth identified a fracture.
“The diagnosis doesn’t matter. It is treated the same way,” Minasian said.
“For us, we need to get Anthony on the field and playing. He’s a really good player and he enhances (the team) when he plays. We have a way better chance of winning games with the attitude he plays with, the baseball IQ, what he does in the batter’s box. He’s one of those winning players who will find a way to do what needs to be done to win.”
Rendon, 33, was batting .236 with two home runs and 35 hits before taking a foul ball off his shin during a July 4 game against the San Diego Padres.
In the fourth year of a seven-year, $245 million contract, Rendon has played 200 games with the Angels, batting .249 with a .758 OPS and 22 home runs with 111 RBIs. He has yet to play 60 games in a season for the club.
RETIREMENT PARTY
Former Angels All-Star Alpert Pujols stopped by Angel Stadium to help present a surfboard to Detroit Tigers infielder Melky Cabrera in a pregame ceremony marking his retirement after this, his 21st season in the major leagues.
TIGERS 5, ANGELS 4
Maybe it was Ohtani’s presence in the dugout that nearly got the Angels a come-from-behind victory. But in the end, the Angels came up short in dropping their fourth consecutive game.
After tying the score in the eighth, the Tigers started the ninth with a runner on second. Cabrera drove in the winning run with a hard shot down the right field line drive off Jose Soriano (1-3).
The Angels struggled at the plate early on, coming up with just two hits – both by rookie Nolan Schanuel – until the eighth.
Schanuel led off the game with a base hit to left, extending his streak of reaching base safely to begin a career to 21 games. But the Angels failed to capitalize and left two on base.
The Tigers responded in the next inning, taking a 3-0 lead on Zack Short’s three-run home run off starter Tyler Anderson (6-7).
Schanuel (3 for 5, 1 RBI) trimmed the lead 3-1 on his first career home run, a solo shot over the right field wall, accounting for two of the Angels’ hits.
Detroit added another run in the fifth inning when Cabrera’s high fly ball to second fell between three Angels, allowing Kerry Carpenter to score from first.
The Angels cut the lead to one on a two-run home run by Jared Walsh, his third of the season, in the eighth and then tied the score at 4-4 on Brett Phillips’ two-out homer to right field.
Tigers right-hander Sawyer Gipson-Long shut down the Angels, allowing just one run on two hits and striking out 11 over five innings in just his second career start.
Anderson, who went eight innings in his last outing, was tagged with all four runs and walked five but struck out seven over five innings Saturday in picking up the loss.
