ANAHEIM — On the night when interim general manager John Mozeliak made his first trade toward reshaping the roster, the Angels showed there’s still plenty of work that needs to be done.
Despite an encouraging performance from Grayson Rodriguez and a three-run lead in the first inning, the offense, defense and bullpen didn’t do enough to keep the Angels from a 7-4 loss – and a sweep – against the Houston Astros on Wednesday night.
The Angels (42-67) are a season-worst 25 games under .500, on pace for a 62-100 record. They have never lost 100 games in their franchise history.
They haven’t had a winning season since 2015, which is why Mozeliak was brought in to try to get the franchise turned in the right direction. When he shipped out catcher Logan O’Hoppe, who had been considered a part of the young core, he talked about the organization’s need for “change.”
For now, though, they still need a deeper lineup.
On Monday night, they started strong, scoring three runs in the first inning against right-hander Hayden Wesneski in his first game back from Tommy John surgery.
The Angels had four hits and a walk in the first inning, but they didn’t score again until the eighth inning, when they were down by three runs.
“We got to him early and then he kind of settled in and he was throwing some really good two-seamers that were really moving and mixing it up, throwing strikes,” Suzuki said. “He kept attacking the zone. I thought he pitched well. Once he settled in, he pitched really well. We had a good first inning and then had a tough time mustering up anything after that.”
The bullpen was taxed because Angels starters have only made it past the fifth inning in one of the five games they had played since the previous off day. And it was further short-handed on Wednesday because right-hander Chase Silseth was also a part of the O’Hoppe trade, and the Angels didn’t have time to replace him on the roster.
Left-hander Mitch Farris was the first one through the bullpen door when Rodriguez left after five innings. Farris was pitching for the third time in four days, so the extra workload might have contributed to his uncharacteristic lack of control. He walked three, on his way to allowing three runs.
The Astros then added an insurance run in the seventh when a pop-up dropped in shallow right field, between first baseman Nolan Schanuel and right fielder Jo Adell. The Angels made another error leading to an unearned run in the ninth.
Amid all that, the most positive development was Rodriguez allowing two runs in five innings.
Rodriguez has been inconsistent throughout his return to the mound, showing plenty of rust from nearly a year and a half missed to injuries. His stuff has been mostly good, but the command has been lacking.
On Wednesday, Rodriguez struck out six, equaling the most in any of his 10 starts. He walked two. Rodriguez also induced 15 whiffs, which was four more than he had in any previous game. The Astros whiffed on seven of their 15 swings at his changeup.
“Changeup was so much better today,” Rodriguez said. “I was able to throw some offspeed pitches for strikes. If the changeups are like that, I’m excited what I can do. It kind of felt like how it did in ’24, just being able to throw it in different counts. … Being aggressive with the changeup is big for me.”
Rodriguez’s fastball was consistently 97 mph and hit 98 mph.
Rodriguez, 26, is under control to the Angels for three more seasons, so they would love for him to show the stuff he demonstrated before his injuries, particularly as they might trade away other starting pitchers in the coming days.
“I’ve been putting in a lot of work over the last couple weeks,” Rodriguez said. “Definitely getting it dialed in a little bit better. Obviously, a couple pitches left over the middle of the plate, hit for home runs. Don’t want that, but definitely a step in the right direction.”