BALTIMORE — After years of underachieving and then months in which they didn’t do enough to satisfy their fans that they were moving in the right direction, the Angels began the 2024 season by sending a message that things were going to be different.
Then, the bottom of the first inning started.
After Mike Trout’s homer put the Angels on the board in the top of the first, Patrick Sandoval failed to hold the lead for even three outs, sending the Angels on their way to an 11-3 Opening Day loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday.
Sandoval was charged with five runs while recording just five outs. That was not what he Angels needed on a day they had to tangle with former Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes in his debut with an Orioles team that won 101 games without him last year.
Sandoval walked two of the first three hitters of the game, with a bloop single in between, loading the bases with no outs. Sandoval was an out away from escaping the inning with only one run on the board, but Jordan Westburg hit a flare just over leaping second baseman Brandon Drury, pushing in a second run.
In the second, third baseman Anthony Rendon mishandled a routine grounder to start the inning. Jorge Mateo then rolled a grounder just inside the third base line, for a double.
An out later, Sandoval gave up singles to Adley Rutschman and Ryan Mountcastle, driving in two more runs. An Anthony Santander sacrifice fly drove in the fifth run. The Orioles then added an infield hit when a ball ticked off Rendon’s glove.
Sandoval was then pulled, having endured a painfully familiar storyline, filled with walks, bloop hits and poor defense behind him all. Two of the runs were unearned. Five of the six hits he allowed had exit velocities of slower than 90 mph.
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José Suarez followed him to the mound and soaked up 3⅔ innings, allowing two more runs. The Orioles added four more against right-hander José Cisnero, three on a Cedric Mullins homer in the seventh.
Even if the Angels had pitched better or played better defense, they still might have lost because the hitters did nothing with Burnes.
Trout belted a 402-foot homer on a Burnes slider, setting an Angels record with his fourth Opening Day homer.
The Angels did not have another baserunner against Burnes, striking out 11 times in his six innings.
More to come on this story.