HOUSTON – Catcher Logan O’Hoppe joined a relatively rare club for the Angels with his 20th home run, but it wasn’t nearly enough to keep pace with the red-hot bats of the Houston Astros in Saturday’s 10-4 defeat at Minute Maid Park.
Entering Sunday’s series finale, the Angels have now lost three straight to open this weekend’s four-game set, and they’ve lost all six times they’ve played the Astros over a span of nine days. Houston (85-70) leads the AL West by five games with only seven left to play, while the Angels (62-93) remain mired in last place.
It was the second straight game in which an Angels starter couldn’t escape the third inning, and those extra innings to fill are increasingly taxing the bullpen, as well. One night after Tyler Anderson’s poor performance, 25-year-old left-hander Reid Detmers was even worse, allowing nine hits, three walks, and seven runs (all earned) in two-plus innings. Victor Caratini did the most damage with a three-run home run to Houston’s left-field Crawford Boxes.
Carson Fulmer absorbed three key innings for the bullpen, allowing seven hits but only one run in that span. In all, the Astros finished with 20 hits, giving them 34 in two nights after a similarly dominant showing versus Angels pitchers on Friday. Sluggers Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker smacked back-to-back homers off Ryan Miller in the seventh, and that eight-run margin led to a position player – Michael Stefanic – logging an inning of mop-up duty in the eighth.
One bright spot came on offense in the form of O’Hoppe, whose fourth-inning blast made him just the fourth catcher in Angels history with a 20-homer season. He joins Mike Napoli, Lance Parrish, and Earl Averill Jr. in that club. O’Hoppe ranks third among Major League catchers in 2024, trailing only Seattle’s Cal Raleigh and Oakland’s Shea Langeliers (both with 26).
Fresh after an off day Friday, O’Hoppe also logged a pair of doubles on a 4-for-4 night, and he now has 36 extra-base hits this season. In a year without too many bright spots for the Angels, having a 24-year-old catcher with power is a useful part of any blueprint for 2025 and beyond.
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