Of the 30 MLB teams, the Los Angeles Angels may have had the worst Opening Day.
On Thursday, the Angels were given a fantastic chance to begin the season with a victory. The Chicago White Sox, who had just finished a historically poor 41-121 season, were their first opponents.
At Rate Field in Chicago, Illinois, however, the humble White Sox opened the scoring with three runs to get the crowd excited. The White Sox scored five more runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, and the Angels were at a loss for offensive answers.
Things got so bad for the Angels that they ended up inserting infielder Nicky Lopez to get the final out of the inning. Lopez walked the first man he faced but was eventually able to get White Sox shortstop Jacob Amaya to fly out to right field.
The move makes sense for the Angels in a vacuum. With the game out of hand, manager Ron Washington did not want to tire out any of his remaining pitchers for an inconsequential out. Perhaps he wanted to keep his other bullpen arms fresh for a bounce-back in the following day’s rematch.
But given the context, it’s pretty sad to even be in that situation on Opening Day rather than some regular season game in August. Having it happen against the White Sox makes it exponentially worse.
The Angels finally broke through in the 9th inning when catcher Logan O’Hoppe belted a home run to left field. The blast made the final score a slightly-less-embarrassing 8-1.
