Buttrey steps away from game
A triple and two-run homer help to erase a one-run deficit in the eighth inning.
Pitcher Ty Buttrey says he’s leaving baseball for good before Angels’ 5-3 win over White Sox.
Jared Walsh pounded his fist on third base. Justin Upton pounded forearms with Walsh at home plate.
After finishing last season as two of the Angels’ most dangerous hitters, the duo struck again in the eighth inning Saturday night. Walsh erased a one-run deficit with an RBI triple, Upton clobbered a go-ahead, two-run home run in the next at-bat, and the Angels went on to win 5-3 over the Chicago White Sox at Angel Stadium.
The Angels (2-1) had been playing from behind since the top of the sixth inning, when White Sox rookie Yermín Mercedes broke a 2-2 tie with an RBI double off the wall in left field — his eighth straight hit
to begin the season, a major league record since the start of the live-ball era in 1900.
The Angels — who scored their first two runs in the third inning after White Sox center fielder Luis Robert missed a routine two-out fly ball that hit off his head — had failed to threaten in the bottom of the sixth or seventh and began the eighth with Mike Trout’s third strikeout of the night.
But then Anthony Rendon singled with one out and White Sox reliever Evan Marshall threw Walsh a 1-and-2 changeup over the plate. Walsh crushed it into the right-field corner, scoring Rendon from first and racing all the way to third as outfielder Adam Eaton chased the ball down near the wall.
Two pitches later, Marshall went back to his changeup again.
Upton sent it sailing into the bullpen in left field.
“If you zoom in on my mouth [in the replay],” Walsh said, “put one of those blur things on it when that ball went over the fence.”
With Angels closer Raisel Iglesias unavailable after working the previous two nights, the ninth inning went to Junior Guerra, who returned to the mound after a scoreless eighth inning to close out the game.
“To come together as quickly as we have,” manager Joe Maddon said, “it’s really a testament to the veteran players on this team.”
Cobb sharp in Angels debut
Alex Cobb pitched well in his debut with the Angels, giving up three runs in six innings with seven strikeouts. Other than Mercedes, who had a solo home run, single and RBI double against the right-hander, Cobb had his way with the White Sox’s potent lineup.
Cobb leaned heavily on his splitter, throwing it 36 times (more than any other pitch) and inducing 12 swings-andmisses.
The sixth inning was perhaps the most important of Cobb’s outing. After permitting the first three batters to reach base — capped by Mercedes’ go-ahead double — Cobb had runners on second and third with no one out.
But then, he retired three straight White Sox to keep the deficit at one: a popout from Robert, strikeout of Andrew Vaughn and groundout from Leury Garcia. Of the 11 pitches those at-bats required, he threw the splitter 10 times.
“That’s Alex, the way he competes,” Maddon said. “You can see the makeup, you can see how he goes about his business. He never gets too quick. That was great to see, the first time out of the blocks with him.”
Buttrey walks away from baseball
Angels reliever Ty Buttrey announced that he is leaving baseball, explaining in an almost 600-word statement posted to Instagram that he had lost his love for the sport and was ready to go a different direction in life.
It came a day after Maddon announced that Buttrey, a 28-year-old right-hander, would be placed on the restricted list because he hadn’t reported to the team’s alternate training site.
A mainstay in the Angels bullpen since his MLB debut in 2018, Buttrey wasn’t on the opening day roster coming out of spring training this year — though Maddon said Buttrey’s decision was “independent of whether he made the team or not.”
Buttrey wrote in his statement: “I contacted the Angels and they asked me to give it some time and to think about it. Part of the process was to be optioned, which I accepted. I took the additional time to make sure my thoughts were clear. I recontacted the Angels and told them I was leaving the game for my own personal reasons.”
He later added: “I want to finally be known as just Ty, not the baseball player.”