The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Pitching moves key to Angels' triumph
>> The Angels made a switch in pitching plans because they figured that Jaime Barría would be better as a starter and Chase Silseth would be better as a high-leverage reliever.
Both decisions paid off on Monday night.
Mickey Moniak’s eighthinning home run lifted the Angels’ to a 2-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox, a game that was started with five scoreless innings from Barria and ended with two from Silseth.
Moniak is off to a sizzling start since he was recalled just over a week ago, and he’s now taken over in left field while Taylor Ward tries to rediscover his swing.
Moniak drove in the tiebreaking runs in the seventh on Sunday and on Monday he drilled his third homer in nine games, snapping a 1-1 tie.
“It felt great,” Moniak said. “It’s a hard feeling to describe. Playing this game, stuff like that is what you strive to do, and it doesn’t get much better than hitting the go-ahead homer late in the game. It was a good one. Probably one of my favorite ones I’ve hit so far.”
It came too late to get a victory for Barria. Silseth picked up the victory and he also finished it off, demonstrating
exactly the type of arm the Angels want to add to the late-inning mix with Matt Moore and Carlos Estévez.
Both of them were unavailable on Monday after pitching three of the previous four days, so Silseth got the chance. Silseth worked a perfect eighth and ninth, locking up the Angels’ fourth victory in their last five games, all against teams with winning records.
“If that’s where they want me to be right now, that’s where I’ll be and be happy about it,” Silseth said. “To do that right there and just help the team win, that’s all that matters to me.”
Last week the Angels tried Silseth as their No. 6 starter, but he ran out of gas in the fourth inning and gave up four runs. The Angels liked him so much in his brief work as a lateinning reliever before that start, so they opted to return him to the bullpen.
That opened the door for Barria to go from multi-inning mop-up man to starter.
Barria had not thrown more than 58 pitches in any relief outing, so the Angels were just hoping he could make it through a few innings.
Barria needed just 64 pitches to work five innings. He gave up leadoff singles in the second and fourth, but nothing else. The Red Sox did not even get a runner into scoring position against him.
Barria will start again the next time the Angels need a sixth starter, a week from Wednesday in Chicago. One of the things the Angels like about Barria is he’s flexible enough that he could go back to the bullpen between now and then.
Barria has gone between the rotation and bullpen throughout his Angels career, starting with a 3.41 ERA in 26 starts in his age21 season in 2018.
After that, though, the Angels bounced Barria from the majors to Triple-a, and from the rotation to the bullpen. They used him behind an opener regularly.
None of it really worked until he settled into a long relief role last season, posting a 2.61 ERA in 79-1/3 innings. He had a 1.96 ERA in his first 23 innings this season before the Angels finally decided to give him another crack at the rotation.
Barria had made no secret of the fact that he wanted to start again, although he accepted his recent role in the bullpen. But after such a successful outing in his first start of the season, he was optimistic that he’ll remain in that role.