The Los Angeles Angels had their five-game winning streak snapped with a 6-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Saturday.
Patrick Sandoval continued his recent struggles, allowing five runs on a season-high 10 hits but struck out eight batters without issuing a walk over five innings of work. The left-hander dropped his fifth consecutive decision and fell to 3-6 on the season.
Sandoval discussed his outing after the game and expressed a desire to make better in-game adjustments, per J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group:
“Just got to make some more adjustments, be better in-game at making adjustments to pitches, give us a better chance to win,” he said. “I felt good about my stuff today. I just needed to kind of make an adjustment in how I was attacking guys, take more control of, and take control of my career.”
Matt Thaiss was behind the plate for Sandoval’s start and thinks he pitched well outside of a few mistakes:
“He made some really good pitches,” Angels catcher Matt Thaiss said of Sandoval. “There were a couple pitches that were left up in the zone. He just got burned by those couple pitches, that was all.”
While Sandoval has been trending downward of late, the Angels coaching staff and his teammates know what he is capable of. The 26-year-old is only one year removed from a breakout campaign that saw him go 6-9 with a 2.91 ERA, 3.09 FIP, 1.34 WHIP across 148.2 innings pitched (27 starts).
Sandoval is striking out fewer batters and allowing more hits this season, which likely have contributed to his woes. He is currently sporting a 3-6 record, 4.52 ERA, 4.06 FIP and 1.45 WHIP through 12 starts.
Shohei Ohtani hasn’t felt similar to last season on the mound for Angels
Ohtani, the Angels’ ace, has posted a 3.32 ERA and 1.04 WHIP with 102 strikeouts in 76 innings pitched this season.
While those numbers are solid, the two-way star put up even better stats on the mound last year en route to a fourth-place finish in American League Cy Young Award voting.
Ohtani admitted he hasn’t performed up to standards and hopes that changes as the season progresses.
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