Angels' Logan O'Hoppe Defends Questionable Decision in Loss to Yankees

The Los Angeles Angels trailed the New York Yankees, 3-2, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Catcher Logan O'Hoppe was pinch hitting and earned a 3-0 count with one on against Yankees reliever Devin Williams. The closer had already allowed three hits and two earned runs up to this point of the contest.

O'Hoppe swung at the next pitch he saw and ended up popping it up into foul ground on the third base side. It went into the glove of Yankees third baseman Oswald Peraza as the Angels dropped their fourth in a row.

O'Hoppe was asked about swinging at the 3-0 pitch that, according to MLB Statcast, was out of the strike zone.

“You play to win the game,” O’Hoppe said. “Play to win the game. I took a shot. I can sleep comfortably tonight knowing that you take a shot to end it. Of course people are going to disagree, because it was a little bit out of the zone. But you play to win. You don’t play to not lose, and that’s all I was doing.”

Manager Ron Washington defended his star catcher after the game as well.

“I thought it was a good idea,” Washington said. “If he catches that ball and hits a double or hits it out of the ballpark, everybody’s happy. That was our shot right there. He had to throw a strike.”

O'Hoppe has 14 home runs on the year and an OPS of .827. He is certainly someone that the Angels would trust to take the swing in that situation, but another potential base runner late in the game would have been extremely valuable.

Matthew Lugo was due up next who was hitless Tuesday evening with a strikeout. Zach Neto would have been after him with his three strikeouts and a hit in his four at-bats.

The game of what-ifs is a slippery slope, though. What is most important part is that the catcher had the support of his manager in a somewhat controversial move.

The Halos will look to avoid the sweep on Wednesday night.

For more Angels news head over to Angels on SI.