Jun 21, 2025; Anaheim, California, USA; Los Angeles Angels acting manager Ray Montgomery (81) talks on a bullpen phone before the game against the Houston Astros at Angel Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

Angels Manager Calls Out Astros Stadium: 'That Needs To Be Fixed and Addressed'

Originally posted on Los Angeles Angels on SI
By Gabe Smallson | Last updated Sep 7, 2025 7:30 PM ET

On the last day of August, the Los Angeles Angels were unfortunately a part of a scary scene at the Houston Astros stadium, Daikin Park.

Left fielder Taylor Ward collided with the dangerous, protruding metal part of the outfield wall while tracking down a fly ball. Daikin Park is known for its quirky design and has even featured other oddities like a flag pole and a hill in centerfield at one point, but acting manager Ray Montgomery recently spoke about the need to make the outfield wall safer, and how an injury like Ward's (and future incidents) shouldn't be a result of a unique outfield.

Scary scene here in Houston.

Hopefully Taylor Ward is OK.

(Just last night after the game, he and Jo Adell were talking about how dangerous it can be to hit that that out of town scoreboard wrong.) pic.twitter.com/P6yAzKLCtx
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) August 31, 2025

“That was a steel beam that he hit out there,” Montgomery said. “It wasn’t concrete. It wasn’t padded. It wasn’t protected. It wasn’t the aluminum numbers that they used. So that needs to be fixed and addressed, for sure.”

Ward isn't the only Angels outfielder who has experienced this. Jo Adell spoke on a similar issue at that ballpark in 2021 when he was playing left field.

“He’s doing what he’s supposed to do,” Adell said. “He’s being aggressive on a play. At the bottom line, and I’ve talked about this before, but there should be no out-of-town metal scoreboard anywhere on the baseball field. It’s the big leagues. This (expletive) is ridiculous. A guy goes back to make a play, and he’s got to worry about a metal fence. That’s crazy. So that’s my honest opinion about it. He did everything he could to make a play, and he gets beat up by something that’s beyond controllable.

“I pulled an oblique on it. I hit my head. I missed a month and a half of the season. At what point is it just not acceptable anymore? I don’t know. In my opinion.”

Adell's opinion is far from unpopular, and in an era where player safety is everything, it is puzzling that this hazard still exists.

Ward received about 20 stitches to repair a blood vessel and luckily avoided a concussion or any eye damage. Although the proper padding should have been there, Ward didn't blame any outside forces for the collision.

“I was pretty far in the gap, and I thought I had room in that little corner there,” Ward said. “Obviously I didn’t. And the ball’s hit pretty hard too. I should have definitely peeked, obviously. Another learning situation out there. Should have peeked, and I think that would have helped a lot if I would have, but didn’t. Tried to go for the ball and the wall was there.”