Nolan Schanuel: Angels ‘Not In A Panic’ After Being Swept By Orioles

The Los Angeles Angels went into the weekend with real momentum. They had won seven of their previous nine games, were facing a Baltimore Orioles team that has been struggling all season long and were welcoming in top prospect Christian Moore into the lineup to join the young core of Nolan Schanuel, Zach Neto and Logan O’Hoppe.

But the weekend did not go as planned for the Angels. They were swept by the Orioles in a series that never looked particularly good. They were blanked in the opener, then gave up 17 runs over the next two games while only scoring seven. Moore went 0-for-6 on the weekend.

This put the Angels at 33-37, a massive hit to the momentum they had on both the American League West picture and the wild card picture. But part of the long season is the ups and downs that come with it, and Schanuel — for one — is not concerned after the rough showing, via Jeff Fletcher of The O.C. Register:

“Not in a panic,” first baseman Nolan Schanuel said. “We had a bad series. It happens. With this group of guys, I think we’ll bounce back quick. Going to New York, hopefully set a statement early. We got four there. So come out, get a series. Go back home. Play the Astros and set a tone for our division.”

Manager Ron Washington believes the team just couldn’t piece things together with the bats consistently enough, but still had themselves in position to win games.

“We had opportunities in all three of these games, and they did what they needed to do to win it and we didn’t do what we needed to win,” Washington said. “So we’ve got to go to New York and get back on track. No one’s lost confidence in that room in there. We’ve just got to go play better baseball.”

The Angels have shown, at times, this season, that they can be a real force and may make some actual noise. But it has to be in more than just stretches of good play. Consistency is the next step for this young Angels core, especially with Moore now in the mix.

Angels face Yankees in four-game set

The Angels have an immediate chance to get back on track — the beauty of the baseball season — but they’ll need to go through Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees on the road to do it. New York has the second-best record in the AL and are led by Judge, who is currently having yet another historic season at the plate and is on pace to run away with his third AL MVP award.

Below are the days, times and probable pitching matchups.

Game 1: Monday, June 16, 4:05 p.m. PT (MLB Network)
Jose Soriano vs. Clarke Schmidt

Game 2: Tuesday, June 17, 4:05 p.m. PT
Kyle Hendricks vs. Will Warren

Game 3: Wednesday, June 18, 4:05 p.m. PT (Prime Video)
Jack Kochanowicz vs. Ryan Yarbrough

Game 4: Thursday, June 19, 10:05 a.m. PT (MLB Network)
Tyler Anderson vs. Carlos Rodon