Angels routed by White Sox in Opening Day fiasco

The 2025 campaign is officially underway for the Los Angeles Angels, although the opener was one to forget. The Angels were defeated 8-1 at the hands of the Chicago White Sox on Thursday afternoon at Rate Field.

Chicago blasted six home runs en route to the sizeable victory, starting off their season on a much more optimistic tone. Finishing as 2024's worst team in baseball at 41-121, they'll look to show any type of improvement possible this season.

It was, notably, Yusei Kikuchi's first start as an Angel. The 33-year-old southpaw delivered a quality start on the road, working six innings and surrendering three earned runs.

He ran into the bulk of his trouble in the second, where Austin Slater took a 2-1 slider to the seats in left that got Chicago on the board. Five batters later, Miguel Vargas managed to bloop a two-run double into shallow left that extended the lead to 3-0.

Kikuchi was very sharp the rest of the way through, holding the White Sox hitless through his final four innings of work. Despite an overall respectable outing, he fell to 0-1 in his Angels debut.

On the other side of things, the Los Angeles lineup failed to generate any sort of production for the vast majority of the afternoon. They collected just five hits total, barely escaping a shutout with Logan O'Hoppe's two-out solo homer in the top of the ninth.

The catcher was the only one in the lineup Thursday to come up with multiple hits as he finished 2-4. 

Chicago right-hander Sean Burke earned the win, dealing six shutout innings and conceding just three hits. 

Mike Trout, who is spending the season in right field for the first time in his career, was greeted with a hit-by-pitch right into his hand during his first at-bat. Fortunately, he was able to shake it off and remain in the game, and it looks like, for now, he and the rest of the squad have avoided an early injury disaster.

Out of the bullpen, right-hander Ryan Johnson was roughed up in his first career appearance. Johnson, a 22-year-old Texas native who had never thrown a single pitch in the minor leagues, allowed five runs in just 1 2/3 innings.

He was taken deep by both Andrew Benintendi on a three-run shot and Lenyn Sosa on a two-run blast. Johnson is yet another product of the aggressive call-up philosophy that Los Angeles has implemented with their young talent in recent years.

Angels' infielder Nicky Lopez was forced into action to earn the final out of the eighth inning after Johnson was pulled by manager Ron Washington with 35 pitches.

Los Angeles will look to right the ship on Saturday as they play game two of the series. Jose Soriano will take the bump to make his season debut against Chicago right-hander Jonathan Cannon.

First pitch is scheduled for 11:10 a.m. PT.