O’Hoppe Stays Hot, Bullpen Shines as Angels Secure Series Win

ANAHEIM, Calif.  — The Los Angeles Angels (6-3) capped an opening weekend homestand with a 6-2 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday, taking two of three in the series behind a balanced offensive attack and shutdown relief work.  

Angels manager Ron Washington pointed to his mound visit with Tyler Anderson in the 5th inning as the pivotal moment of the game. Washington also revealed he intended to take Anderson out of the game, but was convinced otherwise.

“We wanted to keep [Carlos Santana] and (Jose) Ramirez on the left side, but he talked me out of it and thank God he talked me out of it because that ignited us,” Washington said after the win.

After intentionally walking Ramirez, Anderson struck out Santana to end the 5th and keep the score tied at 2 runs apiece.

“I just felt like I had still been making pretty good pitches and I thought Santana could do a lot of damage to us from the left side too so I wanted to keep him righty,” Anderson said.

Anderson’s closing statline was 5.0 IP, 2 ER and 1H on 81 pitches.

The Angels added breathing room in the seventh with fundamental execution. After Taylor Ward's single loaded the bases, Luis Rengifo and Soler each delivered sacrifice flies - the latter coming after an intentional walk to Mike Trout that loaded the bases.

The Angels' bullpen preserved the lead with dominant relief work. Ben Joyce entered in the seventh inning and was able to get José Ramírez out on a fly ball to right, then retired the side in order in the 8th inning.

After a 10-run outing on Saturday night, the Angels bats stayed hot into Sunday as Logan O’Hoppe, Jorge Soler and Kyren Paris all homered in the series finale against Cleveland.

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Paris’ homer took away a save opportunity for Kenley Jansen, who came in and retired the side to put the series on ice.

For O’Hoppe, his homer was his fourth in as many games. When asked about his hot start to 2025, O’Hoppe said this season feels similar to his senior year of high school.

”It’s just good to come to the park every day, it doesn’t feel like a job at all. You’re just hanging out with your boys and getting your job done.”