Infielder Luis Rengifo and midfielder Jo Adell are expected back in the starting lineup on Thursday afternoon for Los Angeles Angels when they play host Tampa Bay rays in the final in a three-game series.
Both did not start Angels 5-4 loss to the rays on Wednesday, but not because of injury. They sat because Angels manager Ron Washington perceived the lack of life from both players on the infield bases a day earlier in the Los Angeles 4-3 victory.
Rengifo hit a grounder for card stops in the sixth round but did not go hard to first the base. Radiations first bass man Jonathan Aranda beaten the throw from the short stop Taylor Walls, but since Rengifo was slow to get down on the line, Aranda had time to pick up the ball and record.
Rengifo has been disturbed by a sore hamstring since spring training but said it is not a question now.
“He felt he was out,” Washington said. “It is unacceptable. He tried to save energy and we do not want him to preserve energy. We want him to express all the energy he has every day between these lines. He just brain controlled.”
Yoan Moncada began at the third base for Angels on Wednesday but had to leave the game after beating out in his lonely bat, which apparently aggravated his proposal right thumb. However, instead of putting Rengifo in the game, Washington put Nicky Lopez into the third. Rengifo entered the game in the eighth round as a pinch of hits and founded out.
In the fifth round on Tuesday, Adell did not seem to run hard on a grounder, and he was out despite the ball being beaten by the other Baseman Brandon Lowe.
“He has driven around the midfield, somewhere he has not been, and he is starting to find out that there is a fatigue factor going on out there,” Washington said. “I just see his movement a little slow. So I just wanted to give him one day.”
The rays had their own disciplinary question on Tuesday, as Christopher Morel was thrown out for throwing his bat in the ground after a swinging strike in the eighth round. Although he drew in Ray’s manager Kevin Cash, Morel was in the set on Wednesday and went 1-for-3 with a walk.
“It can’t happen,” Cash said about the draft. “It can’t happen.”
Morel said through an interpreter: “After what happened, I thought about it. And I was like:” Well, I shouldn’t have. “
The right dealer Jose Soriano (1-1, 3.65 era) will make his third start of the Los Angeles season on Thursday. He comes from a loss against Cleveland Guardians on Friday, when he allowed five runs and five hits in 5 1/3 rounds while compiling a career best nine strikes.
Soriano is 0-1 with a 3.75 era in five career games (two starts) against Tampa Bay.
The right hand Zack Littell (0-2, 4.15 era) will make its third start for the rays. Littell, who is 0-0 with a 3.27 era in three career games (two starts) against Angels, went seven rounds in his last start on Friday against Texas Rangers, but he allowed five runs and six hits.
“We preach strike and attack,” Cash said. “He did it for the better part of the game (but) did not get the results you generally get when you hit that way.”
-Field level media
