Dodgers end road trip with win in Arizona behind Tony Gonsolin

• May 12, 2025

PHOENIX — As Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow went to the Injured List (yet to return) and bullpen games made an early-season cameo, the depth the Dodgers seemed to have assembled in starting pitching was not in evidence.

It might be starting to appear. Pitching like the All-Star he was in 2022 before Tommy John surgery in 2023 sidelined him for all of 2024, Tony Gonsolin held the Arizona Diamondbacks to three hits in five scoreless innings as the Dodgers won 8-1 Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, in Oklahoma City, Clayton Kershaw finished off his rehab assignment. He will join the Dodgers’ starting rotation next weekend.

“It would be great. And it’s in there,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the boost a 2022-level return from Gonsolin would provide the Dodgers. “I think that what he’s doing right now is signs of 2022, and also, you have the experience of a guy that is seasoned, really knows what he’s capable of. It would be really helpful.”

Sunday’s win concluded the longest road trip of the season for the Dodgers, who went 6-4 on the three-city tour, taking two of three in Atlanta and Miami then splitting a four-game series in Arizona.

Gonsolin’s road back was even longer. He acknowledged that he had questions about what he would be capable of after “pitching with half an arm for awhile there” in 2023 and waiting for his stuff to rebound post-surgery. A back injury at the end of spring delayed his return but bought him some additional time to rebound.

“I feel like it was really bad for a really long time,” he said. “Since I got back, maybe started doing my rehab after my back stuff this year, I thought the shapes and the velos and everything around my stuff has really come around.

“I mean those thoughts (doubts) have gone through my head, for sure. But as these last three starts have shown, I can do it. I can create miss when I need to. Just missing that going deeper in the game, so hopefully we can get one of those really soon.”

Gonsolin stranded two runners in the first inning and again in the third, helping push his pitch count to 84 in the five innings he did give the Dodgers. Mindful that it was just his third start back – and that he was the first Dodgers’ pitcher to start on four days’ rest this season – Roberts didn’t push Gonsolin any farther.

“Really impressed,” Roberts said. “I think the first-pitch strike is huge. He’s on the attack. He’s striking the split, shortening it. He can use a slider, curveball. He’s got a legit four-pitch mix, and today, it was actually encouraging to see him touch 95 (mph) too.

“Big lift for us.”

The Dodgers were leading 3-0 by the time Gonsolin’s day was done, on their way to an easy win. Held hitless Saturday, Freddie Freeman’s hitting streak ended at 14 games. He started a new one with four hits Sunday. Michael Conforto emerged from the darkness of his extended slump with his first extra-base hit since April 5 and first multi-hit game since April 2, going 2 for 3 with a double.

“He’s finding some outfield grass, and I just commend him. It’s hard to struggle the way he struggled and still come out each day with some sense of positivity,” Roberts said of Conforto.

Freeman has been finding all kinds of grass – and the occasional bleacher seat. He is 29 for 61 (.475) over the past 16 games with five doubles, a triple, five home runs and 22 RBIs. His average for the season rose to .376 with Sunday’s four-fer.

“He carried us this road trip,” Roberts said.

“I looked up the other day and saw he was hitting .360, I had no idea. … He’s just been relentless. He’s just taking good at-bats. And I looked up the other day and saw he was hitting .360, I had no idea. But kind of, when you look into it, he’s just really – like I said, he’s just been relentless.”

Freeman drove in the Dodgers’ first run with a double in the first inning, then drove in another with a sacrifice fly after Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts singled to start the fifth. With the infield in and Betts on third, Will Smith pushed a single through the middle for another run.

By the time the Diamondbacks broke through for a run against Ben Casparius in the seventh, the Dodgers had added single runs in the sixth and seventh. Ohtani drove in the sixth-inning run with an RBI single, and Freeman hit a solo home run in the seventh for his third hit and third RBI of the game.

The Dodgers put the game away in the ninth with three more runs. Betts hit a solo home run. Freeman singled and moved to second on a balk then scored on a double by Smith.

Smith is now 16 for 32 (.484) with runners in scoring position this season. He scored on a single by Andy Pages.

“It was a long road trip,” Freeman summarized. “A lot of late flights. Late ‘get-ins.’ And to have a winning road trip, that was good.”

​ Orange County Register 

Angels’ mistakes lead to loss to Orioles

• May 12, 2025

ANAHEIM — On a day that the Angels had a chance to build some momentum by winning back-to-back series for the first time in nearly a month, they instead played a fundamental mess of a game.

The Angels made mistakes in the field and on the bases in a 7-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday.

A day after the Angels (16-23) played a clean game with good pitching, defense and hitting, the Angels didn’t have much of anything working on Sunday.

“All around, I think we need to tighten it up, myself included,” left fielder Taylor Ward said. “Just learn from it and turn the page.”

Ward made the first mistake of the day when he lost a routine fly ball with two outs in the first. It dropped behind him for a run-scoring triple.

“Once it hit the sky, I lost it completely,” Ward said. “It wasn’t in the sun or anything. Just lost it in the sky.”

Third baseman Yoán Moncada booted an easy grounder to start the fifth. That opened the door for the Orioles to score two unearned runs, taking a 3-2 lead.

Right-hander Connor Brogdon took the mound in the sixth, and he walked two of the first three batters he faced. One scored on a wild pitch, and the second came home on a suicide squeeze.

The Angels also scuttled a chance at a big inning at the plate with poor fundamentals in the third inning.

With Moncada at second and Jorge Soler at first and one out, Ward lined a single into right field. Third base coach Bo Porter stopped Moncada, but Soler never slowed down as he rounded second. Soler and Moncada both ended up at third, and Soler was tagged out.

Manager Ron Washington said he had no problem with Porter’s decision to hold Moncada. Right fielder Tyler O’Neill is a two-time Gold Glove winner who is currently leading major league right fielders in outfield assists, with five. Also, there was only one out, so the third base coach is supposed to play it safer than with two outs.

“That was a good decision (by Porter),” Washington said. “The problem came when Jorge didn’t run with his head up.”

Logan O’Hoppe then grounded out, and the Angels came away from the inning with nothing.

At that point, the Angels had a 2-1 lead, so a couple more runs — and getting into the soft part of the Orioles bullpen — could have changed the trajectory of the game.

Instead, the left themselves no margin for error, and the defense let that lead get away a couple innings later.

“We were ready to go,” Washington said. “We just didn’t make the plays.”

Starter Tyler Anderson was charged with three runs in his five innings, but he shouldn’t have allowed any. He didn’t see it that way.

“I did a bad job of giving up those runs in the fifth,” Anderson said. “Anytime someone makes an error behind you, you want to pick them up. These guys are trying hard, playing hard, and it probably hurts them more than anybody else. They feel it. So you want to pick them up as best you can. I let him down in the fifth inning.”

Anderson remains one of the most positive storylines in an otherwise dismal start to the Angels’ season.

The 35-year-old has a 2.58 ERA. His 21.0% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate are both better than in either of his first two seasons with the Angels.

“I feel in a better spot than I had been the last couple years, in terms of just command,” Anderson said. “I feel like, for the most part, I’m trying to make better pitches and just feel more comfortable out there than I think I had maybe the last couple years.”

Matthew Lugo also provided a nice moment when he hit his first career homer as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning. Lugo made his major league debut on Friday.

​ Orange County Register 

San Fernando company recalling several ready-to-eat food products after listeria outbreak

• May 12, 2025

SAN FERNANDO — At least 10 people in the U.S. have been sickened in a listeria outbreak linked to ready-to-eat food products, and a producer is voluntarily recalling several products, federal officials said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Saturday that federal, state and local officials are investigating the outbreak linked to foods produced by Fresh & Ready Foods LLC of San Fernando. The FDA says the 10 people who fell ill were in California and Nevada, and required hospitalization.

10 hospitalized in California, Nevada due to listeria outbreak linked to ready-to-eat foods. https://t.co/MqMKt3Dc4X

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) May 11, 2025

The agency said the products were sold in Arizona, California, Nevada and Washington at locations including retailers and food service points of sale, including hospitals, hotels, convenience stores, airports and by airlines.

Listeria symptoms usually start within two weeks of eating contaminated food. Mild cases can include fever, muscle aches, nausea, tiredness, vomiting and diarrhea, while more severe symptoms may include headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions.

Federal officials said they started investigating the recent outbreak last year but didn’t have enough evidence to identify a source of the infections. They said the investigation was reopened in April when FDA investigators found listeria in samples collected from Fresh & Ready Foods that matched the strain from the outbreak.

Fresh & Ready Foods said in a news release that it took immediate corrective actions including removing equipment to address the issue.

The FDA found that six of the 10 people who got sick had been hospitalized before becoming ill with listeria. The FDA found that items made by Fresh & Ready Foods had been served in at least three of the health care facilities where the patients had been previously treated.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the test samples from sick patients were collected from December 2023 to September 2024.

Fresh & Ready voluntarily recalled several products, which can be identified by “use by” dates ranging from April 22 to May 19 of this year under the brand names Fresh & Ready Foods, City Point Market Fresh Food to Go and Fresh Take Crave Away.

​ Orange County Register 

Dhalluin leads Stanford over USC in NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championship

• May 11, 2025

INDIANAPOLIS — Juliette Dhalluin score three goals on Sunday and the Stanford defense allowed just one second-half goal to help the Cardinal beat USC 11-7 to claim its 10th NCAA women’s water polo championship and third in the last four seasons.

No. 1 Stanford (25-1) finished the season on a 10-game win streak, dating to a 12-11 loss to the Trojans on March 29. The Cardinal beat USC 11-7 on April 27 in the semifinals of the MPSF Championship.

Dhalluin scored with a second left in the first half to make it 6-6 and again with 6:47 left in the third — the only goal of the quarter — gave Stanford the lead for good.

Serena Browne added a goal with 6:04 to play and another with 3:06 remaining to make it 9-6.Ryann Neushul scored a goal to give her 228 — fifth most in program history for the redshirt senior from Goleta — in her seven-year career (after winning the 2019 national championship, Neushul stepped away from the Cardinal for two years to train with the U.S. national team) and is the first four-time NCAA team champion in Stanford history.

USC (29-5) led early 3-1 and was poised to take a lead into halftime but Dhalluin, a redshirt sophomore from France, scored in the final second of the first half for a 6-6 tie at the break, and she scored again 6:47 of the third quarter for a 7-6 lead Stanford would not relinquish.

Kamryn Barone added two goals and an assist, and Jenna Flynn had two goals and two assists for Stanford. Christine Carpenter, a sophomore from Yucaipa High, had nine saves for the Cardinal.

Emily Ausmus, a freshman from Riverside King, had a goal and two assists, Meghan McAninch, a sophomore from Orinda, had two goals, and Anna Reed, a redshirt freshman from Newport Harbor High, had 11 saves for USC (29-5).McAninch, Ava Stryker, and Ausmus scored as USC took a 3-1 lead after the first quarter. Isabel Zimmerman, Alma Yaacobi and Tilly Kearns scored for the Trojans in the second quarter. Yaacobi’s goal gave USC a 5-3 lead with 3:28 left before half but a team goal and a Dhalluin score tied the championship at 5-5 with 52 seconds left.

Kearns gave USC its last lead with 23 seconds left in the first half before Dhalluin beat the horn.

The Cardinal are the all-time leaders in NCAA team championship with 137 and have won at least one team title in each of the past 49 seasons.

​ Orange County Register 

Teen, 17, arrested in 12-year-old boy’s shooting death in Compton park

• May 11, 2025

A 17-year-old boy was arrested Sunday, May 11, after the shooting death of a 12-year-old boy at Fig/Oleander Park in Compton Friday, authorities said.

The shooting took place around 4 p.m. Friday in the park in the area of North Oleander Avenue and West Fig Street, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Deputies found the boy in the park and administered first aid, the Sheriff’s Department said. Paramedics from the Compton Fire Department took him to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Witnesses described the suspect as a male wearing all-black clothing, including a black ski mask, adding that he was last seen running northbound on Oleander Avenue and out of view, deputies said.

Authorities said investigators determined that the suspect was a 17-year-old boy based on unspecified evidence from the scene. An arrest warrant was issued, and the suspect was taken into custody in Los Angeles at about 10 a.m. Sunday, the LASD said.

He was booked at a nearby station and transported to a juvenile detention facility.

Anyone with information regarding the shooting is asked to contact the LASD’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Tipsters who wish to remain anonymous can call 800-222-8477 or visit lacrimestoppers.org.

​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers’ Max Muncy hopes seeing the ball better will lead to improved results

• May 11, 2025

PHOENIX – It’s the basic advice given to any hitter – see the ball, hit the ball.

Max Muncy figured if he could do the first better, the second would also improve.

“Guys are throwing so hard now with so much movement. Sliders are coming in at 93, 94 mph. Even curveballs are coming in at 88, 89 mph,” Muncy said. “It’s not like the ball’s moving slow for you to see. I know the analogy that it feels like a beach ball coming in when you’re going good. It never feels like that. It might feel like a regular baseball coming in instead of an aspirin tablet.

“The game’s not easy. Anything you can do to give yourself a better chance you’re going to take it. That’s kind of where I was at with the glasses.”

Muncy was picking up contact lenses for his wife when the same eye doctor that prescribed glasses for Kike’ Hernandez last season suggested Muncy have his own eyes examined. Muncy said he has never needed any prescription eyewear in the past but didn’t see any harm in sitting for an exam.

The doctor found astigmatism in Muncy’s right eye – a curvature of the cornea that makes every eye unique. But it can also cause blurred vision or issues with glare in certain lighting conditions. Muncy always knew he was “left-eye dominant,” not the ideal situation for a left-handed hitter whose right eye does most of the work tracking pitches.

So Muncy got a set of prescription glasses (and sunglasses) and began wearing them around home to get used to the effect and tried them in the batting cage.

“I see no harm in doing that,” said Muncy, who reports his vision has been measured at 20-12. “For me, the biggest thing was if I could get my eyes to even out, that could change some things. I don’t know. But if you feel like one eye is starting to take over, that could mess with things. I’m not stubborn enough to not try anything.”

Muncy’s openness was certainly enhanced by his struggles at the plate this season. He went 105 plate appearances into this season without hitting a home run – a disturbing length of time for a player who averaged one home run every 17.6 plate appearances the previous seven seasons.

Muncy wore the glasses in a game for the first time on April 30 – and hit a home run in his first at-bat. After hitting .180 without the glasses, Muncy has improved to .242 (8 for 33) with the eyewear.

Muncy said he sees things more sharply with the glasses but doesn’t feel he needs them. Still, he isn’t willing to go against it.

“Coincidence or not? I don’t know,” he said. “But in baseball, if something works whether it’s a coincidence or not, you tend to roll with it.

“You put your left sock on first one day and you get a couple hits. Well, the next day you’re going to put your left sock on first. “

DOCTOR VISIT

Left-hander Blake Snell joined the Dodgers for the 10-day road trip to Atlanta, Miami and Phoenix with the expectation that he would start a throwing program at some point. He did not.

Snell and Tyler Glasnow (who did begin throwing this weekend) will visit with Dr. Neal ElAttrache again on Monday. The visit was previously scheduled.

Snell has been on the Injured List since April 3 with shoulder discomfort. Glasnow has been out since April 28 with shoulder inflammation.

JUST VISITING

A number of pitchers recovering from surgeries joined the Dodgers at Chase Field during the weekend series. Michael Grove (shoulder), Brusdar Graterol (shoulder), River Ryan (Tommy John surgery), Kyle Hurt (Tommy John) and Gavin Stone (shoulder) all checked in at one point or another.

Along with Emmett Sheehan (Tommy John) who threw to hitters at Camelback Ranch this week, Hurt and Graterol have the best chance to pitch at some point this season. Hurt threw his first bullpen session this week. Graterol began throwing long toss out to 90 feet and is aiming for a minor-league injury-rehabilitation assignment in August.

ALSO

Right-handers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki will pitch on five days’ rest again this week. Yamamoto is scheduled to start Wednesday against the A’s and Sasaki on Thursday.

UP NEXT

The Dodgers are off Monday.

Athletics (TBA) at Dodgers (RHP Landon Knack, 2-0, 4.61 ERA), Tuesday 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM

​ Orange County Register 

Just Like Heaven delivers thrilling sets from Vampire Weekend and Rilo Kiley

• May 11, 2025

Vampire Weekend closed out Just Like Heaven on Saturday, with a terrific headlining set that underscored the band’s place at the top of the indie rock scene that the Pasadena festival celebrates.

But let’s come back to them in a minute. Because the biggest moment of the day came just before Vampire Weekend, when Rilo Kiley, which until this month hadn’t played together since the summer of 2008, delivered a nearly perfect set that left fans with broad smiles and a few tears at the reunion that few ever expected to see.

“Can you believe this is our third show in 17 years?” singer Jenny Lewis asked the crowd, noting the band’s out-of-town warmup shows in Ojai and San Luis Obispo last week. “It’s truly amazing to be here with you all.”

Then, looking at her bandmates on stage, added, “But mostly it’s amazing to be here with you all.”

Rilo Kiley’s set opened with “The Execution of All Things,” the title track from its 2002 second album, which provided five of the 13 songs in the set, as fans flowed from the main stage at the opposite end of the festival grounds on the golf course outside the Rose Bowl. “Wires and Waves,” a wistful, longing love song, followed.

“It’s good to see you,” lead guitarist Blake Sennett said before the band launched into a delicious, funky groove on “The Moneymaker. “It’s been a minute.”

That it has. Rilo Kiley formed in the Los Angeles area when Sennett and Lewis, child actors who’d grown up to become a couple, got together with bassist Pierre de Reeder and drummer Jason Boesel in the late ’90s. For a decade, the band grew alongside peers such as Death Cab for Cutie and Bright Eyes to become stars of the indie scene.

But Sennett and Lewis broke up as romantic partners and stress fractures emerged in the band. After a show at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in June 2008, the band went on hiatus for a few years before Sennett, in an interview, pronounced it as dead as a toe-tagged corpse on a slab in the morgue.

“Now, I see movies where the dead get up and walk,” he said in comments that he later apologized for as a product of frustration. “And when they do that, rarely do good things happen.”

Very good things happened at Just Like Heaven as Rilo Kiley roared back to life on Saturday. Highlights as the set rolled on included the country-ish waltz “I Never,” the heartsick love song “Does He Love You?” and the set-closing “Portions For Foxes,” its most-loved song, and one that saw the crowd take over and loudly sing a final verse to the delight of everyone on stage.

A friend said he’s described Rilo Kiley to his boomer dad as the millennial Fleetwood Mac. He’s not wrong. And, like Fleetwood Mac and other bands where personal relationships and stresses have pulled them apart, Rilo Kiley feels like the comeback could be just as good, if not better, than the first time around.

Vampire Weekend, by contrast, doesn’t seem to have any of that baggage on its tour bus. Singer-guitarist Ezra Koenig, bassist Chris Biao and drummer Chris Thomson have stayed and played together since it formed in 2006, and fleshed out in recent years with another five or so touring musicians, the band seems better each time they come around.

It’s set sqaiezed 22 songs into an hour and 15 minutes and was as delightful, if not quite as long, as the band’s headlining performance at the Hollywood Bowl in June 2024, opening with “Mansard Roof,” closing with “Walcott,” and running through best-loved hits and entertainingly odd covers throughout.

Highlights included “Unbelievers” and “This Life” in the early part of the show, old favorites such as “A-Punk,” which got the crowd singing and dancing along, and “Sympathy,” which featured a gorgeous bit of violin from Isabel Hagen, whose strings added beautiful colors to many songs throughout the night.

“Oxford Comma,” the track on the 2008 self-titled debut album that first brought the band to wider attention, and “Harmony Hall,” a lovely melody off 2019’s “Father of the Bride,” shined later in the set before Koenig announced a change in Vampire Weekend’s usual end-of-show song requests.

Normally, he said, the band takes any request and does their best to perform at least a verse and a chorus. [At the Bowl last year, that saw them attempt, and often fail hilariously, tunes by Steely Dan, the Grateful Dead, and the B-52s.] At Just Like Heaven, though, the band had come up with their own “requests,” picking “indie bangers” by bands that have or could play the Pasadena indie fest.

“Lisztomania” by Phoenix opened up the section, with songs by Tame Impala, Beach House, Grizzly Bear and TV On The Radio, which a few hours earlier had played the same stage, following.

“Now we’re gonna play an indie banger of our own,” Koenig then announced, smiling happily at the fun he and the band had just created. “Wolcott,” the fifth of five songs from the debut record, sent everyone one with more smiles.

Earlier on Saturday, amid scorching heat that neared or reached triple digits, the festival grounds saw plenty of other strong performances. Most of these bands played Coachella in years past when rock was king and pop not yet ascendant at that desert festival.

Empire of the Sun delivered one of the few visually creative sets of the day – indie rock bands aren’t often the most theatrical of performers – with singer Luke Steele changing costumes throughout the set. “Cherry Blossom” might have been the most visually sumptuous of their performances. Steele appeared on stage in the crimson robes and headdress of a feudal Japanese lord on “Shogun” and backing dancers in crimson bobbed wigs and bedazzled kimonos, all of them in front of bonsai tree visuals.

The English band Slowdive hasn’t played a lot in the United States over the decades and fans who turned out to catch them on Saturday where rewarded with a lovely set of the kind of dreamy music that typically gets labeled shoegaze, a label that doesn’t do justice to the beauty of Slowdive’s shimmering sheets of sound. Songs such as “Crazy For You” and “Sugar for the Pill” proved the perfect accompaniment to the sun setting behind the western hills and the arrival of cooler nighttime weather.

TV On The Radio had the misfortune of playing the main stage at the same time Unknown Mortal Orchestra was on the second stage. Singer Tunde Adebimpe said in a recent interview he was disappointed he wouldn’t be able to catch UMO’s performance, and told the crowd on Saturday it was fine with him if they wanted to cut out early to go see singer-guitarist Ruban Nielson and his psychedelic rock outfit.

It truly was a difficult choice to navigate, too. TV On The Radio roared through terrific tunes such as “Young Liars,” “Golden Age” and “Wolf Like Me,” the song Vampire Weekend covered a few hours later. Unknown Mortal Orchestra provided intricate grooves on songs such as “Nerve Damage!” and gorgeous melodies on “Multi-Love” and “Secret Xtians.”

Earlier, in the peak of the heat of the day, Courtney Barnett served a slice of literate garage rock, opening with “Avant Gardener,” bringing out fellow traveler Kurt Vile, one of the few surprise guests of the day, for their duet “Over Everything,” and wrapping up with “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party.”

​ Orange County Register 

Angels’ shortstop Zach Neto still rebuilding his arm strength after surgery

• May 11, 2025

ANAHEIM — Zach Neto has been back in the Angels lineup and at shortstop for three weeks, and his bat is clearly at peak form.

His arm, however, remains a work in progress.

Neto, who had shoulder surgery last fall, has been managing his throws, saving the 100% throws for when it’s necessary. When the runner is slow, Neto practically lobs the ball across the infield, just in time to get the out.

There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. In fact, it can be a good thing in the long run. When Neto, 24, was younger, he said he didn’t have have discipline to preserve his arm the way he does now.

“I was very hard headed,” he said. “I always wanted to show off my gun and show what I had. Now that I’ve had surgery on my shoulder, and know how precious my arm is, now I look back and thank my college coaches and even here in pro ball, making sure that I can sustain the whole year with my arm.”

So far Neto said he doesn’t believe there have been any plays that he was unable to make because of his arm, even though he’s not throwing as hard.

His hardest throw this year has been 84.5 mph, while last year his hardest throw was 98.6 mph, which was the second hardest of any shortstop in the majors.

His relay to complete a double play with speedy Cedric Mullins running on Saturday night was 83.5 mph, which was his second hardest throw of the season.

“There’s nothing wrong with his arm,” manager Ron Washington said. “He’s just got to get that mental block out where he can let it go. Because you notice when he turned that double play how he threw that ball. You don’t see him get that quick arm action when he’s catching the ball normally. So it’s there.”

Neto said he’s still doing extra work to prepare his arm, including coming to the ballpark early and staying late.

“It’s a lot,” he said. “It’s something I’m not used to, because my arm has always been pretty good. I’m usually one of the first ones here and one of the last ones to leave.”

MONCADA’S RETURN

Third baseman Yoán Moncada only had five plate appearances in his minor league rehab assignment before returning to action and going 5 for 17 with two homers and a triple in his first five games.

“To be honest with you, I’ve never seen a guy that got five at-bats come back with the vengeance that he’s come back with,” Washington said.

Washington added that he believes Moncada is happier than he’s been, after missing so much time in the past few years with injuries.

“I’ve never seen him smile and have so much fun,” Washington said. “I think he’s been missing baseball for a while.”

Moncada was out with a bruised right thumb. He suffered the injury late in spring training, played for a couple weeks, and then aggravated it and needed nearly a month to get back. On Saturday night, Moncada felt some pain on a swing again, but he stayed in the game.

Washington said that’s not going to subside until after the season, but it should only be an issue when Moncada swings and misses at a breaking ball, because that’s the type of awkward swing that will hurt his thumb.

NOTES

Nolan Schanuel had his first day off of the season, so Kevin Newman got his first start at first base. Newman played 19 games at first prior to this season. “He’s looking a little fatigued,” Washington said of Schanuel. “Although he got two hits yesterday, he is a little fatigued. He has posted every single day, and I just thought it was time to give him a break.” …

Jorge Soler returned to the starting lineup on Sunday after missing two starts with groin tightness. Soler was still able to pinch-hit on Friday. …

Right-hander George Klassen, one of the Angels top pitching prospects, had to be helped off the field at Double-A after he was struck in the head by a line drive on Sunday.

UP NEXT

Angels (LHP Yusei Kikuchi, 0-4, 3.83) at Padres (RHP Michael King, 4-1, 2.22), Monday, 6:40 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network West, 830 AM

​ Orange County Register