Taylor Ward is making strides in outfield as Angels beat Athletics
It’s not uncommon for players to keep baseballs from games they’ve played. Pitchers keep the one that represents their first strikeout, batters keep the ones representing their first hits. Left fielder Taylor Ward took home another kind of milestone baseball this week.
Ward kept the ball he robbed Shane Langeliers and the Oakland Athletics of a would-be grand slam Monday night. The baseball was still in his locker Tuesday, the Angels’ second game of the series.
“It kind of just all happened so fast that there wasn’t really much time to think, judge or do anything like that,” Ward reflected on that play, “it was more just go and catch it.”
Ward joined his three-time American League most valuable player teammate Mike Trout as the two Angels players who have robbed a grand slam since 2004, per Sports Info Solutions. (SIS has tracked home run robberies since 2004.)
As the leadoff batter in Tuesday’s game, Ward went two for four with an RBI, joining Brandon Drury, Luis Rengifo and Gio Urshela as players who helped power the Angels’ 5-3 win over the A’s.
José Suarez gave up five homers in the first three innings as the Angels’ late rally fell short in the 11-10 10th-inning loss to the Oakland Athletics.
Though no dramatic plays were needed of Ward on Tuesday, so far this season he has made quite a few of them. It’s been the result of just how much work he has put in this year to be keenly aware of the outfield wall. He has set out to make that kind of home run-robbing play this season.
“For me, really once the season ended last year I wanted to evaluate my deficiencies, I guess you could say,” Ward said earlier in the season. “Still just always getting better with the wall and knowing where the wall was. With the injury last year, that really stunned my perception of what I need to work on.”
Ward hurt his shoulder and neck during a May 20 game against the A’s in 2022 after crashing into the right field wall while making a catch. The issue did not force him to the injured list, but it’s not something he’s forgotten.
“[Familiarity with the wall] is still at the top of my list and probably always will be,” he continued. “I want to be able to take home runs away. I want to be able to do all these things.”
Ward got that first home run robbery 23 games into the regular season. The catch is an obvious memorable moment for him. He also made a catch in Boston on April 14 that had a 25% catch probability.
“He doesn’t take a day off in the outfield working pregame and it’s showing,” Trout said. “He’s making big plays for us. He’s making hard plays look routine. It’s fun to watch.”
Another of Ward’s favorite plays this season occurred April 8 in foul territory, during which he secured an out on the Blue Jays’ Brandon Belt, with Tyler Anderson on the mound that game.
Added Anderson of how Ward has done so far this season: “What I think was most impressive about that [robbed home run] was we were in left field a week ago and I asked him what he was doing. And he was just working on running back and feeling the track and finding the wall and he’s like, ‘I’m just trying to work on some things I haven’t been as good at.’ And then, lo and behold, a week later, he goes back to the wall and robs a grand slam.
“I just feel he’s been really good out there.”
Ward ranks among some of baseball’s best outfielders so far this season, based on Baseball Savant’s Outs Above Average. OAA is a range-based metric, defined by Baseball Savant as “the cumulative effect of all individual plays a fielder has been credited or debited with… that accounts for the number of plays made and the difficulty of them.”
Ward ranks seventh on that leaderboard with an OAA of two. Among the top 10: the New York Mets’ Brandon Nimmo, Chicago White Sox’s Luis Robert, Tampa Bay Rays’ Randy Arozarena and Chicago Cubs’ Cody Bellinger.
There’s still a long way to go in this season for the Angels, but if Ward keeps up his defensive success, he could find himself in serious Gold Glove conversations.
“He’s made some really fine defensive plays,” manager Phil Nevin said before Tuesday’s game. “I think he’s improved his game quite a bit … I like the way that he plays left field. I think he’s in that discussion of some of the best defensive outfielders out there.”
The win and the save
Tuesday’s game represented another milestone for Griffin Canning since his return from a nearly two-year stint on the IL. The starter pitched five innings, giving up three earned runs on four hits and two walks and struck out seven en route to his first win since June 9, 2021.
Canning also had a delayed start to this season, which he began on the IL because of a groin strain. In his first three starts, he’s continued to produce solid outings, picking up where he last left off in 2021 before his injuries.
He has been able to complete at least five innings in all three of his starts, though has thrown 100 pitches just once — his previous outing against the Yankees in New York. On Tuesday, he threw 88. Canning has continued to work toward pitching longer in games.
“That’s when we work for the five or six days in between our starts, just preparing our bodies to go out there and do our job,” he said after the game. “I feel great. I feel like I’m finding my breaking pitches a little bit earlier in each game. So, a lot of positives to take.”
Backing up Canning’s start on the mound were relievers Aaron Loup, Matt Moore and Carlos Estévez, who recorded five outs for his fourth save of the season.
Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe has been diagnosed with a torn labrum in his left shoulder and will have surgery to repair the injury this week.
“Knowing the way these past few games have been,” Estévez said after the game, “I know the team needed me, the guys in the bullpen needed me, too. It feels good to go out there and show everyone that hey, I got your back. I’m here. I can do it.”
He also said that Nevin knows Estévez wants to play more. And Estévez has told Nevin that if he needs a day of rest, he would let the manager know. But Estévez also understands Nevin does not want to overuse the bullpen.
“We had a talk about it and I told him if I need a day, I’m gonna tell you and he’s like, ‘I know, but it’s still early and the goal is to get there,’” Estévez recalled of the conversation he and Nevin had earlier in the day. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, but we still got [a lot] to go. We gotta make sure we get there first.’ It was kind of a back and forth, but I totally understand him.”
Go beyond the scoreboard
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