Jo Adell won the Los Angeles Angels’ starting job in center field out of spring training, but he won’t know if he will be in the starting lineup for the Thursday game against the Toronto Blue Jays until he arrives at the ballpark in Anaheim, Calif.
Such is the situation for Adell, who didn’t start Wednesday in the Angels’ 5-4 win over the Blue Jays. In fact, Adell has not been in the starting lineup in five of the team’s past seven games.
Adell is hitting .181 with a .541 OPS, and he has a strikeout rate of 27.3 percent (27 strikeouts in 99 plate appearances) after fanning as a pinch hitter on Wednesday. He homered on Tuesday, his third of the season. The other two came in the same inning against the host Tampa Bay Rays on April 10.
For Adell, the issue is not a lack of patience, but rather too much patience. The long ball on Tuesday came on the first pitch of the at-bat, which is something the Angels coaching staff is preaching to him: Be more aggressive.
“I think what the (coaches are) trying to do is get him to quit taking so many balls down the middle of the plate,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “When you do that, you’re guessing. So trying to get him to see the ball and just let it fly. When he sees the ball and lets it fly, he’s more consistent. Sometimes he gets up there and he wants to work the plate, and they’re just throwing bastard pitches.”
Adell has lost playing time despite the injury to right fielder Mike Trout. On Wednesday, Kyren Paris was in center field and Jorge Soler was in right. Adell knows he needs to adjust his approach.
“You try to make it too perfect,” Adell said. “Hitting isn’t perfect. And like, for me, just going back and understanding that I’m the type of guy that I’m trying to drive the ball and score runs. It doesn’t have to be a perfect pitch to do so.
“Just really staying there with the aggressiveness. Kind of forget everything else. I’m not a work-the-count type of guy. I get a strike and I can do some damage.”
Los Angeles right-hander Jose Soriano (2-4, 3.83 ERA), who will make his eighth start of the season on Thursday, is coming off one of his best outings of the year. On Friday against the Detroit Tigers, Soriano threw six scoreless innings, allowing six hits and one walk while striking out five and making 94 pitches.
Soriano has made one career appearance against Toronto, giving up one run and two hits in 1 2/3 innings of relief work on July 28, 2023.
Right-hander Chris Bassitt (2-2, 2.95) will make his eighth start of the season for the Blue Jays. He is 7-3 with a 3.61 ERA in 14 career games (12 starts) against the Angels.
Like Adell with the Angels, Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk is taking a more aggressive approach at the plate, and it’s paying off. After going 1-for-4 on Wednesday, he is hitting .378 (14-for-37) with six RBIs in his past nine games.
“He’s taking better, more aggressive swings,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said, “and he’s controlling the zone. He’s on a good little roll, and I think that’s what it really comes down to, nothing crazy or different in his work. He’s taking some intent-full swings.”
Toronto’s Anthony Santander went 2-for-5 with an RBI on Wednesday, making him 5-for-17 (.294) over the past four games. The first-year Blue Jay raised his batting average from .174 to .188 in that span.
–Field Level Media
