Ureña continues dominant rookie campaign, offense finally wakes up

ANAHEIM — Hardly anything has gone right for the Angels this season, but one continuous bright spot has been the emergence of right-hander Walbert Ureña. 

Ureña continued his masterful rookie campaign on Monday night when he tossed seven innings of one-run ball while striking out eight and not walking a single batter in the Angels’ 10-1 win over the Yankees. 

"When you face the Yankees and the Phillies and the Red Sox, you face teams like that, there's always a little bit of a sense of anxiety," Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. "When you watch (Walbert) from pitch one, it was zero anxiety. I think it was the first 11 guys, 11-for-11, first-pitch strikes or something crazy like that.

"That's the sign of an ace."

The lone mistake he made on the night was a sinker that he left in the middle of the plate for Spencer Jones, who took it deep for a solo home run. 

Other than that, Ureña was efficient and only ran into trouble in the first inning, when he allowed a pair of two-strike hits and a passed ball to put the runners on second and third with two outs. He struck out Trent Grisham to get out of it, and he didn’t let a Yankee reach base until the seventh inning. 

In that seventh inning, Ureña shut down trouble before it could even start. 

He allowed a lead-off single, but then fielded a ground ball from Grisham cleanly and threw it to second to turn a double play. After allowing another single, he struck out Jones to end his outing. 

Coming off his last outing, where he walked five batters, Ureña was a strike-throwing machine on Monday.

Ureña landed his first pitches for strikes 76% of the batters he faced, and he threw strikes at a 72% clip overall. 

"I've been working on my glove side," Ureña said. "Last time, I was opening too much. I've been working in my bullpen, my training program, and every time now, I stay on the line and I'm making pitches."

The latest dominant outing now drops his ERA to 2.85, which ranks as the second-lowest among rookie pitchers in the American League behind left-hander Parker Messick. 

With a month left in the season, his 2.85 ERA is currently the second-lowest in Angels history among pitchers in their first year in the majors with a minimum of 20 starts. Rickey Clark’s 2.59 ERA in 1967 is the only one better in franchise history.

Ureña also passed Jim Abbott for the second-most strikeouts in a pitcher’s first major league season in Angels history. With 120 strikeouts, he needs 25 more strikeouts to pass Bo Belinsky for the most. 

"He's not going to change because he has a bad start or whatever," Suzuki said. "This guy's going to be the same guy every single day. I think for longevity reasons, in this game especially, it's going to serve him well."

Offensively, the Angels enjoyed a rare night when everything seemed to go their way. 

The lineup had been in an abysmal slump for over a month now, but on Monday they strung together 12 hits and scored double-digit runs. 

"The big hits was a byproduct of not patience, but like aggressiveness in the zone, and not trying to do too much," Suzuki said. "Not trying to hit a homer every time. I thought it was just quality at-bats."

Four Angels hitters notched multi-hit games, with Vaughn Grissom being the leader with a 3-for-5 effort with four RBIs.

This is the second time this season that the Angels scored 10 runs in a game without a home run.

"We had guys on a bunch, and a lot of times we got those guys in and took advantage of some of their mistakes," Grissom said.

This trouncing of the Yankees snaps a seven-game losing streak for the Angels.