Angels News: Phil Nevin Trying to Keep the Faith After Another Loss

The Angels need to turn it around soon...

The Angels went all in at the trade deadline this year to prove to Shohei Ohtani that he can win baseball games here in October. 

This team is trying to win and Angels manager, Phil Nevin, knows that amid the team's five-loss streak, there is still hope.

Phil Nevin:

"The optimism will still be there tomorrow when we show up. We have a job at hand. And we owe it to everybody to come out and play. This team fights. ... Certainly the losses, the disappointment and the hurt, it's a tough room to be in right now."

— Sam Blum (@SamBlum3) August 6, 2023

The team went all in at the trade deadline which saw them ship away two of their top five prospects for the top pitcher available, Lucas Giolito, which has not worked out well. Sending away No. 3 and 4 prospects, Edgar Quero and Ky Bush, has returned the Halos a pitcher who in 2 starts, has a 12 ERA.

While Lucas Giolito should eventually settle in with his new team, he is a free agent after the year so the Halos may only see him take the mound another handful of times. In these two starts he has gone nine innings while allowing twelve earned runs and only striking out seven.

He has been bad.

While the bats acquired at the deadline have already been paying off, it hasn't been enough as the pitching woes continue.

These bumpy starts along with an awkward injury to the best player in baseball don't add up to a team that is six games back from the Wild Card making the postseason.

With a tough schedule ahead, the Halos will look to rally and focus on winning game by game.

“Like I said yesterday, we’re going to come out today and fight, and we did,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “We had a chance to win late and the ball just barely jumps over the fence or else it’s a tie game there. It’s a game of inches, as they say, but it bit us today.”

(via Rhett Bollinger, MLB.com)

Being six games back from the last Wild Card spot, the Angels will have to focus on steady pitching and quality at-bats. Relying on a ball hitting the wall instead of bouncing over won't reliably close that gap.