What Went Right - And Wrong- For the Angels Against the Reds

The Angels wrapped up a nice series win in Cincinnati today thanks to several notable performances. Starting pitching and a really solid offense propelled the team to 2 wins in 3 games but there were some reasons for concern as well.

Let's take a look at what went right, and wrong, for the team in River City.

Jose Soriano and Jack Kochanowicz went right for the Angels.

Jose Soriano is pitching like a true ace this season. Pairing his raw stuff with pitching coach Mike Maddux seemed like a dream come true this off season and so far the results are incredible. Today Soriano threw 7 shutout innings with 10 strikeouts. He only allowed 2 hits and 3 walks.

Jack Kochanowicz effort on Friday got the team a critical first win in the series. He threw 7 innings as well and kept the Reds to a single run. Kochanowicz earned his spot with a solid Spring Training and if he can continue to give the Angels solid innings it will be a huge boon to the team.

The offense went right for the Angels.

22 runs in 3 games is enough to earn a sweep. Unfortunately, the Angels pitching in the middle game was a big miss (more on that later) so the team settled for a 2-1 series win. On the year the Angels are getting on base more often than last year while still hitting plenty of home runs. That is a good recipe for success.

It was nice to see Mike Trout find some holes today. He is hitting the ball hard even if his batting average does not yet reflect it. Jo Adell crushed a couple of hits. Zach Neto was solid. Even role players like Vaughn Grissom and Oswald Peraza came through with big hits this series.

George Klassen went wrong for the Angels.

For the second consecutive outing, Klassen was wild and hit hard when he did throw strikes. Overall the prospect pedigree of Klassen is still solid and he will likely return to the MLB level a better pitchers. For now, though, the Angels need to replace him in the rotation and the options are slim.

Sam Bachman, Nick Sandlin, and Drew Pomeranz went wrong for the Angels.

Bachman was handed a 9-0 lead with 6 outs remaining today. He failed to record three outs then Nick Sandlin came in to hopefully finish the game. He couldn't. Ultimately manager Kurt Suzuki turned to Drew Pomeranz who promptly gave up a 3 run bomb. Collectively the trio coughed up 6 runs in order to get the last 6 outs.

They picked a good day to have a bad game, but the Angels bullpen has been shaky at times and will need to settle down as they go on a brutal strech of games.