ANAHEIM ― In eight games since making his 2023 debut, Mickey Moniak has displaced Taylor Ward as the Angels’ leadoff hitter against right-handed pitchers, catalyzed the decision to designate outfielder Brett Phillips for assignment, and maintained a ridiculous .417 batting average.
Until this weekend’s series against the Minnesota Twins, however, he had not produced a big hit at a critical juncture in a game.
Now he has two.
Moniak’s two-run double in the seventh inning of a tie game lifted the Angels to an eventual 4-2 victory before an announced crowd of 42,138 at Angel Stadium. His fourth and fifth RBIs of the season allowed the Angels (25-23) to take two of three games from the American League Central-leading Twins (25-22).
“I don’t think my goal coming into every game is to get four hits, all the personal stuff,” Moniak said. “My goal is to do something to help the team win. To be able to do that today and Friday was huge, especially to do it in front of the Angels fans. It’s been fun.”
Moniak hit a game-tying RBI triple in the seventh inning of Friday’s victory.
After starting pitchers Shohei Ohtani and Pablo Lopez dueled to a 1-1 tie through six innings, the Twins brought in reliever Jorge Lopez, who promptly walked Matt Thaiss. The next batter, Zach Neto, shot a double into right field, sending Thaiss to third base.
That brought up Moniak, a left-handed hitter. After watching two straight curveballs that were called balls, Moniak clobbered a fastball over the plate into the right-center field gap. Thaiss and Neto both scored, and the Angels had a 3-1 advantage.
A home run by Alex Kiriloff in the eighth inning against Matt Moore brought the Twins within 3-2. Moniak nearly caught the ball on the run, but could not squeeze the ball in his glove as he collided with the short fence in left field.
The Angels got the run back in the bottom of the inning anyway.
Gio Urshela singled, stole second base, and advanced to third when catcher Ryan Jeffers’ throw to second was off-line and skipped into center field. Thaiss then hit a line drive into the left-field corner that allowed Urshela to score easily, giving the Angels a 4-2 lead.
Nine different players had one hit each for the Angels.
Ohtani was impressive in his sixth start of the season, allowing just two hits and one run over six innings. But he was forced to settle for a no-decision because Lopez was every bit his equal.
Ohtani only fell behind 2-and-0 once, when he ultimately walked Joey Gallo in the third inning. The next batter, Carlos Correa, drove in Gallo with a double, giving Minnesota an early 1-0 lead.
“I tried to throw the last pitch out of the zone but it stayed in the zone,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “Correa’s good. He’s a smart, good hitter. He made his adjustments.”
Other than that one blemish, Ohtani was splendid. He had no trouble inducing swings and misses; his 22 (on 99 total pitches) were a season high. At the plate, Ohtani went 1 for 3 with a single and drew the only intentional walk of the game.
Ohtani is 5-1 with a 3.05 ERA this season. In his four no-decisions, he has a 2.84 ERA with 35 strikeouts and only eight hits allowed across 19 innings.
The Angels’ only run against Lopez came in the fourth inning. Hunter Renfroe and Jared Walsh led off with back-to-back singles. For Walsh, it was his first hit of the season since returning from therapy to relieve headaches and insomnia Saturday.
A sacrifice fly by the next batter, Urshela, drove in Renfroe to tie the game 1-1.
Reyes Moronta was the first pitcher out of the bullpen, but he bequeathed a bases-loaded, two-out jam to Chris Devenski.
Devenski (2-0) then struck out Gallo, the only batter he faced, to end the inning.
“I was definitely going for the punchout there,” Devenski said.
Carlos Estevez pitched a scoreless ninth inning to record his 12th save, a new career high.
