Angels 4, Giants 3: Mike Trout Ruins the Sweep, Whisenhunt Gets Rocked
Two wins in the bank, a sweep sitting right there for the taking, and Mike Trout decided he was not interested in a quiet Sunday. Four hits, two homers off Carson Whisenhunt, and a two-run Arraez double in the ninth that got us close but not close enough. Angels win 4-3. Giants fall to 44-61.
We had this series. Two wins already banked, a rookie-adjacent arm on the mound trying to finish the job, and instead we got a reminder of why Mike Trout has a bust waiting for him somewhere. Four-for-four, his first four-hit game since 2021, and he picked today of all days to remember how to do it. Angels 4, Giants 3, sweep avoided, and it feels worse than a normal Sunday loss because it did not have to happen.
Carson Whisenhunt did not have it. Jorge Soler took him deep leading off the game, a no-doubt 419-foot solo shot to center, and the Angels were ahead before most of the Oracle Park crowd of 34,111 had found their seats. Whisenhunt settled in for a couple innings, but the fourth inning is where this one got away from him: Jo Adell followed with a two-run blast of his own, 446 feet, part of a three-run frame that put the Angels up 4-0. He finished with five innings, four runs, five hits and seven strikeouts, which reads like a fine start on paper and was not nearly enough given what he gave up in the fourth. Jose Soriano, meanwhile, cruised: five innings, three hits, zero runs, three walks, five strikeouts, and a lead he handed off clean.
The offense did not show up until it was mostly too late. Luis Arraez grounded out in the fifth to at least get one run across, 4-1, proof of life but nothing more. Then the Angels bullpen made it interesting on its own, and Arraez came up again in the ninth with runners on and ripped a two-run double to pull the Giants within one, 4-3. That is as close as it got. Mike Farris came in and got the final out for the save, and the tying run died on second base. Same old story: the fight showed up two innings after it needed to.
Trout's four hits are the headline whether we like it or not, but the real issue is a rookie-caliber outing from Whisenhunt on a day the offense needed a lead to work with instead of a hole to climb out of. The Giants took two of three from a bad Angels team and still walk away from it feeling like something got left on the table, because something did. Giants drop to 44-61. The schedule does not get easier from here, and neither does explaining a series win that feels like a loss.
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