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 wasn't 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 didn't have to happen.
Carson Whisenhunt didn't 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 wasn't 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 didn't 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's 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 doesn't get easier from here, and neither does explaining a series win that feels like a loss.
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