ANAHEIM -- While the Angels snapped a three-game losing streak and avoided a sweep at the hands of the Athletics, they saw catcher Logan O'Hoppe suffer a freak injury in the seventh inning on a warmup backswing from A's shortstop Jacob Wilson.
It caused O’Hoppe to leave the game and be replaced by Travis d’Arnaud, who later came through with a go-ahead RBI ground-rule double in the eighth to lead Los Angeles to a 4-3 win on Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium. So while the Angels were pleased to pick up the victory, there’s some concern for O’Hoppe, who had to undergo testing for a possible concussion after the game and wasn’t available to the media.
“He’s doing OK, but we’re obviously running tests on him,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “He seems to be OK right now. We’ll see what happens. They have to go through the whole protocol and be really careful with that stuff.”
The injury happened after Wilson hit a pop-up in foul ground that first baseman Logan Davidson couldn’t handle with no outs in the seventh and reliever Luis García on the mound. Wilson twirled his bat back as part of his practice swing and it hit O’Hoppe under his facemask. Wilson apologized immediately but Montgomery said Wilson needs to be more mindful going forward.
“It was completely unintentional,” Montgomery said. “And he was as apologetic as anybody. He already felt terrible about it, standing there listening to him. So certainly no ill will towards him. But yeah, you do have to be careful with it because it can obviously inflict a lot of damage.”
O’Hoppe fell to the ground in pain and was attended to by head athletic trainer Mike Frostad and Montgomery. He was able to leave the game on his own accord, but was replaced by d’Arnaud behind the plate.
“I hope he's OK,” d’Arnaud said. “I was taking some swings, and someone just yelled, ‘d’Arnaud, get ready.’ And I just saw a replay of it. I didn't get a chance to see the whole thing. I hope he's OK. I know Jacob checked on him, too.”
O’Hoppe was 0-for-2 with two hard-hit outs and a walk before he was removed from the game. The 25-year-old is hitting .217/.260/.386 with 19 homers, seven doubles and 43 RBIs in 109 games this year.
But it was the veteran d’Arnaud who was the hero in the eighth, connecting on an RBI ground-rule double off reliever Osvaldo Bido after Bido walked Chris Taylor on a pitch up and in before hitting Oswald Peraza with a fastball.
The Angels were hit by five pitches on Sunday to set a club record, and d’Arnaud said it motivated him to come through in that moment, as it was frustrating to see so many hitters get plunked even if it wasn’t intentional.
“I think it was more motivating because they hit five of our guys today and didn't seem like they cared and kept throwing inside,” d’Arnaud said. “So it motivated me to get the job done. Back in the day, we would’ve hit someone. Now I can't say we'll hit someone, so I don't know what the etiquette is. But I know we don't play them again until next year.”
On a lighter note, d’Arnaud said he was also inspired by a visit with a young cancer patient from Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital before the game and told the youngster he would hit a pinch-hit homer for him. And while d’Arnaud just missed the homer, his hit proved to be the game-winner with Kenley Jansen closing it out in the ninth.
“I told him if I pinch-hit, I’d hit a homer and off the bat I couldn’t believe the trajectory and thought it had a chance,” d’Arnaud said. “If it would’ve went out that would’ve been cool, but I hope it’s OK it was a game-winning hit.”
Before exiting, O’Hoppe also helped guide rookie Mitch Farris to a solid outing in his second career start, as the lefty allowed just two runs over six-plus strong innings. Both runs came on homers, as Willie MacIver went deep in the third and Tyler Soderstrom homered to end Farris' outing to open the seventh.
Farris credited O’Hoppe for his strong start and said he hopes that everything is fine with the Angels' backstop after the freak incident.
“He's great,” Farris said. “I can't ask for a better catcher. He just gave me the confidence and I leaned on him throughout the start and throughout the week, too. He's just awesome.”