This story was originally published by Dead Spin
The Los Angeles Angels will host the Seattle Mariners on Saturday night in Anaheim, Calif., ready to get a good look at many of their young prospects over the final month of the regular season.
But the Angels have seen enough of one of their young players, and it’s been about as good as could be expected.
Shortstop Zach Neto, 23, already is recognized as an above-average defensive player, but his numbers at the plate this year have turned some heads.
On Thursday against the Detroit Tigers, Neto hit his 20th home run of the season, becoming just the second Angels shortstop to hit 20 homers in a season, joining Jim Fregosi (22 in 1970), who is Angels’ royalty.
Neto, who went 0-for-3 with two stolen bases in Friday’s 9-5 loss to the Mariners, also has 25 stolen bases, becoming the second Angel to have a 20/20 season before the age of 24, joining Mike Trout (30 homers, 49 stolen bases at age 20 in 2012).
It took awhile for Neto to get to home run No. 20, his 19th coming on Aug. 20. And Neto would not deny that he might have been focusing too much on hitting the ball over the fence.
“Everybody knew I needed one more to get to 20,” he said. “I could be pressing, (or) not. It was me maybe just doing too much. But now, I’m just happy I was able to get it, get a pitch and have a pretty good quality at-bat with the result being a homer.”
Neto said it’s an honor to be connected to the late Fregosi, someone about whom Neto made a speech.
“At a mini-camp, the day after I got drafted, we had a meeting with the whole minor league camp,” Neto said. “I actually got picked to speak on Jim Fregosi, his career and all of his accomplishments. So I know him pretty well from the knowledge that I picked up. Yeah, I think it’s pretty cool.”
Left-hander Tyler Anderson (10-12, 3.41 ERA) will make his 27th start of the season for the Angels, coming off an 8-2 loss last Sunday when he gave up two runs on four hits and four walks in five innings against the Toronto Blue Jays. He is 1-2 with a 4.79 ERA in seven career starts against Seattle.
Los Angeles has lost eight of its past nine games.
Right-hander Bryan Woo (6-2, 2.05 ERA) will make his 17th start of the season for Seattle, coming off a 4-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday in which he allowed two runs (one earned) and four hits in seven innings. He is 1-0 with a 2.81 ERA in five career starts against the Angels.
In Woo’s first 29 career major league starts, including the first 11 this season, Woo failed to pitch into the seventh inning. But he now has pitched into the seventh in each of his past five starts.
“It’s been more mental,” Woo said of pitching deep into games. “Doing it once or twice, understanding that I can do it, and that I can still have good stuff late in the game. So I think it’s just digging deep. And being able to find that, it’s kind of opened up a new part of my game.”
–Field Level Media
