Four games, four wins. 12-12. I'll take it and I won't pretend the record means much at this point in March, but four straight is at least evidence the team can hold a lead when it needs to.
Mar 11 — W 8-4 @ White Sox
Tyler Bremner made his professional debut. The Angels' No. 1 pick from the 2025 draft walked out to a mound at Camelback Ranch and struck out Andrew Benintendi. I'm getting this from Bollinger's notes and the play-by-play because the Angels still aren't putting these on television, which remains a wonderful organisational choice. What I can tell from the numbers is that he got through the outing without drama and the writers who were there seemed to think it looked as good as it looked on paper.
Kyren Paris also happened, which is a sentence I didn't expect to write. He came in at shortstop after Vaughn Grissom left with a hand injury in the first, went 2-for-3 with a triple, two runs, an RBI, and stole three bases. Three. The man wasn't in the starting lineup. Paris has been one of the quiet good-news stories of this spring and he has almost certainly not done enough to take a roster spot Grissom will get by default — Grissom is out of options — but he made the most of the door cracking open.
Mar 13 — W 5-2 vs Guardians
Rodriguez started and turned a double play. His command has been the thing to watch since the early outings when the walk numbers were ugly. One game at a time. He's healthy, which is still the main thing.
Mar 14 — W 6-2 vs Mariners
The win is in the box score. The other news from that day is more interesting.
Neto slid head-first into home plate and came up hurt — left hand. The Angels called it day-to-day, which covers a very wide range of outcomes. I don't have any information they haven't released and I'm not going to pretend I do. What I know is that it's Neto's hand, he's the most important player on this team, and it's ten days before the season starts.
Soriano was scratched with an illness. Jeff Fletcher confirmed the same day that Robert Stephenson's elbow has turned and he's going to open the year on the IL. He hadn't thrown in a Cactus League game. So that's Joyce out from surgery, Stephenson out with his elbow, Neto's hand day-to-day, Grissom's hand, Lowe's oblique, and now Soriano's immune system. Kirby Yates is the closing option by default. He is 38.
Mar 15 — W 6-5 vs Rockies
Won it. Earlier in the week Klassen struck out Machado, Merrill, and France in two innings against the Padres' regular lineup — 97.8 mph, the slider working. That and Bremner's debut are probably the two most genuinely encouraging things to come out of this four-game run.
12-12. Ten days to Opening Day.
The injury list is a lot longer than it was two weeks ago. That's the whole sentence.