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The Dodgers entered the weekend with the best record in the National League. The Angels are last in the American League West.
The Dodgers are the reigning World Series champions. The Angels have made the playoffs just once since 2010.
Clearly there’s more than 30 miles of freeway separating the two teams. So you’d think the Angels would look at this weekend’s Freeway Series as a chance to measure themselves against the best.
But Angels manager Ron Washington was having none of it.
Clayton Kershaw is set to make his season debut for the Dodgers on Saturday after spending the first two months of the campaign recovering from offseason surgeries.
“I don’t think like that,” he said testily. “We all know to get to that level, that’s when you become a championship team. So I’m not going to stick it to my players by saying that, ‘you know, we need to be at the level’.
“We don’t have what they’ve got over there. It’s easy for them to stay at that level. We have to compete at the level of talent that we have and grow from there.”
In that case, Washington’s team did a lot of competing and growing Friday when right-hander Jack Kochanowicz pitched the Angels to a 6-2 win over the Dodgers in the first regular-season meeting of the season between the Southern California rivals.
The night before the Dodgers (29-16) had scored 19 runs. Against the Angels they had just seven hits — while hitting into five double plays, matching a franchise record.
“That’s baseball,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said with a shrug.
As Washington spoke from his seat in the Angels dugout before the series opener, Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts, who have four MVPs awards between them, took batting practice. Only two players in Washington’s lineup had even made an All-Star team.
So if the Angels (18-25) aren’t at that level, what level are they at?
“We should be at least fighting for a chance in the middle of the pack,” Washington said. “But the injuries and the people that we lost and the things that’s been happening with our youth, just got us where we are.
“The day will come,” he added. “that we can get to that level where I feel like we can compete for a championship.”
The Dodgers are already at that level, of course. They lead the majors in hitting (.271), slugging (.479), OPS (.825) and runs (259). Ohtani hit his MLB-leading 16th home run Friday.
And the team, Roberts said, isn’t even complete yet. Clayton Kershaw returns from the injured list Saturday, but they’re still missing starters Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki, outfielder Teoscar Hernández and infielder Tommy Edman.
“There’s some reinforcements coming that we intended to have,” Roberts said. “It’s going to get better here in the next couple of weeks.”
That will force Roberts to make some difficult decisions. With Edman expected to rejoin the team Sunday, the Dodgers will have to decide what to do with rookie Hyeseong Kim, who had his third straight multi-hit game and is hitting .452 in Edman’s absence.
Kim said he can’t worry about that.
“I’m just going to play baseball. When I’m on the field I’m just going to play my baseball, try to get on base,” he said through an interpreter. “It’s hard to speculate, hard to predict what’s going to happen in the future.”
“It’s been fun,” he added. “It’s not an easy opportunity to have, so I’m really having fun right now.”
Kershaw’s return will bolster a rotation missing three starters to injury, especially with Dustin May struggling. The right-hander, winless in his last five outings, gave up six hits and four runs over five innings.
“I definitely wish I could contribute a little bit better than I’m contributing right now,” said May, who had a season-high eight strikeouts. “Hopefully it turns around. I’m definitely not doing what I expected.”
The Angels rotation, meanwhile, is giving Washington more than he might have expected. Kochanowicz (3-5), who allowed just one run on five hits over season-long 6 2/3 innings, has won his last two games. Angels starters have held opponents to three or fewer runs in 16 of the last 17 games.
“We’re not going to stop competing,” Washington said. “I don’t think they take one day into the next. I haven’t seen them take one day into the next.”
Yoán Moncada‘s first-inning homer, his third of the season, gave the Angels the early lead and they never looked back, despite striking out 15 times.
Columnist Dylan Hernández writes that the Dodgers need to make liberal use of the injured list. Release Chris Taylor. Do whatever is necessary for Hyeseong Kim to remain in Los Angeles.
The Dodgers threatened to make it interesting in the eighth when Ohtani belted a long homer — his fourth in three games — into the batter’s eye beyond the center-field wall off reliever Ryan Zeferjahn. But the Angels answered with a two-run single by Nolan Schanuel in the ninth.
Notes: The Dodgers summoned right-hander Ryan Loutos from triple-A Oklahoma City to give them a fresh arm after left-hander Justin Wrobleski threw four scoreless innings to earn the win in Thursday’s rout of the A’s. Loutos made his Dodger debut in the ninth inning, giving up two runs. ... Hernández, out since May 6 with a groin strain, is expected to make a rehab assignment with single-A Rancho Cucamonga on Saturday and could be reactivated Monday.
Angels outfielder Mike Trout, who went on the injured list May 2 with a left knee injury, did some throwing Friday and is continuing to progress in his rehab, but Washington said the team has no date for his return.
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