ANAHEIM — Years from now, those who watched the Angels game against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night are going to remember two first-inning swings.
For now, the Angels are more focused on the slide in between.
A game that was billed as a duel between Mike Trout and Bryce Harper, and began with each homering in the first, ended up being a painful loss for the Angels. They not only dropped a 4-3 decision to the Washington Nationals but also lost another player to injury.
After Harper’s homer, and before Trout’s answer, Cameron Maybin suffered a grade 1 sprain of his right medial collateral ligament on a slide into second. He is expected to be out two to four weeks.
“It (stinks),” Trout said, “but it seems like we’ve been dealing with it the whole season.”
Maybin will head to the disabled list for the second time this season, adding to a lengthy list of injuries that have put a damper on the Angels season. The biggest injury was when Trout tore a ligament in his thumb, which prompted more discussion of the dangers of head-first slides.
Ironically, Maybin usually slides head first, but he got hurt going feet first.
After he reached on a first-inning infield hit, he took off for second, trying to add to his league-leading 25 stolen bases. As he got close to the bag, though, he slowed down because he thought he heard the crack of the bat.
Once he realized the ball wasn’t hit, but was instead headed to second, he made a late, awkward attempt at a feet-first slide. He immediately felt something “pop,” he said, and he called for trainers.
Maybin was helped off the field, and underwent an MRI that showed the extent of the injury. When he spoke to the media later, he was in good spirits and able to walk under his own power.
“It’s unfortunate, but the I’m glad the results are probably the best they could have been,” Maybin said. “I’m hoping it’s closer to two weeks. I’m a pretty quick healer. You just gotta be positive. Stay mentally ready to get back.”
While Maybin is out, expect Ben Revere to get the bulk of the playing time in left field, at least against right-handers. Shane Robinson, who was pulled from the Triple-A Salt Lake City game shortly after Maybin’s injury, could be coming up to play against left-handed pitchers. Robinson had hit .464 in his last 15 games at Triple-A, prior to Tuesday.
The injury also could impact what the Angels could do before the July 31 trading deadline. Maybin would have been one of the more attractive assets the Angels had to trade, although the return still would have been limited since he’s a free agent at the end of the season.
Not long after Maybin was helped off the field, the focus of the night returned to Harper-Trout, which added an air of excitement to the game. The two young stars rarely share the same field, playing in different leagues and on different coasts.
Harper definitely won this battle.
He belted a first-inning homer against Jesse Chavez. Trout then answered in the bottom of the first, with his own homer, sending social media buzzing about the duel.
“Obviously, when I hit it, I thought it was pretty funny,” Trout said.
Harper, however, kept going.
He singled in the third, getting narrowly thrown out at second trying to stretch it into a double. He singled again in the sixth and then tripled to lead off the eighth, meaning he barely missed hitting for the cycle.
His eighth-inning triple against Cam Bedrosian set up the tie-breaking run, on Ryan Zimmerman’s RBI single.
“He’s a terrific ballplayer,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “If you make your pitches, hopefully you’re going to contain him. It seemed like every time we didn’t get a pitch in a spot tonight, he hit it.”
The Angels may not have to worry about Harper on Wednesday night. Nationals manager Dusty Baker said Harper is scheduled for a day off, since he played in the All-Star Game and didn’t get that break.
The rest of the Nationals’ lineup is still a challenge. They came into the night second in the majors in scoring.
Jesse Chavez held them at bay for much of the night, allowing just Harper’s homer and an Anthony Rendon solo homer in his six-plus innings. The Nats added an insurance run on Adam Lind’s homer in the ninth against Keynan Middleton, who has allowed 11 runs in his last 16 2/3 innings.
That run proved to be the difference, because the Angels got one back in the ninth against new Nats reliever Sean Doolittle. Trout drove in the run with a groundout, before Albert Pujols hit a flyout to end the game.
