Angels rookie Walbert Urena’s scoreless gem vs. Twins puts him in historic company not seen in 41 years
Walbert Urena found himself in Dwight Gooden territory after throwing a gem for the Angels vs. the Twins on Thursday.
It is the dawn of a new era for the Los Angeles Angels, as Arte Moreno finally sold the team to an ownership group with a long track record of winning, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment. But that is not going to magically fix the team’s woes. Nonetheless, they have plenty of reason to be hopeful for the future, especially when they have a building block like starting pitcher Walbert Urena on the roster.
Urena started for the Angels on Thursday in a contest against the Minnesota Twins at home, and he shone once again. He threw seven innings of shutout baseball, allowing just four hits while striking out nine and walking none. With this latest start, Urena now has 16 starts this season with one run allowed or fewer.
According to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, Urena’s 16 starts with one run allowed or fewer are the most for any pitcher 22 years of age or younger since Dwight Gooden accomplished the feat back in 1985. Gooden had 19 such starts during a historic 1985 campaign that saw him start 35 games, record a 24-4 win-loss record with an ERA of 1.53 in 276.2 innings pitched — one of the greatest single-season performances in MLB history.
Urena does not look like he’s in his first season in the big leagues with the way he’s pitching. He entered the night with an ERA of 2.88 on the season, and he quickly established himself as a rotation fixture for an Angels team that has badly needed quality pitching.
Of his 26 starts thus far this season, he’s allowed exactly one run nine times, and he’s shut out the opposition seven times. That is an impressive number for the Angels rookie. The key now moving forward is for him to improve his command. Having nights like the one he had on Thursday (no walks) bodes well for his future as a long-term fixture in LA’s starting rotation.
Alas, in classic Angels fashion, they blew the lead in the final innings of regulation. The bullpen allowed one run in the eighth and two runs in the ninth to cancel out a three-run first inning for LA, and the Angels are now trailing the Twins, 4-3, in the bottom of the 10th at the time of writing.
It is the dawn of a new era for the Los Angeles Angels, as Arte Moreno finally sold the team to an ownership group with a long track record of winning, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment. But that is not going to magically fix the team’s woes. Nonetheless, they have plenty of reason to be hopeful for the future, especially when they have a building block like starting pitcher Walbert Urena on the roster.