With sluggers Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon out of the lineup due to injury, Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington had a tough choice to make on Friday night.
Who should bat cleanup? Zach Neto, Jo Adell or perhaps Logan O’Hoppe?
None of the above.
Ultimately, Washington decided on journeyman Willie Calhoun, who was playing in his first game with the Angels, but probably not for the reasons you’d expect. It had nothing to do with statistics, analytics or even a gut feeling. Rather, Washington allowed fate to decide.
“I took some names and put them in a hat and shook them up and he came out fourth,” Washington said, via the Orange County Register. “Seriously. You think I’m joking.”
That’s certainly one way to do it.
Although Washington made the decision at random, he admits that if Adell or O’Hoppe’s name came out of the hat he likely would have changed his mind anyway.
“They’re too young,” Washington said. “I tried putting Adell in the top of the lineup and it lasted a day. I tried putting Neto in the top of the lineup and it lasted two days. I’m not going to take O’Hoppe and put him in the fourth hole. I’ll hit him fifth or sixth, but for some reason when you put them in one of those spots, they think they’ve got to be special and they don’t. They really don’t. They’ve just got to be who they are.
“If you can give us base hits there, I’ll take it. You can give us doubles there, I’ll take it. I’m not looking for home runs because I don’t have that kind of team.”
Washington’s decision to go with Calhoun paid off. He went 3-for-4 with a double and a run scored in a 6-0 Los Angeles victory over the Cleveland Guardians.
