August started ugly for Johnson, but it ended with a line that looked a whole lot cleaner than the way it began. Against a Phillies lineup that can make any night feel like a survival test, he was living on the edge early and still found a way to give the Angels a chance.
Johnson needed 60 pitches to get through the first two innings at Angel Stadium, and 30 of those pitches missed the zone. He walked four batters in that stretch, yet somehow limited the damage to a single run before settling into five innings of one-run ball in the Angels’ 4-2, 10-inning loss.
“Once he settled in, it was pretty efficient,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “I think that's the maturation process. I think the experience that he's gaining through these moments, and battling through that tough time.”
The early trouble came from Johnson’s secondary stuff. Statcast had his cutter in the strike zone 57% of the time, while his sweeper and splitter were at 28% and 33%, respectively. That lack of sharpness showed up right away, even as he kept finding ways out of jams.
After issuing two straight walks with one out in the first, Johnson got Luis Arraez to bounce into an inning-ending double play on a cutter down and away. The second inning was even messier: a leadoff single, a walk and then a single by former Angel Brandon Marsh brought home the game’s first run, and then Johnson had to navigate a bases-loaded, one-out situation against the top of the Phillies’ order.
Kyle Schwarber came within inches of doing real damage, launching a ball deep into the Anaheim night that just hooked foul. Johnson then got Schwarber to fly out to shallow left on the next pitch, and after running a 3-2 count to Trea Turner, he coaxed another shallow fly to left to escape the inning.
From there, he was much more in control. Johnson needed only 28 pitches to cover the next three scoreless frames, and the only baserunner he allowed after the second was a one-out walk in the fourth.
“I think it was just my body getting more on time and in sync,” Johnson said of the adjustment he made after the second inning. “Trying to be a little bit more closed off with the hip, as opposed to kind of flying open and having my arm lag a little bit.”
His final line: one earned run on two hits over five innings, with five walks. And when you zoom out to the whole month, the contrast is striking. Johnson opened August with a 7.63 ERA on the season, then posted a 1.71 ERA in five starts this month to bring that number down to 5.47.
“I feel like I've definitely made some strides in progress over the last month, and getting comfortable in what I do well,” Johnson said. “Catchers are getting to know me well, and they're calling a great game. I feel like there's good chemistry back there.”
The Angels’ offense gave him just enough support to stay alive until late, and Zach Neto turned the eighth inning into a moment. With two outs, Neto worked a brutal 12-pitch at-bat, fouling off seven pitches before blasting a solo homer into the Angels’ bullpen to tie the game.
“Just trying to end at-bats when they're supposed to,” Neto said. “I got a good couple pitches to hit, but had to keep battling and sticking to the approach, and I got something up and I was able to hit it.”
That was Neto’s 23rd home run of the season, and it ended a 15-inning scoreless streak for the Angels.
The tie didn’t last. In the 10th, right-hander Trevor Martin gave up three runs on three hits, and the Angels answered with only a run on a fielder’s choice in the bottom half.
The loss was their sixth straight, and every one of those defeats has come by two runs or fewer.
“We're fighting,” Neto said. “We've been fighting all year and it's just not going our way right now, but we're not [going to] cry about it, moan about it. We're [going to] flip the switch here at midnight, and come in tomorrow and try to avoid a sweep.”
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Over his last eight starts, Gordon has gone 7-0 with a 1.88 ERA and has paired the results with a strong strikeout-to-walk profile, the sort of efficiency that usually gets player-development staff members paying closer attention. His performance has boosted his standing as a prospect, and it has put him on a path that could bring him into MLB consideration in the next year or two, even if the exact timing remains part of the story still unfolding. [Read more 🡒]