The angels planned to compete in 2025. Game 1 was not a good start.

CHICAGO – Generally, when it makes a launch change, the manager of the angels Ron Washington will signal to his bullpen.

Thursday, however, he arrived at the mound, turned his body towards shelter and asked for a right arm from the bench. Never a good sign, in particular the opening day, and in particular in front of the humble Chicago White Sox.

It’s just a game. An 8-1 defeat for angels against a club that comes out of a season of 121 losses. But it was a bad game. One who saw the Infielder Nicky Lopez debut his team as a mop-up-wizard rescue launcher.

“It is certainly disappointing,” said the catcher of the angels Logan O’hoppe. “Enter us with expectations and now we put all our work to the test. And when things go as you want, it is then that you are put to the test. And we chose to do it soon.”

Expectations for angels are not high this year. And for a good reason. They are coming out of a season of 99 defeats, they have the longest drought of the MLB playoffs and have not added many big offseason names.

It is not yet clear internally how much confidence have the highest in their product on the field.

This team played his last games on the road last season in Chicago, with the White Sox to just a loss from the semi -loss record of the sport. The angels moved away from history that weekend, selling famous in that series of late September.

This return trip to Chicago should have represented something new. But the first game reported this team to the same agony of their franchise season the previous year.

The angels planned to compete in 2025, but it is not clear if this will happen. (Photo of Geoff Stellfox / Getty Images)

In 2025, they can only have one loss. But there is no great perspective for a substantial improvement.

“There is a lot of optimism. We had a very productive field. There were many good things,” said GM Perry Minasian of Angels on Tuesday when he was asked about the ability of his team to compete. “We are really excited to start the season. You know me, I’m not one for the forecast.”

When asked if his list is positioned to compete, however, and work better in 2025 than the terrible previous year, Minasian would not say.

“I’m not one to compare things,” he said. “We will play Thursday and see what happens.”

Angels could take the next step this year. That was always the plan. That’s why they have not exchanged more talents ready for MLB at the last deadline or during this offseason. And because they spent guys as closest to Kenley Jansen and the appetizer Yusei Kikuchi.

The tone underlying last season was growth. They were willing to take a step back to compete in 2025. This was the message for the whole last year and out of season. But it is not clear whether this will happen.

“You are always able to compete. It’s the way you compete,” said manager Ron Washington at the beginning of this week, when he asked the same question as Minasian. “There are things that you take advantage of you that the game presents you, and I think we will do a better job to take advantage of the situations and from what the game asks us to do.”

And when it was laid with the same follow-up, Washington joked slightly: “Yes, we are able to have more victories than 63.

“But then again, when the season begins, you have to go between the white lines and you have to do it. Speaking is cheap. You have to talk, but you too have to perform.”

More than 63 wins are not the bar, though. At least it shouldn’t be. And yes, it is probably not prudent for anyone to guarantee great success. However, there seems to be an attempt to go to a step any concrete declarations of improvement.

The first real aspect was not good. After going 0-to-5 with the runners in a score position, the first two inning, 19 beats of consecutive angels were withdrawn. Their only race came on a ninth solo blow from O’hoppe.

Kikuchi has allowed three races in six solids. But the lifter Ryan Johnson, making his debut in MLB, renounced five points in the eighth inning on two homers.

“We had opportunities. Everything we needed was a basic success (when we had runners on the base),” Washington said after the game. “It may have made the difference. We simply did not arrive. Game One. If we continue to do it, we will be fine.”

A loss of the opening day of 11-3 in Baltimore did not define the angels last year. Nor did 13-4 defeated in the second game. Nor the four -games winning series that followed their very distinct team with only two games in the season.

This is all to say that this season will not be defined by the first game. This is still a Winnable series. And a season that could really go in any direction.

But while last season it was not defined by how it started, it was indicative of what was to come. Reflective of a list that has not been built to compete.

All angels can do now is the hope that this open has no influence on what will come.

“One hundred percent,” said O’hoppe, when he was asked at the beginning of this week if his team could surprise people. “It was good. It was quite liberating. I feel an energy from all the others that we like the game a little more and we added a year of experience. Last year it taught us a lot.”

(Top photo of Luis Rengifo: Geoff Stellfox / Getty Images)