Brandon

Drury

Schanuel left Wednesday’s game with a lower left bruise after fouling a pitch off his lead leg. There is no word yet on the extent of his injury, but with only four days left in the season, it’s fair to wonder if the Angels will keep the 22-year-old on the bench the rest of the way. Brandon Drury will start at first base and bat clean-up.

Schanuel fouled a ball of his leg and was unable to continue. Brandon Drury took over for the Angels and is playing first base. Schanuel likely will need to undergo further testing, but keep in mind there’s less than a handful of games left in the year so Los Angeles has no reason to risk anything with the 22-year-old.

Sefanic is out with a calf injury, and Brandon Drury is also not in the lineup with a calf issue of his own. With those two infielders not available, Jack Lopez gets another start at second base.

There was some hope that Stefanic could return to the lineup Saturday after being removed from Friday’s game, but he’ll get another day. Brandon Drury (hamstring) is also out Saturday, so it’ll be Jack Lopez getting the start at second base for the Angels.

Drury went 1-for-2 in the contest before exiting. Jack Lopez has replaced the infielder in the field. Drury will likely undergo testing to determine the severity of the injury before his status going forward is revealed.

Drury’s hitting streak was about as weak as he gets — he went 7-for-22 with no extra-base hits, no RBI and one walk during the six games — but it’s still one of his season highlights. Drury’s horrible offensive performance this year would stand out even if he were normally horrible. But that a guy who had a 118 OPS+ over the previous three seasons is at 33 or so right now is incredible. He’s hit .167/.245/.221 in 314 plate appearances. He has 13 runs batted in. Thirteen! Last year, he missed the entire month of July and still had 83.

Drury hit one of three homers that Angels picked up off George Kirby. The 32-year-old also drove in a run off Kirby with a single in the sixth. Drury has been a disaster in 2024 with a slash of .159/.243/.218 even with the strong game Friday.

Granted, he’s not in the third year of a six-year deal, but Drury, who finished with OPSs over .800 in both 2022 and ’23, has quietly been even worse than Javier Báez offensively this year, hitting .153/.239/.202 with two homers in 280 plate appearances. Báez was at .184/.221/.294 in 289 plate appearances before being shut down. In spite of that fact, Drury has continued to play pretty regularly. Michael Stefanic is starting over him today.

Every time it’s looked like Drury has hit rock bottom, he’s responded by going even lower. He’s currently at .159/.246/.197 in 264 plate appearances for the season. He’s hit one homer in 71 games this year after finishing with 28 in 138 games in 2022 and 26 in 125 games last year. His current .443 OPS would be the lowest for anyone with 260 plate appearances since Rich Morales came in at .438 in 1973.

Rendon will take a seat after also missing Saturday’s game with his right elbow bruise. The 34-year-old will stay on the bench with Brandon Drury getting the start at third base.