ANAHEIM — The last victory of the Angels season was an especially poignant one for a guy who wasn’t even around to witness most of what has gone wrong this year.
Veteran right-hander Carson Fulmer, who wasn’t in the majors with the Angels until last weekend, pitched five scoreless innings to get the victory in the Angels’ 7-3 victory over the Oakland A’s in the season finale on Sunday.
Fulmer, 29, last pitched in the majors in 2021. He was out of baseball entirely for the first two months of this season, before the Angels signed him to a minor league deal.
“It means the world to me,” Fulmer said of the opportunity the Angels gave him. “I was on the couch three months ago, and debating whether I was going to play again or not. It definitely means a lot. This is big for my career, big for my family.”
Fulmer got the start in Sunday’s game, and Manager Phil Nevin said he only planned to get him one time through the lineup. Fulmer was pitching well so he let him go five.
“That was a really cool deal today,” Nevin said of Fulmer getting the victory.
THE HOME RUN KING
Shohei Ohtani officially became the first player born in Japan to lead either the American or National leagues in homers, finishing with 44. Adolis Garcia of the Texas Rangers was second in the AL with 39.
“It’s quite an honor and I’m humbled when you think about the great players that have come before me that have played MLB from Japan,” Ohtani said in a statement released by the Angels. “Thank you to my teammates, coaching staff and fans that helped me to achieve this goal.”
Ohtani has not spoken to the media since Aug. 9, following his penultimate start of the season. He did not speak after his Aug. 23 start, which was the game in which he hurt his elbow.
Ohtani was in the dugout throughout the games on Saturday and Sunday, and he was in the clubhouse exchanging hugs and handshakes with his teammates after Sunday’s game.
DRAFT STATUS
The Angels finished the season with the seventh worst record in the majors, but their draft position in 2024 won’t be determined until the lottery is held at the Winter Meetings.
The top six selections will be determined by lottery. All of the non-playoff teams are included except the Washington Nationals, who aren’t eligible because they had a lottery pick last year and are designated as a “large market team” by MLB’s revenue sharing rules.
NOTES
One of the players who lived up to expectations was infielder Brandon Drury, who hit a pair of homers in the final game to finish with 26. He posted an OPS of .803. Drury, 31, is signed for $8.5 million next season. …
The Angels finished with an attendance of 2,640,575, which was an average of 32,599. That ranked 12th in the majors. The attendance was up 7% from last year, but significantly down from the Angels streak of 17 straight years of drawing 3 million, prior to the pandemic. …
First baseman Nolan Schanuel did not play in the season finale. He has reached base safely in the first 29 games of his big league career, tied for the third longest streak in history. The streak will remain intact next season, according to the Angels. The major league record is 47 games, set by Seattle Mariners first baseman Alvin Davis in 1984.