Taylor Ward is making strides in outfield as Angels beat Athletics

It’s not uncommon for players to keep baseballs from games they’ve played. Pitchers keep the one that represents their first strikeout, batters keep the ones representing their first hits. Left fielder Taylor Ward took home another kind of milestone baseball this week.

Ward kept the ball he robbed Shane Langeliers and Oakland Athletics of a would be grand slam on on Monday night. The baseball was still in his locker on Tuesday, the Angels’ second game of the series.

“It kind of just all happened so fast that there wasn’t really much time to think, judge or do anything like that,” Ward reflected on that play before Tuesday’s game, “it was more just go and catch it.”

Ward joined his three-time American League most valuable player teammate Mike Trout as the two Angels players who have robbed a grand slam since 2004, per Sports Info Solutions. (SIS has tracked home run robberies since 2004.)

As the leadoff batter in Tuesday’s game, Ward went 2-for-4 with an RBI, joining Brandon Drury, Luis Rengifo and Gio Urshela as players who helped drive in runs in the Angels’ 5-3 win over the A’s. Griffin Canning pitched five innings on Tuesday, giving up three earned runs on four hits and two walks and struck out seven. Carlos Estévez completed a five-out save for the Angels.

Though no dramatic plays were needed of Ward on Tuesday, so far this season he has made quite a few of them so far. It’s been the result of just how much work he has put in this year to be keenly aware of the outfield wall. The home run robbery was also something that since the very beginning of the season he had on his list of accomplishments he wanted to make.

“For me, really once the season ended last year I wanted to evaluate my deficiencies, I guess you could say,” Ward said earlier in the season. “Still just always getting better with the wall and knowing where the wall was. With the injury last year, that really stunned my perception of what I need to work on.”

Ward hurt his shoulder and neck during a May 20 game against the A’s last season after crashing into the right field wall while making a catch. The issue did not result in an injured list stint for him, but it’s not something he’s forgotten.

“[Familiarity with the wall] is still at the top of my list and probably always will be,” he continued. “I want to be able to take home runs away. I want to be able to do all these things.”

Angels’ Taylor Ward plays against the Boston Red Sox on April 17 in Boston.

(Michael Dwyer / Associated Press)

Ward got that first home run robbery 23 games into the regular season. The catch is an obvious memorable moment for him. Also on his list this season, the catch he made in Boston on April 14, which had just a 25 percent catch probability on it.

“He doesn’t take a day off in the outfield working pregame and it’s showing,” Trout said. “He’s making big plays for us. He’s making hard plays look routine. It’s fun to watch.”

Another favorite play on Ward’s list so far this season, his April 8 catch in foul territory, in which he secured an out of Brandon Belt during the Angels’ game against the Toronto Blue Jays, with Tyler Anderson on the mound that game.

Added Anderson of how Ward has done so far this season: “What I think was most impressive about that [robbed home run] was we were in left field a week ago and I asked him what he was doing. And he was just working on running back and feeling the track and finding the wall and he’s like, ‘I’m just trying to work on some things I haven’t been as good at.’ And then, lo and behold, a week later, he goes back to the wall and robs a Grand Slam.

“I just feel he’s been really good out there.”

Ward ranks among some of baseball’s best outfielders so far this season, based on Baseball Savant’s Outs Above Average Leaderboard. OAA is a range-based metric, defined by Baseball Savant as “the cumulative effect of all individual plays a fielder has been credited or debited with… that accounts for the number of plays made and the difficulty of them.”

Ward ranks seventh on that leaderboard with an OAA of two. Among those that round out the top-10: New York Mets’ center fielder Brandon Nimmo, Chicago White Sox’s Luis Robert, Tampa Bay Rays’ Randy Arozarena and Chicago Cubs’ Cody Bellinger.

There’s still a long way to go in this season for the Angels. Tuesday’s game was just their 24th of the season. But if Ward keeps up his defensive success, he could find himself in serious Gold Glove conversations.

“He’s made some really fine defensive plays,” manager Phil Nevin said before Tuesday’s game. “I think he’s improved his game quite a bit… I like the way that he plays left field. I think he’s in that discussion of some of the best defensive outfielders out there.”