ANAHEIM, Calif – Baserunners are always welcome in a game, but there’s one method to putting runners on that teams would like to avoid if they could: hit-by-pitches.

That’s something the Los Angeles Angels could not avoid in their 4-3 win over the Athletics on Sunday, though it worked in their favor in the end. Two of their four runs in the game were scored by runners who had reached base after being hit by a pitch, while another pivotal run came from a runner who was put in scoring position because the man after him had been hit by a pitch.

Surely there were more preferable ways to put runs on the board, though that part was out of the Angels’ control. It also wasn’t just the way that scoring baserunners were getting on, but the sheer number of times that Angel batters had to wear it that stood out. 

The Angels set a new, and painful, franchise record in Sunday’s game with five batters HBP. Even more remarkable, only three different Angels were hit in the game and both first baseman Yoán Moncada and utility player Chris Taylor were hit twice each.

“Obviously, the natural reaction is to be angry and frustrated,” Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “I don’t think there was any intention with any of them, but that doesn’t make me feel any better.”

Yoán Moncada was just by a pitch for the second time today, this time straight off the inside of his knee.

He was down for a moment, but he’s since made it to first base. A real magnet this season, he’s been hit by six pitches. @SportingTrib @TaylorBlakeWard

— jack (@Jackmagic00) September 7, 2025

Taylor must have been feeling deja vu after also being hit twice in the game, both in the fourth and sixth innings. The hand fracture that sidelined Taylor for weeks earlier in the season happened in the first place after he was hit in the hand by an A’s pitcher, that time Tyler Ferguson.

Taylor was almost hit for a third time in the eighth when a loose pitch by A’s reliever Osvaldo Bibo whipped just past Taylor’s face and sent him to the ground.

“Obviously, we lost CT [Taylor] for some time the last time that happened, and then for him to him again… you’ve got to command the ball better. You can’t just be throwing the ball like that.” 

The last hit batter was the dagger for the A’s. In a tied 3-3 game Bibo, continuing to pitch inside, hit Angels utility player Oswald Peraza, putting him on first and moving Taylor to second.

That brought up Angels catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who gave Los Angeles the lead with a ground-rule double off the right field wall to score Taylor, who wouldn’t have been there if not for Peraza taking the hit. 

“I think, more motivating because they hit five of our guys today, didn’t seem like they cared,” d’Arnaud said. “So, motivated to get the job done for the regular players.”

d’Arnaud wasn’t the starting catcher for the Angels on Sunday, but he was brought in to replace Logan O’Hoppe after another instance of an Athletic hitting an Angel, this time with a bat. 

A’s shortstop Jacob Wilson struck O’Hoppe in the face mask with his bat between pitches while spinning his bat around. There didn’t appear to be any intent behind the incident, but O’Hoppe was shaken up and assessed by trainers for a long time before leaving the game, grabbing at both his nose and his jaw. O’Hoppe will undergo mandatory concussion testing, Montgomery said.

In the baseball days of old, a team might answer three of their players hit by pitchers five times with some retaliation, but on Sunday’s game. the Angels just had to settle with the win.