ANAHEIM \u2014 It\u2019s happening again.<\/p>\n
Through the first eight games, the Angels have struck out in 31% of their plate appearances, which is even worse than last year\u2019s 27% rate.<\/a><\/p>\n Hitting coach Brady Anderson\u2019s first response to a question about strikeouts was to point out \u2014 correctly \u2014 that it\u2019s still very early in the season.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s interesting how things can change so quickly in such a short part of the season,\u201d Anderson said on Saturday. \u201cThe first four games in Houston, I thought the at-bats were almost, I wouldn\u2019t say perfect, but they were consistently grinding at-bats. Then you get a little\u2026 the weather conditions in Chicago, and you have a game like last night where you go 1-for-30, and the numbers get turned around quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n A few hitters are actually around the major league average of 26% or better, led by Nolan Schanuel (15%), Zach Neto (22%), Jo Adell (22%) and Mike Trout (24%). At the other end of the spectrum are Josh Lowe (46%), Jorge Soler (42%) and Oswald Peraza (39%).<\/p>\n \u201cSome of those guys that are struggling have pretty long-standing track records of hitting, so you know they\u2019re going to come out of it,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n Manager Kurt Suzuki said the pitchers the Angels have faced are part of the issue. They\u2019ve faced Houston Astros\u2019 right-hander Hunter Brown and Seattle Mariners right-hander Bryan Woo, who were two of the top five in the American League Cy Young voting last season.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, I don\u2019t like striking out,\u201d Suzuki said, \u201cbut we\u2019re running into some tough pitching, and these guys are really good at what they do. Our guys know what they gotta do, and they know their approach that they need to take. Sometimes you hit some tough pitching, and you just gotta keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n CLEANUP PITCHER<\/p>\n