Nineteen games out of the division race with 45 games to play, the Angels are steadily approaching mathematical elimination. Within that framework, it stands to reason they should at least occasionally rest the players they envision as part of their future.
And so even as the Angels attempted to dissolve a season-long nine-game losing streak, Manager Mike Scioscia held Mike Trout out of their Sunday series finale in Cleveland.
“I wanted to [play], for sure,” Trout said. “But he came up to before the series and said he was going to give me a day off one of these days.