Angels’ Taylor Ward looks for strong final month to end disappointing season

ANAHEIM — Like many other Angels players who have not had the season they expected, Taylor Ward is looking at the final month as a chance to prove a point.

“Definitely,” the outfielder said. “This has definitely been a down year overall. This is not the hitter I believe I am. There’s a lot to prove this last month.”

Ward is off to a good start, bringing a career-best 12-game hitting streak into Tuesday night’s game against the Dodgers. Ward has hit .292 with a .972 OPS during the streak.

“I definitely feel much better,” he said. “I feel like I’m back to where, when I swing, I’m putting a good barrel on it. Mechanically, things are really feeling good.”

For the season, Ward is hitting .240 with 19 home runs and a .727 OPS. His OPS is slightly better than the major league average.

The Angels and Ward had higher expectations, though. From 2021-23, Ward had a .795 OPS over 1,210 plate appearances. The peak of that was in 2022, when he had an .833 OPS. And that season included torrid stretches in the first and last month when his OPS was over 1.000.

Ward, 30, said he “absolutely” believes he can still be that player.

A part of the problem since then, of course, is that he was hit in the face by a pitch last July, suffering multiple fractures that required surgery. Ward had a 1.018 OPS in the month leading up to the injury.

Over the winter, Ward couldn’t do his normal workouts, which Manager Ron Washington thinks has affected his strength this year.

And then, Ward got hit in the helmet again this season, on June 30.

“Getting hit in the head this year again, that set me back for sure,” Ward said. “But I’ve definitely moved past that.”

Ward’s slump following this year’s incident lasted about a month, and it’s been only in the past couple of weeks that he has finally felt like himself again. He said he’s been writing down swing keys and feelings to help him be able to recapture this next year.

“Just going to cement these key things that I believe are going to help me for next year,” Ward said.

Washington said he thinks Ward can be even better next year because of having the winter to work out, and hopefully have a better supporting cast.

“I think he can be a very productive player, very productive,” Washington said. “I don’t think he can be a guy, because he’s never had to be that in his career. But he’s a very productive player. … Now he’ll have a chance to do everything he needs to do be strong. We’re looking forward to him coming back and having a good strong finish and coming back next year ready to go.”

STILL NO NEWS

The Angels are still collecting information on the injury to first-round draft pick Christian Moore, so they didn’t have any official word on the extent of his injury on Tuesday.

Moore hurt his left knee on Friday while playing second base in a Double-A game for Rocket City. He had to be helped off the field.

Moore was hitting .323 in his first 23 professional games. Before he was hurt, it was widely expected that Moore was going to make his major league debut this season.

NOTES

On the day when Shohei Ohtani played his first regular-season game at Angel Stadium since signing with the Dodgers, Washington said he was not told anything by the Angels about the chances of an Ohtani return when he took the job. Washington was hired on Nov. 8, and Ohtani signed with the Dodgers a month later. “Never came up,” Washington said. “They were in negotiations. It never came up. We were really just going through what we had here and how we were going to make that work.” …

The Angels were 21-23 entering their final two interleague games of the season. The Angels led the all-time series against the Dodgers, 74-72.

UP NEXT

Dodgers (RHP Bobby Miller, 2-3, 7.25 ERA) at Angels (RHP Griffin Canning, 4-12, 5.19 ERA), Wednesday, 6:38 p.m., Bally Sports West, 830 AM