The Angels' 18-3 blowout of the Astros on August 20 should've been a feel-good laugher, with Zach Neto going 5-for-6 with a career-high 7 RBIs. Instead it turned into a nightmare night for the lineup, and now Los Angeles is paying for it with two roster moves at once.
Wade Meckler took a 90.6 mph sinker from Astros reliever Bryan King off the helmet, over his right ear, in the fifth inning. He went down near home plate and was tended to by trainers before walking off under his own power. The Angels retroactively placed him on the 7-day concussion list dating back to that Friday.
An inning later, Nolan Schanuel exited the same game with right side soreness. It didn't get better overnight — the Angels have now put him on the 10-day injured list with a right intercostal muscle strain, also backdated to Friday. Two key everyday guys, out in the span of one inning, confirmed in the same transaction.
Schanuel has been the Angels' everyday first baseman since debuting back in 2023, and this season he's hitting right around.280 with 6 home runs and 36 RBIs — not a monster year, but a steady presence in the middle of the order the team badly needs down the stretch. An intercostal strain is nothing to rush back from either; those tend to linger and flare back up if a guy comes back too early, which is exactly why the Angels backdated the move instead of trying to squeeze one more start out of him.
Meckler's situation is the scarier one in the short term. Getting hit in the head by a 90-plus mph pitch is the kind of moment where the final score stops mattering, and concussion evaluations move on their own timeline no matter what the calendar says. The 7-day list is the floor, not a guarantee he's back the moment it expires.
Losing both at once guts the middle of the Angels' lineup for however long this stretch lasts, and it puts more pressure on the bench and any call-ups to hold the fort. For a team still trying to squeeze into the playoff conversation this late in August, an 18-run outburst turning into a two-man IL casualty report is about as bittersweet as a win can get.