Three Games In, Zero Wins
The Angels are 0-3. It's too early to panic. It's also too early to pretend everything is fine. The truth, as it usually is in baseball, sits somewhere uncomfortably in between: this roster has talent, this lineup has power, and yet the results through three games have been the kind of ugly that makes front offices start having quiet conversations about "urgency" and "accountability."
Monday's loss to the Cubs was the most concerning of the three, because Chicago didn't even have to play their best baseball to win. They scored early, pitched competently, and played the kind of clean, error-free defense that the Angels couldn't match. It was a game won on fundamentals, which is another way of saying the Angels lost it on the basics.
The Cubs Look Different This Year
Chicago came into 2026 with diminished expectations — at least from the national media, which has largely written off the Cubs as a .500 team stuck in the middle of a semi-rebuild. But the Cubs themselves clearly didn't get that memo. Through the first week, they've played with an energy and cohesion that suggests a team that believes in what it's doing, even if nobody outside the clubhouse shares that belief.
Their pitching has been sharp. Their defense has been crisp. And their lineup, while not loaded with All-Stars, has been annoyingly productive in the way that makes opposing pitchers throw extra pitches per at-bat. Death by a thousand singles, essentially.
What's Next for the Angels
An 0-3 start in a 162-game season is a footnote, not a headline. But the Angels can't afford to let it become a trend. This franchise has spent too many recent seasons starting slow and never catching up. At some point, the talent on paper has to translate to wins on the field. Three games in, we're still waiting.