Vaughn Grissom making the most of his opportunity with Angels

CHICAGO - A run of left-handed pitchers has given Vaughn Grissom the chance to show what he can do in the big leagues.

Now, the question is whether the Angels are ready to test him more against righties.

"It's not my decision," Grissom said on Monday, "but that would be sick. As a ballplayer, you want to be in there every single day. So it's definitely something that I'd love, but I do whatever helps the team win."

Grissom was in the No. 3 spot in the lineup for Monday's matchup against Chicago White Sox left-hander Anthony Kay.

After missing part of spring training and the first couple weeks of the season because of a wrist injury, Grissom came into Monday's game hitting .357 with a .921 OPS. In 36 plate appearances, he's walked six times and only struck out twice.

That's far too small of a sample to draw any conclusions about him as a hitter. Also, he's faced lefties in 24 of his plate appearances. For what it's worth, he's 4 for 9 against righties, with three walks and one strikeout.

Asked flatly about giving Grissom more opportunities against righties, Manager Kurt Suzuki suggested he's not ready to change what they've done.

"We like the matchups right now," Suzuki said.

The Angels are about to face mostly right-handers, so Suzuki doesn't want to take away too much from his left-handed hitters whose playing time has been limited in the past week.

Yoán Moncada has been playing third and Adam Frazier has been playing second against righties, with Oswald Peraza at third and Grissom at second against lefties.

All four of those players have been doing well lately in the current platoon.

Grissom, 25, is just starting to give a peek at the potential that made him such a touted prospect, first with the Atlanta Braves and then with the Boston Red Sox. He didn't get much opportunity in either spot, though. Last year with the Red Sox he hit just .190 with a .465 OPS.

"My career could have gone a whole different route, but I ended up in a little stall there in Boston," Grissom said. "But when I look back, there's still some things I have to accomplish. I still think I'm right there, where I need to be. … Maybe there were some things I had to learn along the way, with Boston, that I didn't even know I needed to learn. That could be helping me now and for the rest of my career."

O'HOPPE UPDATE

A day after catcher Logan O'Hoppe and Suzuki said there was no timeline on the catcher's recovery from a fractured left wrist, O'Hoppe was more optimistic.

"A couple weeks," O'Hoppe said on Monday.

O'Hoppe was hit by a foul ball on his glove hand during Saturday's game against the Kansas City Royals. He said he fractured the pisiform bone, which is about the size of a pea on the pinky side of the hand, near the wrist.

NETO HEATS UP

It was no coincidence that the Angels had a big offensive day on Sunday when leadoff hitter Zach Neto came out of his slump. Neto was hitting .184 in his previous 13 games, without a home run, but he had three hits on Sunday and the Angels scored nine runs.

"I feel like Net's been a lot harder on himself than we feel like he's playing," Suzuki said. "He's a perfectionist. He wants everything to be right, which I think is why he's such a great player. But it's great to see him get some hits and I mean, when he got hits, he scored all those runs, so there's no mystery that he's a guy that can spark us."

UP NEXT

Angels (RHP José Soriano, 5-0, 0.24 ERA) at White Sox (RHP Davis Martin, 3-1, 2.01 ERA), Tuesday, 4:40 p.m. PT, FanDuel Sports Network, 830 AM

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