Through the first three innings, the Angels (72-45) scored five runs off Cleveland starter Fausto Carmona, as Bell, who’s now 1-0 with a 5.91 earned-run average, pitched with a lead throughout.
He also pitched himself in and out of trouble throughout.
Bell allowed five straight singles and two runs to cross the plate in the third inning before striking out Travis Hafner on a 3-2 off-speed pitch and showing his agility in tracking down a Luis Valbuena popup along the third-base line to end the inning.
“I would have laid out for that even if it was in the dugout,” Bell said.
Unlike his debut, when his best efforts came early in the ballgame, Bell struggled early and showed his best stuff toward the tail end of his appearance.
A 4-6-3 double play and catcher Mike Napoli throwing out a baserunner helped him out of a two-hit first, while he threw 21 pitches in the second, giving up two hits and a run. In the aforementioned third, he labored to the tune of 35 pitches.
But in the fourth, aside from a walk to Grady Sizemore, he had no trouble. In the fifth, he recorded a 1-2-3 inning, establishing a string of retiring five in a row before a Valbuena walk in the sixth led to him getting the hook.
Much like his debut, Bell impressed his manager with his “moxie.”
“Trevor’s shown he’s aggressive in the [strike] zone,” Angels skipper Mike Scioscia said. “I think tonight he showed his moxie throwing a 3-2 changeup to Hafner, then getting Valbuena hard inside.
“That’s indicative of a kid who isn’t scared and is going to make his pitches. As he learns some things about how his stuff plays in the big leagues, he’ll get a little deeper in games.
“He did a terrific job of settling down after the third.”
After the Cleveland (51-67) series, the first-place Angels travel to Toronto, where Bell would likely start on Sunday.
