ANAHEIM, Calif. — A calf, a hip and an elbow showed up at Angel Stadium on Thursday night, and it wasn’t a guy-goes-into-a-bar joke. Rather, as the sun rose in the west on a new baseball season, three body parts converged that, one way or another, will play pivotal roles in the A.L. West race.
Indeed, one of the beauties of a new season is that it not only comes packaged with optimism and the promise of the coming summer but, for certain players, it also includes muscles and joints being back in one piece after being strained, pulled, torn or frayed the year before.