Ben Rowen was a marketing director for a fire safety company when he got the call to be a pitcher again.

“I had to tell my buddy, ‘I have to take a break from putting this fire extinguisher together to take this phone call,’” Rowen recalled Wednesday, two days after his quest to return to the majors culminated in his first big-league appearance in five years.

Rowen, a 32-year-old product of Palos Verdes High and Los Angeles Harbor College, was activated to join the Angels’ bullpen because of the heavy workload handled by the other relievers. He pitched a perfect ninth inning in Monday’s victory.

“It was almost like my first time,” he said. “It was wonderful to be back out there.”

That was especially true because Rowen admitted he had “mentally kind of retired a couple times” in the years since he last appeared in the big leagues.

He was pitching for the independent Sugar Land Skeeters in 2018 when he abruptly left midseason, not wanting to subject his family to the financial hardship of playing that level of baseball. So that winter, he got the job with the fire safety company, which was interrupted when the Atlanta Braves called.

Rowen spent 2019 in the Braves’ farm system and didn’t pitch in 2020 because the minor-league season was canceled.

He was applying for jobs outside of baseball again last winter when he got the call from Alex Tamin, who had worked with Angels General Manager Perry Minasian with the Braves and followed him to the Angels. The Angels assistant GM wanted to sign Rowen as big-league depth.

“I saw the odds of me getting back up to the big leagues as pretty minuscule,” Rowen said. “But at the same time, you can’t really think about that when you put in the work day in and day out. So you’ve got to believe and I had trust in myself the whole time.”

OHTANI UPDATE

Shohei Ohtani felt “fine,” the Angels said, after he threw 23 pitches in the bullpen, with no bandage covering the finger that was affected by the blister.

It was Ohtani’s second bullpen session since the blister bumped him from the rotation. The Angels currently don’t have him penciled in to start over the weekend.

When Ohtani does come back, the Angels will have to reduce the pitch-count from before this layoff. He threw 92 pitches in his final outing.

“He’ll definitely be moved back regarding how deeply we would feel going into the game,” Manager Joe Maddon said. “We’ll have to make sure that we have somebody within the bullpen that we feel good piggybacking with him on that particular night.”

If Ohtani isn’t ready soon going into this upcoming stretch of 13 games in 13 days, the Angels may also insert a spot starter to give the other five pitchers the extra day of rest.

WHAT ABOUT WARD?

With Max Stassi on the injured list for about two weeks, Maddon was asked if they had given any consideration to calling up Taylor Ward and using him behind the plate.

Ward was originally drafted as a catcher, but moved from behind the plate in 2018. The Angels began reacquainting him with the position in 2020, and he caught a few times in spring training games this year.

“We’re still working on making him more of a complete catcher,” Maddon said, adding that backup catcher Anthony Bemboom already has the experience and “Taylor is still working to get to that point.”

Maddon did say they could still call up Ward for another role – perhaps to play right field.

ALSO

Justin Upton was out of the lineup for a second consecutive game because of back issue. The Angels waited until the last hour before first pitch to release their lineup because they hoped Upton could play. …

Although Felix Peña is on the injured list because of a hamstring issue, he’s been pitching at the alternate site in Arizona and Maddon said “he’s ready. He’s throwing really well, but right now he’s going to have to stay there. There’s no room at the inn.” …

The Angels will need make a 40-man roster move by April 22, when left-hander José Quijada can no longer be on the restricted list. They’ll need to add him back to the 40-man roster or designate him for assignment. The 40-man roster is currently full. The Angels initially placed Quijada on the restricted list because visa issues caused him to arrive late to spring training.

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