Boxscore Breakdown #118: Barely enough – Angels 2, White Sox 1

Sometimes barely enough is all you need. You might even say it enough. That’s some great kind of circular definition, eh? Well, barely enough appears to be all the Angels are capable of lately. The Halos never manufactured a run in this game, they just made good contact twice. They got the win, but they did nothing to make us feel better about the team because it was barely a win. Barely wins are better than barely losses, but still, I’m not feeling so great about this squad.

Angels 2, White Sox 1

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1JEEDGED9Oxa2GSI1AGI1l5m6dn6tQijOKQWwu2yvuao/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /] C.J. Cron and Albert Pujols obviously had the two solo shots. The rest of the lineup didn’t do much of anything, with the exception of Johnny Giavotella who just snuck into the positive. Of course, whatever good Johnny did on offense, he completely undid on defense. He somehow airmailed a routine double play relay that allowed the only Chicago run to score. He also had a weird moment where intentionally fell to the ground and had a grand mal seizure instead of just ranging into the hole and back-handing the ball. He even made the eighth inning interesting by taking a puzzlingly circuitous route to an slow groundball. In total, he cost the Angels a run, cost Andrew Heaney at least 20 pitches and the bullpen an additional inning of work. That reminds me, how’s that Utley trade coming?

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1JEEDGED9Oxa2GSI1AGI1l5m6dn6tQijOKQWwu2yvuao/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] Avisail Garcia and Klay Thompson’s brother gave the Angels a bit of a hassle. The Angels gave Jose Abreu a few bruises by plunking him twice. Heaney should give Tyler Flowers some flowers for twice striking out to end the only two real threats the White Sox had.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1JEEDGED9Oxa2GSI1AGI1l5m6dn6tQijOKQWwu2yvuao/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] This was a real gutsy outing by Heaney. I know that’s an old school way of describing it, but I can’t think of a better way to describe how well he pitched despite his defense not helping him and him having one pitch that just wasn’t working for him. Carlos Rodon looked great again and continued the disturbing trend of Angel hitters not being able to run up pitch counts on anyone.

Bullpen Battle
Rodon tossed a complete game, so no sense in a comparison chart, but the Angel bullpen held up nicely with the only blemish being attributable to Giavotella needing to consult Google maps before fielding a grounder.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1JEEDGED9Oxa2GSI1AGI1l5m6dn6tQijOKQWwu2yvuao/pubchart” query=”oid=451609002&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”316″ /] Despite very little in the way of actual offense, there were a few scares and thrills for each team.

Halo Hero

It takes a strong man to hit the ball that far the opposite way.