Shutouts are no fun, but at least they haven’t been that common for the Angels. In fact, this was just the first time all season they’ve failed to score, an impressive feat considering the skeleton crew lineup they are rolling with. By comparison, the Halos had already been shutout three times by the same date last season. This is actually the deepest they’ve gone into a season before suffering their first shutout since the 2010 season. You know that season, the one where they last experienced the playoffs. So this is a good sign, right?
Run Expectancy Rundown
Mike Trout was the only positive RE24 contributor and that was really just because the Rays wanted absolutely no part of him. The real killer was Albert Pujols who had all of the negative run expectancy. He was the Ted Bundy of rallies in this one, which finally drew attention to the fact that he has been mostly terrible since hitting his 500th homer. His batted ball profile is still heavy on grounders and pop-ups and low on liners and flyballs. Of course, you know this because I have been warning everyone about it for a month now. Worse yet, it seems like his lower body is acting up on him again. Hurry back soon, Josh!
Jered Weaver managed to thwart his nemesis, David DeJesus, but Yunel Escobar was a problem, just like the previous night. That’s really annoying because Escobar actually isn’t that good (at baseball, or at being a decent human). Longoria doing damage, I can live with.
Starting Pitcher Scores
I believe this is our first tied game score. Archer obviously kept the Halos off the board, but he also didn’t make it out of the sixth while Weaver went seven. It wasn’t Weaver’s best work, but he still looks a far sight better than he did one month ago.
Bullpen Battle
Well, Michael Kohn‘s scoreless streak came to an end. No big deal, so long as this isn’t him going into a funk as he has in the past. If he does though, Mike Morin looked great, once again, bailing him out. The Rays pen had a much better night than they did in the opening game of this series. Still, it would be nice if Joe Maddon didn’t feel like he is obliged to use his entire bullpen every single game.
Game Flow
This is a pretty boring chart. There was the typical see-saw around 50% until the Rays finally scored, then it was just a slow, steady march downhill to zero. No big jumps for Tampa, no big spikes from the Angels making a major threat. Yawn.
Halo A-Hole
Do you think maybe you should try not to rollover on a pitch and groundout to third every time there are runners in scoring position? You know, just to mix things up. That’d be nice. I’m glad we had this talk.
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