Losing to the Astros is really annoying, but the Angels seem to do it more than most. Losing to a guy named Dallas who plays for Houston is even more annoying, especially when he just straight shoves for eight innings while the bats are helpless against him.
Run Expectancy Rundown
Just about everyone got owned by Keuchel, who has been a buzzsaw in his last few starts. Howie Kendrick eventually got the Angels on the board after Keuchel got the hook, but it was too little, too late. That being said, admit it, you kind of thought they were going to pull off the comeback, didn’t you?
Jason Castro led Houston offensively, but Jose Altuve was right behind him and was an absolute menace on defense. Things could’v been a lot worse for Richards if Marc Krauss hadn’t been a GIDP machine.
Starting Pitcher Scores
Keuchel was just ridiculous and even when he finally got in trouble in the ninth, it was on an infield hit and a seeing-eye groundball. This was really just a dominating performance for him. In fact, it was a lot like the dominating performance we had come to expect from Garrett Richards, but he was off in this one. His slider wasn’t sharp and he really struggled to keep the ball down in the zone. Credit to him for getting through seven innings, but this outing puts a big dent in the “burgeoning ace” narrative that has cropped up around him of late.
Bullpen Battle
Hector Santiago finally got some work in and pitched two perfect innings, though he got a lot of help from the marine layer. Suffice it to say that he still has some work to do if he wants to return to the rotation. Josh Zeid gave the Angels a shot at making a game of it, but even the Astros can’t blow a five-run lead with two outs in the ninth.
Game Flow
Thank to the hits, walks, wild pitches and blown pickoff throws, Richards had the Angels down to a 17% win expectancy before they even recorded the first out. So, yeah, it was one of those games. Things didn’t hit 0% until the ninth inning and Kendrick’s triple only pushed them to 1% for a brief moment before it all ended.
Halo A-Hole
Sucks when you BABIP regresses all the way back to the mean on you all in one start. Sucks even more that Houston seems to have Garrett’s number.
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