We’ve officially reached the stage of the season in which the Angels have come from behind so frequently and so effectively, that I merely shrug when they fall behind early. It has been a few years since I’ve gotten that feeling about this club, but it is in full effect right now. Perhaps they learned how to do it after watching it done against them and their bullpen for so many years?
Run Expectancy Rundown
Here is a scary thought for the rest of the league, the Angels have been one of the top teams over the last few weeks and Mike Trout is only just now starting to come on. To that same end, David Freese has looked like his pre-back injury self as well. Look at the lineup now, even without Hamilton, and there isn’t really much of a weak spot to it. In this game there was, in Pujols and Calhoun, but C.J. Cron walked twice, so I’ll take it.
KC’s “death by sacrifice fly” offense attack came up short in this one. That tends to be the case when Pedro Ciriaco is your top offensive performer. Really, the Royals just had the one inning where Richards balked himself out of focus. Their bats were exceptionally quiet otherwise.
Starting Pitcher Scores
Garrett Richards looks like he is back on the good foot, save for one bad inning in which he lost his composure. His stuff looked sharp again though, which is more important. Old friend Jason Vargas got back to his old ways of haunting the Halos, but his solid effort went to waste as it so often did during his one year with the Angel.s
Bullpen Battle
After some rough recent outings, Michael Kohn was back in Scioscia’s good graces. And by back in good graces I mean that he was really the only middle reliever with a fresh arm, so Scioscia had no other choice. Kohn did his job, but, thankfully, Kelvin Herrera did not. That left Ernesto Frieri to come in for the save in what very much now appears to be a full-fledged reinstatement as closer, which gives me the sads. I should’ve known it was too good to last.
Game Flow
That one bad inning put the Angels in a deep trench, but they came flying out of it after Herrera had his meltdown in the seventh and then Iannetta’s homer put them over the top. There was a tiny scare in the ninth, because of course there was, but it was just scare and nothing more.
Halo Hero
Chris Iannetta doesn’t always hit homers, but when he does, they usually are game-winners.
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