Instead of taking an early lead and immediately gagging it away, this time the Angels grabbed an early lead and held onto it throughout. Much better! More importantly, much more relaxing.
Run Expectancy Rundown
Kole Calhoun really opened the game up with his big double, but it was Erick Aybar with the most complete performance as he had two hits, two steals and a sac fly. Much to the chagrin of a faction of Angels fans, Grant Green did nothing to convince Scioscia that his time at third base should be anything other than a one-game respite for Freese.
Kendrys Morales did his best to haunt his old team again, but it wasn’t really all that much. Outside of the Arcia homer, Garrett Richards shutdown the Twins’ entire lineup.
Starting Pitcher Scores
Yohan Pino did nothing to conjure up old memories of the last Johan to pitch for the Twins. The different spelling didn’t help, but neither did the lousy pitching. Garrett Richards though was far from lousy. He has too many walks, but when you limit good contact, you can get away with it.
Bullpen Battle
Kevin Jepsen tried to blow the game… again, but only allowed a little bit of damage. It seems that he discovered the way to be a bad reliever but still maintain a low ERA is to only let inherited runners score. I think he learned it from Fernando Salas. The Twins once again got excellent long relief but poor short relief.
Game Flow
Despite an early setback, the Halos managed to take a lead in the early innings and just never look back. The game was functionally over in the third inning. But as the valley in the late innings shows, no lead is truly safe with the Angels bullpen involved.
Halo Hero
One thing they say about aces is they still find a way to perform even when they lack their best stuff or their command. That was a perfect description of Richards in this game.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
