The home series winning streak comes to an end but at least it came to an end against a worthy team. The Orioles lead their division and sport an excellent road record. If there was any team that was going to end the streak, Baltimore was as good as any.
The problem, in general, is that Baltimore is good and the Halos haven’t been doing so well against “good” teams. Out of all the teams in the AL with a record over .500, the Angels have a winning record against just Toronto and Cleveland, both of which are barely over .500. That may mean nothing, it is hard to beat good teams. But it definitely isn’t a good thing.
Run Expectancy Rundown
With just three hits, there obviously wasn’t a lot of offense going on. Trout had his homer, Navarro had his two hits and then just a smattering of walks. Kole Calhoun got a bit of a raw deal as he hitting a screaming liner that resulted in a double play. Josh Hamilton, however, looked much worse than his numbers suggest.
The Orioles didn’t get much going either, but J.J. Hardy and Jonathan Schoop made the most of the mistakes they saw.
Starting Pitcher Scores
This is where Game Score let’s us down. Miguel Gonzalez was fantastic over seven innings but then saw his line dented by the one mistake he made all night. Hector Santiago, however, was just awful, but he somehow ended up not allowing a run despite his wanton disregard of the strike zone and pitch efficiency.
Bullpen Battle
Mike Morin came ever so close to getting through his inning clean, but when he didn’t he fell apart. As good as he has looked at times, last night went to show that he really has to be careful with his fastball since it isn’t the overpowering type and lacks a lot of movement. If he misses his spot, he gets hurt and that’s exactly what happened twice last night. Fernando Salas didn’t look all that sharp either. Meanwhile, Cory Rasmus looks like he deserves to take Salas’ roster spot, but won’t since he has options left and Salas doesn’t. On the flip side, the Baltimore bullpen was perfect once again.
Game Flow
Only once did the Angels have real favorable odds, that was when they had runners on first and second to start the third, but Scioscia’s misguided sac bunt order to Conger followed by Calhoun lining into a double play killed that chance and any real chance of the Angels winning. The would’ve had a good chance at a comeback had Morin been able to limit the damage to just the one run, but he couldn’t, effectively ending the game as even Trout’s homer only gave them an 8% win probability.
Halo A-Hole
That’s now 14 hits Morin has allowed in 9.1 innings this month. Looks like Morin has some things he still has to work out.
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