Yeah, so, it turns out that an inflexible hip wasn’t C.J. Wilson‘s problem after all. The Angels had been trying to pass off the return of C.J. Wilson as the equivalent of a big deadline acquisition, but instead, it only served to make them look foolish for not pursuing rotation help.
Wilson was a mess, lasting just 1.1 innings and surrendering six runs before he got the hook. You can try and mitigate some of the awfulness by pointing out that two of the hits he allowed came on bunts and that only one of the other hits went for extra bases, but it was pretty clear from watching him that he wasn’t right at all. Now with Wilson almost unusable and Skaggs on the DL, the Angels could struggle just to have a full rotation should this lead to another DL trip for Wilson. Their playoff odds make them a virtual lock to at least win the Wild Card, but there is still that slim chance that they don’t and not having a functioning Wilson would seem to increase that chance.
Run Expectancy Rundown
It has been seemingly forever since Kole Calhoun had to be called out for a bad offensive performance, but his backwards-K to end the fourth inning rally earned him that right. Howie Kendrick made good the one at-bat where he didn’t strikeout and Hank Conger and C.J. Cron both showed signs of life, which is a silver lining. Certainly nobody will complain about Mike Trout finally stealing another base either. The only real concern here was that Josh Hamilton didn’t look good at all trying to play through a finger injury.
This is just depressing. The Rays that didn’t have a good day offensively really should be ashamed of themselves.
Starting Pitcher Scores
It is shocking that Wilson’s Game Score was even that high. Chris Archer didn’t go deep in the game, but did more than enough to protect the cushy lead he was gifted.
Bullpen Battle
Not only did Joe Thatcher struggle to get guys out in his first appearance in ages, but then that useless tub of goo ended up hurting himself. Just terrific. Michael Roth ended up being the sacrificial lamb after that. Meanwhile, the Rays bullpen did their best bamboo impression as they did quite a bit of bending but never quite broke.
Game Flow
It was all over but for the crying by the time Wilson got sent to the showers. Sure, the offense gave us a few glimmers of false hope along the way, but this one never really should’ve been in doubt, even for the best comeback team in baseball.
Halo A-Hole
So the hip excuse didn’t fly, C.J.. What else do you have for us?
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