This is a simple game. You throw the ball. You hit the ball. You catch the ball.
Well, the Angels certainly hit the ball. They didn’t do so great with throwing the ball. They did an even worse job of catching the ball. And by “they” I am mostly referring to Chris Iannetta and David Freese.
It isn’t often that you get a chance to face Clayton Kershaw and come out the victor. To do so, you can’t make mistakes, but the Angels made a number of mistakes and they proved to be the difference in the game. Thanks a pantload, Chris and David.
Run Expectancy Rundown
Mike Trout more or less won the marquee match-up against Kershaw by way of his double and infield single, though he did also strike out once. Albert Pujols had the real big day though, cranking a double off of Kershaw and then tying the game with a mammoth blast off the corpse of Brian Wilson. Chris Iannetta actually had a big offensive contribution, but not big enough to atone for his two blunders in the field. Meanwhile, Erick Aybar confirmed the notion that he shouldn’t be hitting lead-off.
Juan Uribe had the big game thanks to that three-run jack, but the Dodgers had a pretty well-rounded attack with Matt Kemp, Dee Gordon and Scott Van Slyke making nice contributions. The Halos held down Adrian Gonzalez, Yasiel Puig and Hanley Ramirez which should normally be more than enough, but it just wasn’t meant to be.
Starting Pitcher Scores
Clayton Kershaw was good, but he certainly wasn’t dominant, surrendering four doubles and “only” striking out seven. Basically, he was just good enough to beat if the Angels got a strong start opposite him. Hector Santiago did not do that. There is the concept of the “shutdown inning.” Hector Santiago is the embodiment of whatever the antithesis of the shutdown inning is. It seems that anytime he gets spotted a lead, he immediately comes back out the next inning and gives it all away. One could pass of Santiago’s start as one bad pitch Juan Uribe and then getting screwed by two errors in the fifth inning. However, he once again was inefficient, consistently getting out in front of batters only to fall behind. The Angels can make the playoffs with Santiago in the rotation for the next month, but the more he pitches the smaller their odds of winning the AL West will be.
Bullpen Battle
Kevin Jepsen picked a real bad time to allow his first run in a long time. He had a shot of getting out of that inning, but he doesn’t get a free pass for letting those first two base hits happen first. None of it would have been an issue though had Don Mattingly not strangely insisted on having Brian Wilson serve as a setup man despite being just awful this year.
Game Flow
In a fairly even game, the Angels had the advantage for like one second before Santiago gave Uribe a cookie. The Dodgers actually didn’t hold the advantage for long either as Wilson served up a cookie of his own to Albert Pujols. It all came to a crashing end though after Kevin Jepsen’s ninth inning misadventure.
Halo A-Hole
All you had to do was catch the ball, Chris. YOU HAD ONE JOB!
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