The Angels and the A’s playing a one-run game is nothing new. The Angels losing on a passed ball, however, is.
This loss really hurt. Not only did they lose the game in a really stupid and frustrating way, but they also threw away one of C.J. Wilson‘s best starts in month. Maybe we should take that as a sign of progress for C.J., maybe it is, but it is also a golden opportunity wasted.
When you factor in the outs Oakland made on the bases, including the questionable out at home Donaldson made, and the Halos really just blew a game where they got all the breaks but one.
Run Expectancy Rundown
Howie Kendrick and Erick Aybar basically were the entire offense. Who knows what would’ve happened though if David Freese hadn’t gotten thrown out stretching a single. Gordon Beckham made his debut and was as offensively inept as expected, but at least he made some nice plays on defense.
Alberto Callaspo had the kind of night where he seemed like he was a sleeper agent for the Angels as his GIDP short-circuited the best run-scoring chance the A’s had all night. Outside of that, small contributions from Jonny Gomes and Coco Crisp were the best Oakland could muster.
Starting Pitcher Scores
Wilson was good enough in this game that I am not even going to make a “back on the beam” reference. He still had his shaky moments and isn’t missing a ton of bats, but this was probably still his best start in two months. Jon Lester basically justified the A’s trading for him with his performance in this game.
Bullpen Battle
This is now two games in a row in which the rebuilt Angels bullpen blew the game for the Halos. That wasn’t supposed to happen. The A’s bullpen, unfortunately, didn’t prove to be as leaky as it looked on Friday.
Game Flow
After the second out of the game, Oakland had a slight edge pretty much the entire contest. Even Aybay’s game-tying single only gave the Angels a 50% win expectancy for like a second. If you really want to talk about costly mistakes though, that run-scoring wild pitch (which should’ve been a passed ball) saw the Angels’ win expectancy drop from 40% all the way to 13%. Ouch.
Halo A-Hole
I realize there is a high degree of difficulty in catching a sidearmed fastball that is suddenly sailing high, but catch the damn ball, Chris.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
