Well, that couldn’t have gone better. Not only did the Angels beat the pants off the A’s in the finale, but they sent them into full-on self-destruct mode afterwards.
After losing all four games and scoring a combined four runs in the series, Oakland is in utter disarray. Their hitters were awful in the series. They made several fielding blunders. Scott Kazmir continues to implode. But the cherry on top was manager Bob Melvin ripped the team a new one behind closed doors and then threw them all under the bus in front of the media. It was all courtesy of the Angels.
Never stop, OakLOLand. Never stop.
Run Expectancy Rundown
Another huge game for Chris Iannetta and Mike Trout was right there with him. Gordon Beckham continued to look surprisingly useful as well. Albert Pujols and David Freese were the only Angels to not reach base, which is usually a good sign that you had a good day offensively, which the Angels did.
Josh Donaldson had another multi-hit game, but the rest of the Oakland lineup had another no offense game. Well, they did scrape across one run this time, so I guess that is progress for them. Let’s just put it this way, the A’s offense was so bad in this series that they traded for Adam Dunn right afterwards.
Starting Pitcher Scores
Matt Shoemaker was just tremendous once again. It blows my mind still, but he’s done it so often now, that it simply has to be for real.
Scott Kazmir got yanked with one out in the second. He only allowed two hits, but he walked four. He had a legit beef about the strike zone, but this was still vintage Kazmir. He got to a lot of two-strike counts but then just couldn’t finish off hitters and eventually lost them to a walk. Besides, the Angels were the ones getting victimized by a lousy strike zone the first three games of the series and it didn’t hurt them, so Kazmir can whine all he wants.
Bullpen Battle
Mike Morin had a small hiccup, but nothing concerning. Yoslan Herrera even worked a quick, clean inning, though I don’t know if the A’s were even trying at that point.
Jesse Chavez was excellent in relief but for the Trout homer and Evan Scribner allowed his token solo shot as well.
Game Flow
It was cute of the Angels to let the A’s hang around for that one inning. By the end of the second inning, the Angels never saw the win expectancy drop below 95%.
Halo Hero
The offense but the game away early, but it was Shoemaker’s outstanding effort that really allowed the Angels to step on Oakland’s throat.
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