Boxscore Breakdown #150: The drought is over – Angels 8, Mariners 1

The drought is over! No, you still can’t water your lawn, but you can go out on that dried out lawn and jump for joy that the Angels will be returning to the playoffs after missing out the last four seasons. Maybe you can even water your lawn with a celebratory champagne shower. It might be more prudent to wait until they clinch the AL West though.

Or maybe all celebrations should be on hold until we are certain that Pujols and Shoemaker are actually healthy. That is a much more dour note to go out on for what should be a great win and great moment, but that’s just the way things work sometimes.

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1U7Pp4RUey00mZ1f3ZeYsRM8JmUYk-Rxrw6pPfQqkT2I/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /] Albert Pujols had the big day even though his hammy cramped up on him. He did his job of clearing the bases with a double, so I think we can all be OK with him calling it an early night. He’s old and needs his rest. Ironically, his replacement, Tony Campana also came through with the bases loaded and was second in RE24. The next biggest development of the night was the Brennan Boesch homered! That’s the first time this year he’s collected an RBI without making an out in the process.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1U7Pp4RUey00mZ1f3ZeYsRM8JmUYk-Rxrw6pPfQqkT2I/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] Logan Morrison ruined the fun for Shoemaker, but it was Humberto Quintero that nearly ruined Shoemaker. Or maybe he did, that MRI is still pending. On a night of bad hitting, former Angel Kendrys Morales had himself a terrible night.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1U7Pp4RUey00mZ1f3ZeYsRM8JmUYk-Rxrw6pPfQqkT2I/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] Matt Shoemaker was just terrific again. Now we all have to spend the day sitting on the edge of our seat, hoping that the oblique issue that forced him out of the game is truly as minor as he says it was. For Seattle, the Angels FINALLY figured out Hisashi Iwakuma. They didn’t just score a few runs off him either, they absolutely annihilated him. For anyone that was worried that the offense was going to fall off again after getting dominated the night before, this should put those fears to rest.

Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1U7Pp4RUey00mZ1f3ZeYsRM8JmUYk-Rxrw6pPfQqkT2I/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /] Joe Thatcher got another chance to work off the rust and Vinnie Pestano pitched for the fifth time in six days in Scioscia’s effort to keep his main bullpen guys rested. The vaunted Mariners bullpen helped open this game up as Dominic Leone came in and proceeded to let all his inherited runners score.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1U7Pp4RUey00mZ1f3ZeYsRM8JmUYk-Rxrw6pPfQqkT2I/pubchart” query=”oid=451609002&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”316″ /] Like so many previous Angels games, it started off in a dead heat and then one big inning later, it was pretty much all over.

Halo Hero

As tempted as I was to jokingly give to Boesch, clearly Shoemaker deserves this. Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to go stare at Twitter until I see an update on his MRI.