Boxscore Breakdown #6: Royal Pains – Royals 9, Angels 2

This Boxscore Breakdown is entitled “Royal Pains,” which I understand to be some sort of TV show on the USA Network, which I understand to be TV network which people allegedly watch. I’ve never seen this show and am unaware that the USA Network ever showed anything besides Wings re-runs, but it seems like the sort of thing that my mother would watch.

What does this have to do with this Angels game? Well, obviously the Royals have caused the Angels great pains. More importantly, it gave me something else to talk about besides the Royals clobbering the Angels because it keeps happening and I’m out of different ways to describe it.

Did you know Royal Pains has been on for eight season? Eight seasons! I literally have never met a single person who has watched this show and it has been on for eight seasons. I feel like this is just part of an elaborate prank.

Royals 9, Angels 2

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1IcW6WUteDNFbK3s8LGvoIvz3KnQBCppDvWhY78cW9vQ/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /] Yet another game where the offense was driven almost entirely by two people. In this case, it was Albert Pujols and Mike Trout with everyone else starkly in the negative. This is probably just early season sluggishness and tough matchups conspiring to make the lineup look bad, but we’re about a week or two away from this becoming a disturbing reality.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1IcW6WUteDNFbK3s8LGvoIvz3KnQBCppDvWhY78cW9vQ/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] On the bright side, it wasn’t just Moustakas killing the Angels. In fact, he didn’t have a good day at all. The problem is that the rest of the Royals, save Hosmer, did have very good days. That includes something called a Paulo Orlando ripping not one but two triples.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1IcW6WUteDNFbK3s8LGvoIvz3KnQBCppDvWhY78cW9vQ/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] Well, C.J. Wilson got out of the first inning, so that was nice. The second inning, however, didn’t go terribly well. C.J. didn’t get help from his fielders in that inning, but he also got knocked around pretty well. He managed to clean it up after that, to his credit, but the damage had already been done. Yordano Ventura wasn’t all that great, but he didn’t need to be with the big early lead he was staked to.

Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1IcW6WUteDNFbK3s8LGvoIvz3KnQBCppDvWhY78cW9vQ/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /] In a repeat of the obvious, the Royals bullpen was excellent and the Angels bullpen was good, except for Fernando Salas who continues to be just awful in the early goings.

Defensive Dynamics
Yeah, defense was a problem in this one. David Freese was the biggest offender and I’m sure Scioscia has to be rethinking his policy on not taking him out for defense late in games. That would require the Angels having a lead though.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1IcW6WUteDNFbK3s8LGvoIvz3KnQBCppDvWhY78cW9vQ/pubchart” query=”oid=41272350&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”315″ /] There was that one glorious moment where the Angels had the edge after Albert’s homer, but things went south quickly and stayed south.

Halo A-Hole

Points for progress, C.J., but that doesn’t get you off the hook for failing to keep the Angels in the game.