No one expected the Minnesota Twins to go winless for the entire 2016 season, but it would have been nice if the Angels bullpen hadn’t handed them their first victory of the year. Garrett Richards left the game after six with a two-run lead, but wasn’t in the dugout for more than 15 minutes before it had vanished.
The Angels then had five chances over the final two frames to rectify things for Richards by driving in a runner in scoring position, but failed to do more than walk. The offense has improved in the last four games, scoring four or more in each of the last four, but its failure to do anything with ducks on the pond has killed numerous chances to put games away.
Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1oKWzs6m_2PRFHSIdkSV0OaEtaZoI3-J-V1dcPB-iayE/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /]Kole Calhoun is on a dang roll. He singled and walloped his first dinger of the year Friday, extending his hit streak to eight games and his multi-hit streak to three. Albert Pujols also hit his first home run of the year, just his third opposite-field shot of the last three seasons. Yunel Escobar doubled twice, making it five times in the last four games. He had zero runs Friday despite that, which cuts to the heart of the problem. The team went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, dropping their season average to .197. Mike Trout is still 0 for the season w/ RISP. C.J. Cron still has zero RBI.
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1oKWzs6m_2PRFHSIdkSV0OaEtaZoI3-J-V1dcPB-iayE/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /]It is so frustrating that the Angels got beaten up by freakin’ Eduardo Nunez. Joe Mauer with an opposite-field single? Expected. Trevor Plouffe reaching base twice? Fine. Miguel Sano and Byung-Ho Park with extra-base hits? Totally acceptable. But Eduardo Nunez getting on four times? Absurd. Friday was just the third time in 420 career games Nunez reached base four times in four plate appearances.
Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1oKWzs6m_2PRFHSIdkSV0OaEtaZoI3-J-V1dcPB-iayE/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /]Garrett Richards pitched well enough to win for the third straight start, but still has no wins (or team wins) to show for it. That Richards is the only healthy Angels starter the team doesn’t have a win behind is rather absurd, but one of these days the offense and/or bullpen will pull through for him. Right?
Tommy Milone pitched better than expected, which seems to be a running theme for opposing starters so far this season. Entering the sixth inning, just one batter had reached second base safely. When he hit the Angels lineup for the third time, though, things got out of hand quickly.
Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1oKWzs6m_2PRFHSIdkSV0OaEtaZoI3-J-V1dcPB-iayE/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /]The bullpen’s first blown lead of the season was a team effort. Greg Mahle, Mike Morin, Jose Alvarez, and Fernando Salas all got a piece of the loss, though it felt to me like Mike Scioscia‘s matchup-fixated quick hook was the real culprit.
Watching Kevin Jepsen earn a save against the Angels was pretty painful, especially given what Matt Joyce did in Anaheim. Not making Trevor May pay for three walks in ⅔ of an inning was painful as well.
Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1oKWzs6m_2PRFHSIdkSV0OaEtaZoI3-J-V1dcPB-iayE/pubchart” query=”oid=41272350&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”315″ /]The first of what I’m sure will be many “should of won” games. The Angels had an 85 percent chance of winning when Mahle entered in the seventh.
Angel Antagonist
I really wanted to give this to Mike Scioscia, but he doesn’t have a nice headshot cutout like all the players do. So Salas gets to serve as a proxy.
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