Boxscore Breakdown #107: Going wild – Angels 4, Indians 3

When your lineup has posted a 75 wRC+ over the last two weeks, you have to try some different things on offense. That could be oddly throwing bats around the dugout to try and wake them up:

[mlbvideo id=”335005683″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]

Or it could be hoping that the opposing team shoots themselves in the foot and hands you a win with a walk-off wild pitch. Hey, the Angels will take what they can get.

Angels 4, Indians 3

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1qfsFDxCL15son76NuF0QXQ4HVQdWo7WNjKWaoJGIhzc/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”343″ /] It was a whole lot of C.J. Cron and not much else. Cron shouldn’t even have been starting in this game based off platoon matchups, but Scioscia picked a good day to give Pujols a day at DH. I wonder if this might not prompt Scioscia to stick with Cron more since we’ve all seen what he can do when he gets locked in.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1qfsFDxCL15son76NuF0QXQ4HVQdWo7WNjKWaoJGIhzc/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] Jose Ramirez and his .519 OPS somehow tortured Hector Santiago with a homer and two walks (actually the second walk was against Rasmus, but you get my point. At least Ryan Raburn is a known lefty-killer, so him hurting Hector was entirely reasonable.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1qfsFDxCL15son76NuF0QXQ4HVQdWo7WNjKWaoJGIhzc/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] This was a step back in the right direction for Santiago. He did get taken deep twice, but he was back to missing bats and not walking guys. He just got punished for two mistakes. Danny Salazar only made the one mistake, or maybe you could say that he made two mistakes with the second being ceding to the bullpen.

Bullpen Battle

We finally got to see Cory Rasmus work in what will be his likely relief role going forward. He struggled with command, but got the job done. Cam Bedrosian was allowed back on the mound for some reason, but it didn’t cost the Angels the game this time. The Cleveland bullpen was great in middle relief, but Cody Allen just completely fell apart, much to the pleasure of Angels fans.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1qfsFDxCL15son76NuF0QXQ4HVQdWo7WNjKWaoJGIhzc/pubchart” query=”oid=451609002&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”316″ /] If this kind of chart looks unfamiliar to you, it should. This was the first time all season the Angels have comeback to win when trailing after the eighth inning.

Halo Hero

Cron having the best at-bats of the day is usually a bad sign, but it worked out in this game.