Boxscore Breakdown #138: When fight isn’t enough – Dodgers 6, Angels 4

Another game, another loss to the Dodgers, another game added to their deficit to the Rangers. The end draws nigh for the Angels, though they aren’t going down without a fight. They once again mounted a furious rally, but it once again fell short. Mike Scioscia even got fired up and went after an umpire with some real vim and vigor. That’s some real nice fight, but does it really matter if they still went down anyway? Losing is still losing, even if done in a way that is more aesthetically pleasing.

Dodgers 6, Angels 4

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1EpBuojKcv6E_DTwG7Dkv3Sh6d3zunLpEVB9t7PQgHkw/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /] Albert Pujols went MIA and Mike Trout could only contribute via the walk. Kole Calhoun had another game full of bad strikeouts, but he also has homered off of Greinke and Kershaw in consecutive games, so piss off. David Freese stepped up to provide the offense Trout and Pujols failed to provide.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1EpBuojKcv6E_DTwG7Dkv3Sh6d3zunLpEVB9t7PQgHkw/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] Turns out this Corey Seager is really, really, really, really good. Good thing the Dodgers kept him in the minors all year. Apparently Justin Ruggiano is really good, too. At least he is when he faces the Angels.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1EpBuojKcv6E_DTwG7Dkv3Sh6d3zunLpEVB9t7PQgHkw/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] Remember how everyone was mad that Andrew Heaney got hooked with just 88 pitches in his last start? Well, had Scioscia hooked him after he finished the fifth inning at 88 pitches this time, the Angels might’ve won this game. Irony is a fickle mistress. Clayton Kershaw is a fickle pitcher as he made just two mistakes all night, the homer to Calhoun and the balk that forced in the second run. Otherwise, he Kershawed the Angels pretty good.

Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1EpBuojKcv6E_DTwG7Dkv3Sh6d3zunLpEVB9t7PQgHkw/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /] The bullpen did what they could to stop the bleeding, but the defense let them down as an error and steal of third led to the Dodgers plating two additional runs despite not Cam Bedrosian and Wesley Wright not allowing a single hit or walk in their one relief of Heaney. Those two runs proved crucial because the garbage Dodger bullpen horked up a bunch of runs and the Angels lost by, you guessed it, two runs.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1EpBuojKcv6E_DTwG7Dkv3Sh6d3zunLpEVB9t7PQgHkw/pubchart” query=”oid=41272350&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”315″ /] The Angels hung in there for five innings, but that was all that they had in them. There were two aborted attempts at rallies in the seventh and ninth, but win expectancy knows the Angels well enough to know that there was no real chance that the Angels would make good on those threats.

Halo A-Hole

This is partly for falling apart in the sixth and partly for whatever poor life decisions he made to that led to him sporting that mustache.