The Angels played Monday like a team still dazed and confused by their ninth-inning implosion the day before. Even if Garrett Richards hadn’t continued his baffling good start/bad start interchange—this was most definitely the bad—the club would have needed a miracle to come away with the win. The offense was completely shut down by youngster Taijuan Walker for the second time this season, managing to get just one player into scoring position all night. That player, David Murphy, crossed the plate on an Erick Aybar double play in the second, killing the only thing resembling a rally the team put together all night.
With the Rangers defeating the Astros in Arlington, the Angels now sit four games back of a wild card spot with 19 games to play. Ten of those remaining games are against teams ahead of them in the standings, but that won’t matter much if they can’t turn things around vs. the M’s.
Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1gzvW6NucZm-plPfIZoW_NqIibS0ODIKKYR_ZIc2ZApQ/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /]It’s hard to make any sort of positive offensive contribution when the manages just five singles and no walks in a game. Mike Trout was the only Angels player to reach base twice, but got picked off one of those times, so it kinda cancels itself out. Erick Aybar’s early GIDP gives him the honors of the worst RE24, but a special mention goes to Kole Calhoun for striking out in his first two ABs, giving him six K’s in a row dating back to Saturday. Jett Bandy got his first big-league at-bat, but flew out to right.
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1gzvW6NucZm-plPfIZoW_NqIibS0ODIKKYR_ZIc2ZApQ/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /]Every Mariners starter but catcher John Hicks reached base at least once via a hit or walk. Seth Smith had an especially good night at the plate, mashing a home run and a double off of Richards, but he was far from the only guy to square up the baseball. Several guys, including Mark Trumbo and his now 16-game on-base streak, were able to hit the ball over Mike Trout’s head for extra bases.
Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1gzvW6NucZm-plPfIZoW_NqIibS0ODIKKYR_ZIc2ZApQ/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /]If I didn’t know any better, I’d think there was a Freaky Friday situation happening on the mound last night. Taijuan Walker was as brilliant Monday as Garrett Richards was against the Dodgers last week, while Richards seemed to mimic Walker’s recent poor outings against Texas and Houston. At this point in the season, Richards just can’t seem to go two starts without completely losing the plot. The right-hander was wild and inefficient Monday—the exact opposite of his last start—walking four and letting in a run on a wild pitch. He was even late in covering first at one point, which of course led to a run.
Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1gzvW6NucZm-plPfIZoW_NqIibS0ODIKKYR_ZIc2ZApQ/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /]You kinda have to hand it to Cory Rasmus… when the dude implodes, he never half-asses it. Rasmus has yet to allow fewer than two runs in any outing this year in which a run was charged to him. The guy either puts up zeroes or lays the game to waste. Mike Morin and Cam Bedrosian were good in their brief outings, but ultimately pitched for naught. The M’s needed only two innings from their ‘pen and were already up nine at the time, so their neutral WPA means little.
Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1gzvW6NucZm-plPfIZoW_NqIibS0ODIKKYR_ZIc2ZApQ/pubchart” query=”oid=41272350&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”315″ /]If the probability machines could see how little fight the Angels seemed to have in them, they likely would’ve counted the team out of it a lot sooner. As it is, the club was still out of commission pretty early on. It’s hard to put a dent in the opposition’s creeping win probability when no one ever gets into scoring position.
Halo A-Hole
This could’ve been Richards, but Rasmus gets it for pouring the most gasoline on the fire.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
