The Angels completed their Twin killing on Saturday with another win to sweep the doubleheader, leapfrog ahead of the Twins in the wildcard standings, and sit just one and a half games behind the Astros for the second wildcard spot with a three-game series with Houston on deck. Hold on to your hats and glasses, folks.
Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1kbUoRmaftErTMb8EkrQfYCQN7s9sfnJCyvvtvZVS8T4/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”429″ /]Erick Aybar had three hits, David Murphy came up once again for the Halos with an RBI single, but the big story for the Angels’ offense was Albert Pujols, who got off the longest schnied of his career with two hits, including a well hit RBI double.
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1kbUoRmaftErTMb8EkrQfYCQN7s9sfnJCyvvtvZVS8T4/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”695″ height=”382″ /]Torii Hunter had a walk, a hit, and a run scored against his former team. Trevor Plouffe hit a monstrous home run against Garrett Richards in the seventh. Does every home run hit at Target Field land in the second deck?
Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1kbUoRmaftErTMb8EkrQfYCQN7s9sfnJCyvvtvZVS8T4/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /]Garrett Richards had a few pitches where he lost the grip on the ball and the Twin batters had to hit the deck to avoid getting beaned in the head, but otherwise he looked great, getting seven strikeouts and staying in the game until there were two outs in the ninth inning (122 pitches) to give the taxed bullpen a breather.
Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1kbUoRmaftErTMb8EkrQfYCQN7s9sfnJCyvvtvZVS8T4/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /]The Angels needed just three pitches out of the bullpen for this game, as that is all it took Huston Street to get Aaron Hicks to fly out for the third out of the inning and for Huston Street to get his 38th save. Angel batters might not want to face Neal Cotts again anytime soon as he struck out the side in his only inning of relief.
Game Flow
No small ball this time as Pujols powered an RBI double in the sixth and Chris Iannetta hit a towering home run in the seventh to lift that red win expectancy line up to the top of the vertical axis.
Halo Hero(es)
In the eighth inning, the Twins had the bases loaded, and it looked like they were about to unleash a huge inning on Garrett Richards and the Angels and get right back in to this ball game, but Plouffe hit a ball deep to the hole behind second base. It looked like it was going to be an RBI infield single, but Aybar reached out with his glove to spear the ball. He didn’t have time to transfer the ball to his throwing hand, so he just shoveled the ball with his glove over to Featherston covering second base, and he had to reach out with his bare hand to catch the ball and secure the force out to end the inning and snuff out the brewing Twin rally.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
