Boxscore Breakdown #15: Stolen Away – Athletics 9, Angels 2

Focus if you want on the bullpen meltdown (and I will tomorrow in Second Guessing Scioscia because, woof), but the real thing that killed the Angels in this game was the steals. Chris Iannetta just couldn’t throw anyone out and it cost them dearly.

The first A’s run scored because Fuld stole his way into scoring position. There was another threat in the second because Semien stole his way into scoring position. There was another threat in the fifth because Canha stole his way into scoring position. Then in the seventh, the whole meltdown was triggered by Sogard stealing second base. That led to a sac bunt to move him to third. Having that runner on third led to all the bullpen machinations by Scioscia to try and stop that one run from scoring but ultimately resulted in several runs scoring.

If Iannetta had cut those runners down or been enough of a threat that they didn’t attempt to steal, this game could’ve gone much, much differently.

Athletics 9, Angels 2

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1uWVzkJK3Md7iEkChEYZbn1DNizwY0-F3RouKRHQwHME/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /] Things also could’ve gone much differently had the Angels not left the bases loaded in the third. Gray is a legit ace now and you can’t give away a golden opportunity like that. Freese had a good night overall, so it is hard to come down hard on him here. Albert Pujols, on the other hand, picked a hell of a time to not be able to put the ball in play. He doesn’t strike out much, so he’s a the perfect guy to be at the plate if all you need is a flyball. But no, Pujols couldn’t even do that. YOU HAD ONE JOB.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1uWVzkJK3Md7iEkChEYZbn1DNizwY0-F3RouKRHQwHME/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] Stop me when you’ve heard this before: Billy Butler and Sam Fuld had good nights against the Angels. A lot of A’s had not quite as good nights thanks to the bullpen buffoonery at the end of the game, but still, this Fuld and Butler nonsense is getting out of hand.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1uWVzkJK3Md7iEkChEYZbn1DNizwY0-F3RouKRHQwHME/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] Brooks Baseball isn’t updated with Jered’s velocity for the game yet, but I have little reason to believe it was any better. The results, however, were an improvement. Jered was still hittable, but he had better command which is a big reason why he didn’t allow any extra base hits. Sonny Gray was just tremendous. He had one rough inning, but he escaped it and then completely shutdown the Halos.

Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1uWVzkJK3Md7iEkChEYZbn1DNizwY0-F3RouKRHQwHME/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /] The bullpen just completely shat the bed. Salas, Ramos, Morin and Pestano all deserve blame. The one guy who didn’t give up a run was Joe Smith, who pitched in garbage time instead of in the seventh when it was high leverage. I suppose that makes it all the manager’s fault then, doesn’t it?

The A’s bullpen didn’t have much work to do once they came in, so who cares.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1uWVzkJK3Md7iEkChEYZbn1DNizwY0-F3RouKRHQwHME/pubchart” query=”oid=41272350&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”315″ /] It didn’t feel like it, but the Angels held a small edge for most of the first half of this game. Then the seventh inning happened and… SPLAT!

Halo A-Hole

I don’t know how much of it was Iannetta’s fault that there were four steals, but with there being that many steals, he has to share at least a big chunk of the blame. But at least he still isn’t hitting at all.