Boxscore Breakdown #153: Finally – Angels 8, Mariners 4

When Garrett Richards threw the first pitch of this game the Rangers had a sizable lead on the Astros in the middle innings of their contest. It looked likely that if the Angels won this game, they would move to only a half-game behind Houston for the second Wild Card and, perhaps more importantly, tie them in the loss column. With arguably the Angels’ best pitcher on the mound against a weak starter for the Mariners, this effectively became a must-win for the Halos. And then Nelson Cruz blasted a Richards offering in the first inning to give the M’s a 1-0 lead. Great, here we go again. The Angels are going to be shutdown by some derp pitcher that nobody has heard of and blow a precious chance to gain ground on Houston.

Except, hark!, that’s not what happened. In the bottom of the first inning the Angels punished a pitcher they absolutely should have punished! It was a little scary the next inning when Richards struggled with command, sure, but at the end of the game the Angels won by a comfortable four-run margin. Finally, the Angels offense showed up when they were supposed to, and now the Angels are in prime position to steal a playoff berth.

Angels 8, Mariners 4

Run Expectancy Rundown

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1xr1O9dZcf5LFGlmUgfIfEPYtFXNqTOEQmOEIntFWfJc/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”429″ /]

Everyone chipped in a little offense tonight other than the top two guys in the order, highlighted by Pujols’ first-inning home run; Cron takes the RE24 win due to his first-inning double and two-run homer in the seventh that put the game on ice. And, boy, isn’t it nice to have Johnny Giavotella back in the lineup? Giavotella isn’t even that good, but compared to Taylor Featherston he may as well be Jose Altuve.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1xr1O9dZcf5LFGlmUgfIfEPYtFXNqTOEQmOEIntFWfJc/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /]

Logan Morrison continued the tradition started by Justin Smoak that Mariners first basemen have to kill the Angels. Nelson Cruz Nelson Cruzed — I feel like this is going to be a theme all series. If Angel pitchers can tame Cruz, then they should be in good shape. Also, Robinson Cano looks terrible. It’s never a good sign when he reminds you of Albert Pujols when running to first base on ground balls.

Starting Pitcher Scores

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1xr1O9dZcf5LFGlmUgfIfEPYtFXNqTOEQmOEIntFWfJc/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /]

Richards looked shaky through two innings, putting the Angels in an early 1-0 hole on the Cruz homer and then immediately making a mess of the 4-1 lead the Angels staked him. Then with runners on second and third and no outs in the second innings, Richards struck out the next three batters to escape the jam and settled in from there. He even picked up a quality start, which seemed unimaginable after the first two frames.

Vidal Nuno is bad and the Angels made him look like a bad pitcher. That’s happened far too infrequently this season.

Bullpen Battle

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1xr1O9dZcf5LFGlmUgfIfEPYtFXNqTOEQmOEIntFWfJc/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /]

After a stress-filled couple games in Houston, the bullpen had a pretty easy night thanks to the Halo bats. Things got a little tense in the eighth inning but Trevor Gott struck out James Jones to extinguish a Mariner rally. The Angels added some insurance runs against the bad Seattle bullpen, the downside being none of them came against Fernando Rodney.

Game Flow

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1xr1O9dZcf5LFGlmUgfIfEPYtFXNqTOEQmOEIntFWfJc/pubchart” query=”oid=451609002&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”316″ /]

Pretty scary at first! Then the game turned into an easy win. This was appreciated — the next week is going to be stressful enough.

Halo Hero

Johnny Giavotella has a case for his two insurance run hits, epic belly flop, and general goodwill for his first game in a month, but we’ll give it to Albert for the first inning blast that really stuck the dagger into Nuno.