The Athletics gave the Angels every opportunity to win Wednesday afternoon. They put Barry Zito on the mound for four innings, pitted five right-handed hitters against Garrett Richards rather than go with their typically platoon-heavy lineup, had Edward Mujica—whom the Halos have torched this year—throw out of the bullpen yet again, made two errors on the field, and had the only-recently-healthy Sean Doolittle throw about 40 fastballs in a row to the heart of the lineup. Bob Melvin essentially put the game on a silver platter, but the Angels simply couldn’t stay out of their own way long enough to seal the crucial victory.
Not since 2012 had the Angels homered five times in a game and lost. But Garrett Richards walked four batters for the fourth time in five starts, four different fielders booted balls at critical points in the game, the visibly exhausted bullpen failed to throw strikes, Gary DiSarcina precipitated probably the worst TOOTBLAN of the year on a ball that traveled 80 feet, and Mike Scioscia put on an over-managing clinic that may go down as his magnum opus. (More on this last one Friday). The Angels blew it big time in probably the shoo-in game of the year, and may now miss the postseason as a result. If this season hadn’t driven you to conniptions before, it probably has now.
Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1yf4MZG5jDT6R8JVBUdZQNILIKwyBVayaPqmuKqY2FEY/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /]The Angels offense pounded Oakland pitching for the second straight night. Mike Trout, David Freese, Carlos Perez, Johnny Giavotella, and Kole Calhoun—aka the usual September suspects—all homered, and four of the five had multi-hit games. The fifth, Giavotella, probably would have too had Scioscia not pulled him in the seventh for still unclear reasons.
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1yf4MZG5jDT6R8JVBUdZQNILIKwyBVayaPqmuKqY2FEY/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /]Eric Sogard and Stephen Vogt came up huge for the A’s in separate bases-loaded situations, driving in five of their eight runs on the night. The rest of the lineup was the benefactor of walks and Angels errors, as Oakland managed only six hits overall.
Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1yf4MZG5jDT6R8JVBUdZQNILIKwyBVayaPqmuKqY2FEY/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /]I find it odd that Game Score ignores unearned runs. Johnny G’s error in the fourth was unfortunate, but it’s not as though Garrett Richards had no hand in loading the bases or hanging an 0-2 pitch to Sogard.
That Barry Zito got a 44 game score in 2015 is a freakin’ miracle. Before Wednesday, Zito had induced three double plays in a start only twice since the start of 2008. 2008! That’s 165 starts. And I guarantee those other two didn’t come in just four innings of work.
Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1yf4MZG5jDT6R8JVBUdZQNILIKwyBVayaPqmuKqY2FEY/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /]Ughhhhh. When you’ve got Joe Smith back from the DL, best to use him for one out that doesn’t matter after the game’s gotten away and not the critical moment of the game, amirite? Mike Morin and Trevor Gott blew the game, but it’s hard to put the blame on them given how much they’ve worked in the last week. Scioscia gonna Sciosc.
Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1yf4MZG5jDT6R8JVBUdZQNILIKwyBVayaPqmuKqY2FEY/pubchart” query=”oid=41272350&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”315″ /]*All the mushroom cloud/explosion GIFs on the Internet*
Halo A-Hole
“A must-win game late in the season? Time to put my over-managing shoes on!”
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