Boxscore Breakdown #161: The greater good – Mariners 2, Angels 1

Yes, the Angels lost this game, but that’s alright. The loss was meaningless to the Angels and it furthered the greater good. That would, of course, be ensuring that baseball fans across the land would get to watch meaningful games on the final day of the season.

Because Mike Scioscia was gracious enough to turn things over to the second string in the seventh inning of a one-run game, Seattle was able to tie the game and ultimately win it in extras thanks to one of those bench players poorly executing a double play turn, leading to a walk-off fielder’s choice (which is a phrase that sounds wrong on every level). So, whatever, the Angels lost. But really, their second string lost to a team that was playing to save their season. These are things we can live with, especially since it lead to an exciting day of Game 162s.

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1HKoKMVt_sd07mGMKxrXEpVbMGOjwAkYPLU-8htpOpwU/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”402″ /] OK, maybe it wasn’t ALL the bench players’ fault. The Halos wasted some opportunities to grow their lead, especially Kole Calhoun and Erick Aybar. If Calhoun had broken the game open with the bases loaded in the second inning, he could’ve metaphorically murdered the soul of every baseball fan in Seattle. All 16 of them.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1HKoKMVt_sd07mGMKxrXEpVbMGOjwAkYPLU-8htpOpwU/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] Instead, this game was nearly a murder-suicide because the Seattle bats wasted a number of opportunities to win the game. Chris Taylor and Austin Jackson blew a golden opportunity in the seventh. They then combined with Brad Miller to do the same thing in the ninth. Jackson tried to choke again in the 11th, but apparently Grant Green had other plans.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1HKoKMVt_sd07mGMKxrXEpVbMGOjwAkYPLU-8htpOpwU/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] C.J. Wilson gave the Angels exactly what they needed, a legitimately good start. His ball-to-strike ratio was garbage, but he was getting squeezed badly. He didn’t let it get to him though. Instead, he calmly went about inducing a bunch of grounders. The biggest concern is he only struck out two batters with just four swinging strikes the entire night. Still, this was a far sight better than his last outing. Opposing him was James Paxton. While he didn’t have the greatest night, he limited the Angels to one run and is quickly establishing himself as a premier Angel Killer.

Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1HKoKMVt_sd07mGMKxrXEpVbMGOjwAkYPLU-8htpOpwU/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /] Both bullpens were pretty good, but the Seattle bullpen was better. They were nearly flawless while Jason Grilli Houdini’d himself out of a big mess and Mike Morin fell face first into his own, though Vinnie Pestano very nearly extricated him from it.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1HKoKMVt_sd07mGMKxrXEpVbMGOjwAkYPLU-8htpOpwU/pubchart” query=”oid=41272350&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”315″ /] As you can see in the latter half of the above chart, Seattle tried their hardest to blow all of their opportunities to win this game, but they somehow managed to luck into cashing one of those chances in.

Halo A-Hole

You could’ve easily thrown the runner out at home. You could’ve tagged the runner advancing to second then thrown to first. You could’ve made a strong throw to second. Any of these would’ve gotten that double play turned. Yet for some reason you went with an off-balance underhand flip from 30 feet away.