Boxscore Breakdown #19: Too many mistakes – Rangers 5, Angels 4

Back when the Angels offense wasn’t hot garbage, they could erase a lot of mistakes by sheer volume of runs. Now that the offense stinks out loud, dropping a pop-up, booting a grounder, getting picked off, blowing a save and coughing up an insurance run are things they can no longer overcome. They certainly can’t when the do all of those things in the same game.

Rangers 5, Angels 4

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1NH8sts2d6Lva5QvXkrN2QOgzz61Fd1wYtNwUa8UZT6Y/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /] Johnny Giavotella should have been the hero of the day but his game-winning hit ended up not winning the game after all. C.J. Cron continued his recent surge with a four-hit game, but his getting picked off third might well have cost the Angels the game. Kole Calhoun somehow had three hits yet ended up with the second-worst RE24 of the day. The only Angel worse than Calhoun was David Freese, who committed the sin of leaving the bases loaded.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1NH8sts2d6Lva5QvXkrN2QOgzz61Fd1wYtNwUa8UZT6Y/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] The entire Texas infield was in the positive for RE24. Everyone else was in the negative, even Leonys Martin despite his 11th inning homer.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1NH8sts2d6Lva5QvXkrN2QOgzz61Fd1wYtNwUa8UZT6Y/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] This is why I struggle so much with Hector Santiago. He had an ugly outing by walking six batters and hitting another. You can’t get away with giving away seven plate appearances, yet he kind of got away with it. It wasn’t really even the walks that hurt him so much as Aybar dropping a pop-up.

On the other side, Nick Martinez still hasn’t allowed a run to the Angels this season and has a 0.35 ERA on the season which is really making me question my continued insistence on belittling him in the series preview.

Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1NH8sts2d6Lva5QvXkrN2QOgzz61Fd1wYtNwUa8UZT6Y/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /] Well, the bullpen has mostly been good this season, but this just wasn’t their day. Joe Smith picked the wrong time to surrender his first run since August and Jose Alvarez was on the verge of earning a lot of praise in the Power Rankings before he went teets up in the eleventh. The Rangers yak crap bullpen tried to give this one away, but they weren’t counting on a throwback performance from the Bullpen of Perpetual Sorrow. They did, however, give us the special treat of the Bass vs. Trout match-up.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1NH8sts2d6Lva5QvXkrN2QOgzz61Fd1wYtNwUa8UZT6Y/pubchart” query=”oid=41272350&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”315″ /] Just when things started getting truly dire for the Halos, Mike Trout did his thing. Then the Angels took the lead and got so, so close to getting the sweep, but no. It wasn’t meant to be.

Halo A-Hole

Smith blew the save, but it was Aybar going E-bar twice that caused the Angels to give up two runs that would’ve made all of the difference.