Boxscore Breakdown #21: Hamstrung – Angels 6, Athletics 3

Even when the Angels win, they lose. This should’ve been an encouraging victory where the offense showed a bit of life and Matt Shoemaker quelled some (though not all) fears about his sluggish start to season. Instead, it was marred by the injury to Albert Pujols.

We know now that Albert should avoid the disabled list due to his hamstring injury, but he’s going to be out a few days. Pujols wasn’t exactly hitting well, but with the way the Angels offense is going, they don’t really need to see their lineup depth impacted. I’m pre-mad about the non-sensical lineup Sciosica is going to cobble together for Thursday’s game now that Pujols won’t be in it.

Angels 6, Athletics 3

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/175tsweP7eLPikIQxilXeYGaNSQivh_b17hFERZLJKHk/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /] Mike Trout, turns out he’s pretty good. That home run he hit was a thing to behold because he no only launched the ball 454 feet, but it went that distance in approximately two milliseconds, give or take. Had Trout not added the two-run double though, it was little Johnny Giavotella who was poised to be the real hero of this. I believe in Johnny G! Chris Iannetta, however… oy.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/175tsweP7eLPikIQxilXeYGaNSQivh_b17hFERZLJKHk/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] Marcus Semien, Angel killer in the making. He really drove much of the offense for the A’s in this one. He had the two of the three extra base hits off of Shoemaker and three of the six hits total. Fortunately, Billy Butler did it. And by “did it,” I mean killed the A’s offense. Butlers, man, they’re always killing things.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/175tsweP7eLPikIQxilXeYGaNSQivh_b17hFERZLJKHk/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] Shoemaker wasn’t great, but he wasn’t bad either. He at least showed much better control than he did in his disastrous previous start. Jesse Hahn was similarly effective, though it doesn’t feel good to know that he had six Ks in five innings of this game after having five Ks in his previous 17 innings of work.

Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/175tsweP7eLPikIQxilXeYGaNSQivh_b17hFERZLJKHk/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /] You had one job, Cesar Ramos. Scioscia’s mixing-and-matching failed him in this one, though the reasoning was sound. I still don’t know that I buy this whole Fernando Salas as the seventh inning guy thing though. The A’s bullpen was pretty good except for Ryan Cook who got cooked.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/175tsweP7eLPikIQxilXeYGaNSQivh_b17hFERZLJKHk/pubchart” query=”oid=451609002&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”316″ /] There was certainly some drama here, but for only batter, right after the Reddick game-tying single, were the Angels actually below 50% win expectancy.

Halo Hero

My favorite part of Trout’s big game is that folks were starting to talk about how he was in a bit of a slump before the game. The lesson? Mike Trout never slumps, he’s just waiting to pounce.