Boxscore Breakdown #22: Trout to the rescue – Angels 6, Athletics 5

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Oh, crap it’s gonna be a Huston Street blown save!!!

NO! It’s SUPER TROUT!!!

This was shaping up to be a real smooth and easy cruise to victory for the Angels but then the bullpen decided that they had other plans. Led by Street, they did their darndest to give away this win. The only thing that saved them was Mike Trout being a superhuman. It wasn’t his greatest catch ever, but it was probably his most heroic. I don’t want to oversell it, but I hear Joss Whedon approached him about playing himself in Avengers 3.

Angels 6, Athletics 5

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1CeI1JltDjKksasm8I3Ahfy2SuWlB3FTHCm_k1csWvLA/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /] This was a real team effort as pretty much everyone but C.J. Cron and Matt Joyce made some kind of offensive contribution. Kole Calhoun had the big hit that broke it open. Taylor Featherston finally got a chance to showcase himself as he got his first hit, first steal, a walk and made a few nice plays in the field. Poor Matt Joyce didn’t have any positive results, but he also got robbed on well-hit balls twice. His season has gotten so bad that even BABIP is trolling him now.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1CeI1JltDjKksasm8I3Ahfy2SuWlB3FTHCm_k1csWvLA/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] Mark Canha was a real problem. It was his homer that started all the trouble. Josh Reddick was a problem throughout the game. The Butler did it again for the A’s and once again by “it” I mean killing a rally by way of the GIDP. He might’ve even short-circuited the ninth inning rally if C.J. Cron were capable of catching a foul pop-up.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1CeI1JltDjKksasm8I3Ahfy2SuWlB3FTHCm_k1csWvLA/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] Another good outing for Garrett Richards, though he didn’t end up going too deep and wasn’t too efficient. That could be him still working through post-injury rust or it could just be that pitching is hard. The Angels beat Jesse Chavez again, but this time they got more than one hit off of him. In fact, he really wasn’t all that good at all.

Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1CeI1JltDjKksasm8I3Ahfy2SuWlB3FTHCm_k1csWvLA/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /] Mike Morin giving up homers is really starting to become a problem. I love Morin, but if this keeps up, we might need to have a talk about seeing other people. The real problem in this game though was Huston Street. He just didn’t have in this day. He had no idea where the ball was going and needed a miracle to get out of that inning without allowing the tying run to score. Fortunately, miracles are Mike Trout‘s specialty.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1CeI1JltDjKksasm8I3Ahfy2SuWlB3FTHCm_k1csWvLA/pubchart” query=”oid=451609002&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”316″ /] It is games like this that make this game flow chart totally worth it. Watching the ninth, it seemed like there was no getting out of that inning alive. However, you look at the win expectancy and it only got as low as 47% in that inning. It didn’t feel like 47%. It didn’t feel like 47% at all.

Halo Hero

Our Trout who art in center, hallowed be thy name.