Boxscore Breakdown #23: The catch is there is no catch – Giants 3, Angels 2

The Angels have a catching problem. I mean that in two ways. For one, their catcher just isn’t performing. For reasons I don’t think anyone understands, Chris Iannetta has completely forgotten how to hit. He is just a disaster at the plate right now. The second way is that Iannetta now apparently literally can’t catch. He had a passed ball that set up one Giants run and allowed two wild pitches, one of which helped set up the game-winning run. I guess you could say there is a third way in which they have a catching problem because the Angels really have no choice but to stick with Iannetta, even as his performance continues to cost them games.

Giants 3, Angels 2

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1FFQZ8auC7ra6OcITgcJofulicDRdG0FPOoKqEAZC_GE/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /] Kole Calhoun continues to take well to the middle of the order, which could make it very hard to move him out of there when Pujols comes back.  Wonder of wonders, Matt Joyce had a big RBI single. You will also notice that Efren Navarro was a positive RE24 as a result of his pinch-hit single. Sadly, C.J. Wilson was in the negative RE24 because Navarro didn’t get that pinch-hit in his place in the seventh inning when there was actually a runner in scoring position in a tied game. You should be impressed that I was able to type that last sentence as I smashed my keyboard into a million pieces over that asinine decision from Scioscia. Chris Iannetta brings up the rear here, which is especially impressive as it doesn’t account for his defensive lapses.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1FFQZ8auC7ra6OcITgcJofulicDRdG0FPOoKqEAZC_GE/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] Joe Panik had just the one hit, but it was a big one. Brandon Crawford was well into the negative, so clearly you can see why Scioscia walked him to get to Panik. At this point, I have now smashed all those keyboard pieces into a fine dust, so I don’t know how the rest of this post is even being written.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1FFQZ8auC7ra6OcITgcJofulicDRdG0FPOoKqEAZC_GE/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] C.J. Wilson had a pretty great start, at least for six innings which is where his night should have ended. Nope, not bitter about that at all. The Angels were also held in check by Chris Heston as they could not pry the lead from his cold, dead hands. He just ate up the Halo hitters like they were Soylent Green.

Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1FFQZ8auC7ra6OcITgcJofulicDRdG0FPOoKqEAZC_GE/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /] Joe Smith blew the game thanks to another bout of shaky command. His cross-up wild pitch didn’t help, but he just didn’t get the job done, regardless of that result. The Giants bullpen had a hiccup of its own, but timing is everything.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1FFQZ8auC7ra6OcITgcJofulicDRdG0FPOoKqEAZC_GE/pubchart” query=”oid=41272350&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”315″ /] After little action in the early innings, thing got nuts in the final three innings. You might notice that one big spike for the Angels. Half of that spike was the 9% drop in win expectancy that was Wilson making the final out of the seventh. The rest of it was Iannetta striking out the batter before. Which leads me to…

Halo A-hole

Can’t hit, can’t catch, what do you do?