Matt Shoemaker is toast. The right-hander allowed seven runs on nine hits in 2⅓ innings Saturday in his second absolute disasterpiece in as many starts. He’s now allowed 14 runs on 15 hits (including three home runs) in his last 5⅓ innings, giving him an AL-worst 9.15 ERA (min. 20 IP) through five starts.
Why the Halos thought putting Shoemaker on the mound in a bandbox like Arlington would go any way but terribly will surely go down as one of life’s great mysteries. Thankfully, the Angels don’t need him (or anyone else) to serve as a fifth starter again until May 14. That should be plenty of time to determine whether Shoemaker’s issues are salvageable (while he pitches at Triple-A) and come up with a viable replacement option should that not be the case.
In the meantime, the Angels will have to fight off the Rangers in Sunday afternoon’s rubber match to avoid following a resounding sweep with getting resoundingly swept for the second time in a month.
Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1tx_bzaty60EaLHJTiBIP2WdK-bbUBjVOjt1b0U5Bn5s/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /]The Angels’ boxscore Saturday looked a lot like one of the Royals’ from the previous series. A good number of hits (9), many of which went for extra bases (5), but never the big hit when the team needed it most (1-for-11 w/ RISP). Both Kole Calhoun and C.J. Cron tripled (!), for instance, but neither managed to score. It wasn’t until the ninth, when Albert Pujols blasted his sixth home run and Cron singled to right, that the team scored at all. The offense failed to draw a walk for the second straight night.
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1tx_bzaty60EaLHJTiBIP2WdK-bbUBjVOjt1b0U5Bn5s/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /]By the time Shoemaker left the game in the third, all but two Rangers starters had hits and two of them (Rougned Odor and Prince Fielder) had two. Odor did the most thorough damage on the day (doubling thrice), but it was Mitch Moreland who delivered the knockout blow with a three-run dinger. Fielder and Elvis Andrus also had extra-base hits off the Shoemaker.
Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1tx_bzaty60EaLHJTiBIP2WdK-bbUBjVOjt1b0U5Bn5s/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /]This was already Matt Shoemaker’s third Game Score under 25 in five starts this year, but this one was definitely rock bottom. The only good thing you can say about his outing was he didn’t allow any walks. But that was really only because the Rangers were too busy crushing the ball to think about taking pitches.
Like Colby Lewis the night before, Derek Holland was unable to miss any bats Saturday (1 SO) but still somehow came away with a quality start. Must be something in the water in Texas.
Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1tx_bzaty60EaLHJTiBIP2WdK-bbUBjVOjt1b0U5Bn5s/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /]The Angels bullpen was great yet again Saturday, extending its scoreless streak to five games (17 IP). Jose Alvarez, Mike Morin, Cory Rasmus, and Cam Bedrosian combined to strike out five in 5⅔ innings of three-hit ball.
The Rangers bullpen wasn’t that good but they didn’t really need to be with a seven-run lead. Phil Klein surrendered the only runs of the day.
Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1tx_bzaty60EaLHJTiBIP2WdK-bbUBjVOjt1b0U5Bn5s/pubchart” query=”oid=41272350&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”315″ /]This one flatlined early.
Angel Antagonist
This may be the end of Matt Shoemaker, big-league starter. He had a good run… until he didn’t.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
