The Angels escaped being swept in Texas thanks to a flood of timely hitting Sunday afternoon, with the offense plating eight unanswered runs from the fifth inning on. The wave of scoring was a sort of karmic retribution for the frustrations of the first two games of the series, when the team managed just four runs despite tallying 19 hits.
The making up of a three-run deficit is the club’s biggest comeback of the season, and a reason to hope that maybe the offense can succeed even with Albert Pujols and Andrelton Simmons hitting into double plays every four at-bats. Seriously, though, cut it out with the GIDPs—29 in 25 games is no way to win.
Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1Qo4TCKpuw74Ljyj_XQ9UBqd6Tn18zTr-2bLoiOxM5cM/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /]Kole Calhoun in the No. 2 spot forever and ever, amen. Calhoun’s return to hitting in front of Mike Trout was as triumphant as anyone could’ve hoped, with three singles, a walk, and a stolen base. C.J. Cron was only Halo to actually drive Calhoun in, plating him with one of his three singles on the day. Shane Robinson had two hits and a walk in his Angels debut, scoring three runs. Geovany Soto and Cliff Pennington also had multi-hit games, each again making the case for more playing time at their respective positions.
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1Qo4TCKpuw74Ljyj_XQ9UBqd6Tn18zTr-2bLoiOxM5cM/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /]Rougned Odor continues to be a pain in the Angels’ side, reaching base thrice for the second straight day. But while he was a pest, it was base hits from Mitch Moreland and Ian Desmond that did the damage early. Delino DeShields delivered the two-out, two-RBI single in the fourth that would be the final blow to Richards’ day, but then he and the rest of the offense quieted down until the ninth.
Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1Qo4TCKpuw74Ljyj_XQ9UBqd6Tn18zTr-2bLoiOxM5cM/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /]Garrett Richards was again the master of his own undoing, first by letting another throw to first sail wide then by forgetting to hydrate properly. Cole Hamels, meanwhile, had his worst outing of the year: five innings, seven hits, four walks, four runs.
Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1Qo4TCKpuw74Ljyj_XQ9UBqd6Tn18zTr-2bLoiOxM5cM/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /]Joe Smith ended the Angels bullpen’s scoreless streak at 18 innings in the ninth, but Greg Mahle, Mike Morin, Jose Alvarez, and Fernando Salas had to combine for four shutout frames to get them there. The ‘pen now has the 10th best ERA (3.03) in baseball. Texas’ relief corps failed pretty miserably behind Hamels. Tom Wilhelmsen took the loss, but it was Jake Diekman (3 runs) and Alex Claudio (1 run) that really let the game slip away.
Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1Qo4TCKpuw74Ljyj_XQ9UBqd6Tn18zTr-2bLoiOxM5cM/pubchart” query=”oid=451609002&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”316″ /]Easily the biggest comeback win of the year.
Halo Hero
Gotta give the big man some love. Cron came through in the clutch, raising his RISP batting average to .471 (!!!).
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