Boxscore Breakdown #27: First impression – Angels 5, Mariners 4

Angels fans were pretty excited for the debut of rookie catcher Carlos Perez. He was the first shiny new toy to be called up this season. He’d been ripping up the Pacific Coast League, so many fancied him as a solution to the Chris Iannetta problem. Folks like me worried though that he was merely a product of the altitude. That might still prove to be the case, but after hitting a walk-off homer in his very first game, you have to admit, the kid made one hell of a first impression.

Angels 5, Mariners 4

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1AIfMYRlrnieKIiinJL-fvdduZwY_sDJg6Y0_e5-BmEU/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /] Albert Pujols actually bested Perez in RE24 and looks to finally be getting locked in, thank goodness. Erick Aybar pitched in a bit too and signs of an offensive turnaround are starting to show up, or maybe I’m just looking super hard for them and fooling myself. One place where I’m not seeing signs is in the performance of C.J. Cron. Yes, he got robbed at the wall, but he had some other ugly at-bats in the game and has yet to consistently show the power required to make his low average and OBP somewhat palatable. Oh, and Johnny G had himself yet another clutch hit. I love that little Cajun elf.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1AIfMYRlrnieKIiinJL-fvdduZwY_sDJg6Y0_e5-BmEU/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] Somehow the catcher with the .160 batting average was the one coming through with clutch base hits. Somehow Logan Morrison seems to have Richards’ number. Somehow the Angels managed to prevent Nelson Cruz from hitting a homer.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1AIfMYRlrnieKIiinJL-fvdduZwY_sDJg6Y0_e5-BmEU/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] Garrett Richards is still fighting his command a bit, but his stuff continues to be good enough for that to not make a difference most of the time. I could do without the three wild pitches though. Some of that is on Carlos Perez, but who am I to criticize him after his otherwise heroic debut?

James Paxton, still an Angel killer, so big ups to Lloyd McClendon for yanking him after seven innings and just 91 pitches.

Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1AIfMYRlrnieKIiinJL-fvdduZwY_sDJg6Y0_e5-BmEU/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /] It was not a good night to be a setup man who had a breakout season last year as both Joe Smith and Danny Farquhar melted down. Smith, in particular, continues to have significant command issues which portends to be a real problem for the Angels whose middle relief has been, well, middling so far this season.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1AIfMYRlrnieKIiinJL-fvdduZwY_sDJg6Y0_e5-BmEU/pubchart” query=”oid=451609002&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”316″ /] As seems to be the trend of late, there has been a whole lot of boring in the early goings of the game only to have an insane amount of drama and win probably fluctuations late. The Angels went from 80% win probability to 10% win probability just 12 plate appearances later. Nine plate appearances later, Perez put it at 100%.

Halo Hero

I’m stealing this from Twitter, but vote Carlos for Perezident.