Boxscore Breakdown #29: Pay no attention – Astros 3, Angels 2

Pay no attention to the outs in the inning. Pay no attention to the ball coming right at you. Pay no attention to the closer who hasn’t pitched well all week.

What a miserable way to lose, he said for the eighth time this season. The Angels went from riding the high of two straight walk-offs to a win over the division leader to choking away that win and coming down hard from that high. Losing is one thing, but losing as a result of multiple boneheaded mistakes and a closer who couldn’t close a door right now is a pretty hard pill to swallow. It is no wonder that the Halos had another crowd of about 25,000. Even the fans don’t want pay attention anymore.

Astros 3, Angels 2

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1Vvy2e1O_O01mUl_csvQExErGGKDCJjagsLPL9DtK4Y8/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /] Albert Pujols gets unfairly dinged for making an out in the eighth inning when really it was Iannetta forgetting that solid matter can’t pass through other solid matter. That should have been Albert’s third hit of the night. Everyone else who rated poorly probably deserved it.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1Vvy2e1O_O01mUl_csvQExErGGKDCJjagsLPL9DtK4Y8/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] Preston Tucker had a heck of an MLB debut. He’s no Carlos Perez, but still pretty good. No Astros really killed the Angels, Huston Street took care of that all by himself.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1Vvy2e1O_O01mUl_csvQExErGGKDCJjagsLPL9DtK4Y8/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] One of the real shames of this loss was that Hector Santiago got away with one. He didn’t get hit as hard as he did in previous outings, but he still struggled with the walk and was repeatedly burned by his “go up 0-2 and immediately stop throwing strikes” plan of attack. Collin McHugh probably outpitched Hector, but I’m not sure how much of that was him and how much of that was the weak Angels lineup mixed in with all the blunders.

Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1Vvy2e1O_O01mUl_csvQExErGGKDCJjagsLPL9DtK4Y8/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /] Yeaaaaaaah. Huston Street can probably go ahead and let that agent he hired for his extension talks go now. Street had his third wobbly outing in his last four, which is a shame because Joe Smith is starting to look better. Heaven forbid they are both locked in at the same time. I am kind of wondering if it doesn’t have something to do with him pitching three days in a row, but that might just be me digging around for an excuse. The Astros bullpen got bailed out by Chris Iannetta having a three-inch vertical leap.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1Vvy2e1O_O01mUl_csvQExErGGKDCJjagsLPL9DtK4Y8/pubchart” query=”oid=451609002&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”316″ /] It looked like the Angels had locked things down with their insurance run in the eighth. NOPE! That sucker came up so fast I’m surprised it didn’t get the bends.

Halo A-Hole

Houston on Huston crime is not a pretty thing.