Boxscore Breakdown #34: Super Trout – Angels 2, Rockies 1

Avengers? We don’t need no stinkin’ Avengers. We got Mike Trout.

This game easily could have been an embarrassing loss for the Angels, in part because of the opponent, in part because of the way they would have lost and in part because of those hideous hats that Angels gave away.

Angels giving away remarkably ugly Mike Trout hat to unlucky fans http://t.co/jj4UtchgGX pic.twitter.com/bhwCACIfyy

— Grant Brisbee (@GrantBrisbee) February 11, 2015

Mike Trout wasn’t having it though (the losing, not the hats, unfortunately). He saved the game once with the most nonchalant home run robbery you’ll ever see. Don’t get me wrong, it was impressive, but Mike Trout just made it look so easy. The more impressive play was Trout gunning down Carlos Gonzalez at the plate with a straight up perfect throw. And who says that Trout has a bad arm?

The only shame of the game was that the Rox intentionally walked Trout in the final inning rather than just letting him win the thing himself like we all knew he would have. Damn you, Colorado, give us what we want!

Angels 2, Rockies 1

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1FUUC8gFORabQLwT4_8bJ68AELcn7L1C9S-jIQch2wtU/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /] Erick Aybar had three hits but ended up a zero, largely thanks to him getting thrown out trying to stretch a double (a defensible move, I’d say). He didn’t TOOTBLAN alone though as Albert Pujols got taken out at the plate because Gary DiSarcina forgot that Albert can barely walk, again. Albert did come through to win the game though… sort of. His pop-up should not have been deep enough to plate Featherston, but Corey Dickerson caught the ball awkwardly before uncorking one of the most embarrassing throws you’ll see all year. Anything resembling a throw better than what my five-year old is capable of probably nails Featherston.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1FUUC8gFORabQLwT4_8bJ68AELcn7L1C9S-jIQch2wtU/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] Drew Stubbs was the lone positive but Nolan Arenado was the only Rockie with an extra base hit and he also probably robbed the Angels of some extra base hits with his glove work, a big reason that this game did end up going to extras. What I’m saying is that Stubbs should have given his positive RE24 to Arenado. The rest of the Rockies? Screw ’em.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1FUUC8gFORabQLwT4_8bJ68AELcn7L1C9S-jIQch2wtU/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] It was another good line for Hector Santiago, but he once again was plagued by his bizarre inability to get people out with two outs. Jordan Lyles gets listed here, but only lasted one inning after he took a line off the hand from Pujols, which caused this to happen:

Um, ouch. Jordan Lyles. His hand. pic.twitter.com/m8vdcXvBXK

— Vic Lombardi (@VicLombardi) May 14, 2015

Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1FUUC8gFORabQLwT4_8bJ68AELcn7L1C9S-jIQch2wtU/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /] The Angels got strong bullpen work once again, though the Cesar Ramos inning was quite harrowing and required Trout heroics and Fernando Salas had to be saved by Trout’s leaping catch at the wall. The real nice bullpen work came from Christian Bergman who shutdown the Halos upon entering the game. The rest of the Colorado bullpen wasn’t all that helpful.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1FUUC8gFORabQLwT4_8bJ68AELcn7L1C9S-jIQch2wtU/pubchart” query=”oid=451609002&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”316″ /] Not the most exciting of games, but at least there was more of it than normal. Is more of a boring thing a good thing?

Halo Hero

The only thing Trout didn’t do was defeat Ultron. I’m sure he’ll get around to it eventually.