Boxscore Breakdown #5: The Moose is loose and must be stopped – Royals 6, Angels 4

Why can’t the Angels stop Mike Moustakas? This is a player that the rest of the league has had no problem containing since he broke into the league, yet the Angels can’t seem to solve the riddle that is Moose. He’s smashing homers against them. He’s making huge defensive plays. Heck, he even stole a bag in this game, probably just to mock the Angels. This isn’t a thing that should be happening on this earth, yet here we are. The Halos keep losing to the Royals and Mike Moustakas keeps being a big part of the reason why.

Royals 6, Angels 4

Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1CqC1rE74IZvS4prKsKv4-y2toaRkZ8IE51SScKkN8oQ/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”389″ /] Have yourself a day, Kole Calhoun. A terrific effort from Kole in this game paired with another good day at the plate for Trout wasn’t enough because the rest of the lineup fell flat. Honestly, anytime Drew Butera actually gets a hit and your team doesn’t win is a wasted opportunity.

[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1CqC1rE74IZvS4prKsKv4-y2toaRkZ8IE51SScKkN8oQ/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /] Despite what I wrote to start this post, Moustakas didn’t even have the best day at the plate for the Royals. Kendrys Morales kept up his usual act of punishing the team that brought him into this world. Moustakas still had a really good day, the point is merely that he wasn’t the only one munching on all those cookies Jered Weaver was serving up.

Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1CqC1rE74IZvS4prKsKv4-y2toaRkZ8IE51SScKkN8oQ/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /] There’s no denying it, Weaver was just terrible. The team isn’t concerned about his velocity, which was up by almost a full MPH in this game, but they are right to be concerned about his command. Jered went through something like this to start last season and worked his way out of it, but things are looking pretty dire right now. It is also starting to look a bit dire on offense when in back-to-back games the bats don’t really get to the likes of Jeremy Guthrie and Jason Vargas.

Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1CqC1rE74IZvS4prKsKv4-y2toaRkZ8IE51SScKkN8oQ/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /] Drew Rucinski finally got into a game and somewhat limited the damage after inheriting some runners from Weaver. Drew didn’t look all that great in this one though, but he is going to get the start next week anyway. The rest of the bullpen was just fine except for the part where they can’t stop plunking opposing batters. They should probably not do that so much in order to avoid getting punched in the face. The KC relievers, unsurprisingly, slammed the door shut as hard as humanly possible. I think the Royals might be on to something with this Holland-Davis tandem.

Defensive Dynamics
Not a particularly noticeable day of defense, the Royals made a few nice plays and the Angels avoided making any mistakes. Honestly, this section is just kind of a placeholder until Trackman becomes more readily available to end users. That sure would be swell.

Game Flow
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1CqC1rE74IZvS4prKsKv4-y2toaRkZ8IE51SScKkN8oQ/pubchart” query=”oid=41272350&format=interactive” width=”619″ height=”315″ /] Things started so well, then Weaver started grooving 83 MPH fastballs down the middle. Even the Royals can take pitches like those deep. That pretty much handed the game to Kansas City as it was the sixth inning by the time the Angels started really pushing to make a comeback and with Davis and Holland looming, it simply wasn’t enough time.

Halo A-Hole

Hey, Weaver. Fix your shit. ASAP.