It was the best of games. It was the worst of games. It was, well, a game.
By all rights this should’ve been a very exciting game. It was close, featured a late-inning go-ahead homer from a superstar and multiple lead changes. However, it also lasted almost four hours, had four replay reviews, 12 pitchers used, four errors, three wild pitches, two TOOTBLANs and one botched sacrifice bunt. Oh, and two just awful starting pitching performances. If you are like me, that left you both loving and hating this game at the same time, probably leaning towards the hate side of things.
Run Expectancy Rundown
His contributions weren’t of the flashy variety, but David Freese led the way for the Angels. Behind him were the more eye-catching contributions of Good Albert Pujols and Kole Calhoun. Meanwhile, Hank Conger continues to have all of the suck.
When you face Toronto, there are a lot of bats to worry about. Dioner Navarro and Nolan Reimold are not two of those bats, yet those are the guys doing most of the damage. Thank goodness for Erik Kratz. Perhaps more accurately, thank goodness for Toronto’s depth being so depleted that they had to have Navarro and Kratz in the lineup at the same time.
Starting Pitcher Scores
I don’t know what is wrong with C.J. Wilson, but at this point I wish he would just lie about having a sore elbow or something just so that we can at least believe there to be an excuse for him being so lousy the last month. On the flip side, Marcus Stroman has generally been very good, but the Halos are now 2-for-2 in knocking him around.
Bullpen Battle
The good news is that for the first time this year, Fernando Salas inherited a runner and did NOT allow the runner to score. Unfortunately, Salas made up for it by coming out the next inning and allowing a run the old fashioned way. Other than that, it was a very strong effort from the suddenly not terrible Angels bullpen. The Toronto bullpen was pretty good with the exception of John Gibbons allowing left-handed Aaron Loup to face Albert Pujols for some reason. Not that I am complaining.
Game Flow
Look at that graph. What am I supposed to with that? It’s all over the dang place. One inning the Angels have the game wrapped up, the next inning they have no chance of winning. Then things are even, then they aren’t, then I don’t know. I give up.
Halo Hero
This is why he gets the big bucks, folks. Unfortunately he doesn’t do it most nights, but we’ll take what we can get at this point.
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