The Angels finally got their first win. Hooray! It was a win so sweet that the Angels clearly felt they needed to savor it, which is why the game took over three and a half bloody hours. No matter, the Halos finally have a notch in the win column and everyone can breathe slightly easier now.
Run Expectancy Rundown
A big night for Josh Hamilton, who I must say looks much more comfortable at the plate this year (at least with a righty on the mound. Chris Iannetta and Howie Kendrick also made large contributions, but really, those had more to do with Robbie Grossman playing right field like he was wearing roller skates. Kole Calhoun added a homer, but that was almost entirely wiped out by his brutal groundout with the bases loaded. Albert Pujols brought up the rear and, let me check, yep, he just grounded out to third again.
As usual, Jose Altuve and Chris Carter gave the Angels some issues, but for the most part the Astros were held in check. Jesus Guzman had a particularly bad night and I’m just going to pretend that I was never upset that the Angels didn’t trade for him when they had the chance. Move along. Nothing to see here.
Starting Pitcher Scores
If I ever have to watch Lucas Harrell pitch again, it will be too soon. At a point, when you can’t get your slider anywhere close to the strike zone, stop throwing it. Then there is Garrett Richards, who looked tremendous for four innings before nearly losing it completely in the fifth. That’s why I don’t trust him. He should’ve been able to go seven strong, but instead barely made it out of the fifth. Hopefully he can find that consistency because when he faces better teams, he won’t survive innings like the fifth inning last night.
Bullpen Battle
Don’t let the graph fool you, Fernando Salas was terrible again. When I saw him warming up to potentially bail out Richards in the fifth, I thought I was going to have reach through my TV and strangle Scioscia. After this awful outing, I can’t imagine Scioscia has any faith left in him, but stranger things have happened.
Jerome Williams is Hawaiian for sacrificial lamb.
Game Flow
At no point did the Angels Win Expectancy drop below 50%. It was really over when Grossman started dealing with vertigo or whatever was afflicting him in the third inning but it was officially over after Aybar’s RBI single in the seventh.
Halo Hero
I wanted so badly to give this to Trout for that pornographic homer he hit in the first inning and his strong throw to the plate, but Hamilton’s game was just too good. Let’s hope he keeps it up against non-Houston-based teams.
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