An Angel loss to the Rays in which Ryan Budde passed away any chance at an Angel win.
Los Angeles Angels of AWESOMENESS
- David Price may have got the win, but make no mistake, Jered Weaver outpitched him and by a pretty decent margin. Weave continues to show his amazing progression by racking up 12 strikeouts. What I think was his most impressive feat though was how he shook off all the miscues in the first inning and sat down 13 Rays in a row. Aces don’t get rattled and Weaver barely even blinked despite the adversity he was confronted with.
- The Angel bats didn’t get the job done with runners in scoring position, but at least they were forcing the issue on the basepaths, stealing three total bases and generally pushing the defense to make plays (although that did result in Hunter getting nabbed at second at one point). There hasn’t been a whole lot of that recently with the Angels and it is good to see it reemerging.
- Howie Kendrick is going to be sad to see the Rays go. With his three-hit effort tonight, he ended this series with six total hits, including two doubles.
Angels of FAIL
- Kevin Fransden didn’t do himself any favors in his second start as an Angel. He had a costly error on his very first play of the game and then bounced into a double play in his first at-bat, foiling any chance the Angels had of getting David Price off of his game early. I still think he is better than Robb Quinlan, but two errors in two starts is no way to endear himself to a new manager.
- Fransden and Budde’s blunders were a perfect example of the oft ignored Achilles heel of this team. They CANNOT field, at all. They have the second-worst team UZR in the entire league. It is no wonder that this team is struggling so much, if you can’t pitch or field, you really don’t stand much of a chance and just like tonight, on the infrequent occasions that they do get nine innings of strong work on the mound, their fielding work flushed that all down the toilet.
- It must be nice to have a deep, reliable bullpen. The Rays used five different relievers tonight to get the final eight outs and they combined to allow just one base hit and nothing more. I remember when the Angels used to have a pen like that. Those were the days.
- DHing Mike Napoli really worked out well. Budde got to do the catching instead and ended up costing the team the game. Meanwhile Naps fanned in all three at-bats, twice with runners in scoring position. Just a brilliant stroke of managerial genius.
Angel A-Hole of the Game
And Scioscia thought Mike Napoli had defensive issues. Yikes.
Determining the Angel A-Hole can sometimes be a tough decision, but tonight, it was pretty damn obvious. Two passed balls resulting in two unearned runs is flat out inexcusable and literally cost the Halos game. I don’t even care that Budde had a good night at the plate, he failed miserably as a backstop and wasted an amazing outing by Jered Weaver. Any thought Budde might have had that he would stick with the Angels even after Bobby Wilson finished his rehab stint went out the window with this performance.
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