The Angels embarked on their six-game homestand against the Rays and Cardinals last Friday with hopes of getting their season back on track following a rough road trip. It’s safe to say that did not happen.
The news of Garrett Richards’ season-ending injury surfaced before the team even had the chance to set foot on the field against Tampa Bay or St. Louis, setting a grim tone that percolated through both series. Looking listless, frustrated, and consistently overmatched, the Angels were kept winless at home in a six-game stretch for the first time since 2011. They held just three leads in the six contests and all were gone before the sixth inning ended.
The Cardinals series was especially glum, as the worst of the already haggard rotation revealed itself. Neither Hector Santiago, Matt Shoemaker, nor Jered Weaver could survive even the fifth inning of their respective starts, raising the rotation’s ERA above 5.00 and making something as rudimentary as a Quality Start begin to feel like a pipe dream—the Angels have just one in their last 14 games.
With Jhoulys Chacin joining the staff this weekend and perhaps Tim Lincecum joining at a later date, there is some hope that the team won’t continue to be a complete embarrassment outside of Mike Trout and the bullpen. But the longer the losing goes on uninterrupted, the harder it’s going to be for fans (and the players and coaches) to feel like the team has a chance to compete on any given night.
Boxscore Breakdowns
Game 1: Cardinals 8, Angels 1
Game 2: Cardinals 5, Angels 2
Game 3: Cardinals 12, Angels 10
Series Takeaways
“Overworked” Doesn’t Even Begin To Describe The Angels Bullpen
The Angels bullpen pitched an absurd 14⅔ innings in the Cardinals series, increasing their total workload of the last two weeks to an MLB-high 50⅔ innings—an average of 4⅓ innings per game. That they’ve managed a 2.13 ERA over that exhaustive span is a marvel, and a testament to just how good this bullpen might be if it was ever given leads to protect.
The bullpen’s strong performance has been fun to follow, but if this trend of nightly four- or five-inning starts continues much longer the Angels might have to call guys like Javy Guerra and A.J. Achter back up to eat more and more innings. The last thing this team needs right now is for their best relievers to get hurt simply because the team was forced to lean on them too hard. Kind of difficult to deal relievers at the deadline if they’re all nursing arm injuries.
Carlos Perez Can’t Be Long For Anaheim
Perez started only one game behind the plate against the Cardinals, marking the third time in the last four series that he’s suited up just once for a three-game set. What’s more, the sophomore backstop hasn’t done much to help his cause the few times he has played, going just 2-for-17 over his last five starts to drop his overall batting line to .149/.208/.179.
Among batters with at least 70 plate appearances, Perez owns MLB’s third-worst wRC+ (9) and second-worst wOBA (.181). No matter how many runners he throws out on the bases, that kind of offensive performance is untenable. With Geovany Soto still holding claim to the second-best OPS+ on the team (153) and Jett Bandy heating up at Triple-A—5-for-10 with three doubles in his last three games—it may not be much longer before Perez is shipped back to Salt Lake to work on his swing.
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