Rollercoaster contest ends in 5-4 extra inning Angels win

It was all going decently well at the start.

For five innings, Zack Greinke threw the baseball on a rope. He was masterful, throwing his 88 mph fastball and 88 mph sinker and 69 mph curveball and all that other wizardry stuff he does. It helped him carry a perfect game through sixteen hitters. In the sixth, Taylor Ward snuck a ground ball through, then Matt Thaiss successfully hit a single on a hit-and-run, and David Fletcher did what he does best, making contact, putting a sacrifice fly into left field. Brian Goodwin dumped an RBI single into right, and Greinke’s very exquisite night was over. His line, 5.2 IP with 2 ER, wasn’t that good, but it definitely underemphasized how well he pitched.

Part of his success may have been due to the creeping shadows around the field (4 pm starts for national television pretty much always end up like this). Although Griffin Canning is a very talented pitcher, it is somewhat out of the ordinary to see him shut down a quality offense like the Astros over six innings. After a 25-pitch first inning, in which Canning could not locate his fastball, he settled down to get through six innings unscathed, matching Greinke every step of the way. Joe Maddon let him start the seventh, and Canning gave up a leadoff double to Josh Reddick, who scored later in the inning on a George Springer jamshot single. So, Joe Maddon may decide to revert to his old ways and pull starters extremely early. We will see!

The Angels added an insurance run off nasty pitcher Ryan Pressly in the eighth, as Ward tripled to right and Anthony Rendon cashed him in with two outs. This was a golden opportunity nearly squandered by the Angels, who had three separate hitters come to the plate with a man on third and less than two outs, and all three of them failed to drive him in. Thankfully, Rendon delivered.

Not that it would matter. After Félix Peña sliced and diced his way through two innings of relief, Hansel Robles came in for the save situation and did not put out any sort of fire. Josh Reddick homered, Garrett Stubbs singled, George Springer homered, and just like that, the lead was evaporated.

Luis Rengifo and Jason Castro combined for a run in the ninth, and this game was going to extra innings.

After Noe Ramirez played with fire in the tenth, stranding the bases loaded, in the bottom half of the inning, David Fletcher singled Thaiss over to third. After Goodwin struck out and Rendon was intentionally walked, Michael Hermosillo was able to walk it off with a sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the inning. Justin Upton who? Although the pop was shallow, JJ Reddick sent a very errant throw to the plate, and Thaiss scored.

The Angels breathe a sigh of relief and improve to 3-6, and the final game of the series occurs tomorrow at 1:10 pm.

24 Comments
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Designerguy
Super Member
3 years ago

Celebrate the win!

[insert Manly gif here]

...Rev Halofan
Editor
Trusted Member
3 years ago

If Robles had not blown the save Osuna Wifebeater would not have sustained that injury perhaps, so, in the scheme of things, this may have been the best case scenario.

2002heaven
Trusted Member
3 years ago

Problem with the Angels is their scouting and talent evaluation is forever deplorable.
Don’t know if its a lack of resources or just lousy incompetence from the people we already have in place, PROBABLY BOTH. Probably the worst in MLB for most of the past 50 yrs. And hitting a accidental HR ( Jered Weaver and Mike Trout ) twice doesn’t cut it.

Fansince1971
Legend
3 years ago
Reply to  2002heaven

Ummmm, hate to step on a rant but Tim Salmon, Garrett Anderson, Darren Erstadt, Frankie Rodriguez, John Lackey, Troy Glaus, Bennie Molina – to name a few.

Now it f you want to talk last 10 years, I’m right there with you.

2002heaven
Trusted Member
3 years ago
Reply to  Fansince1971

Yer right about that………that period in time for this organization was the Bill Bavasi Bob Fountaine Era in the late 90’s, also Disney owned the team then too. The impetus for the 2002 WSC team no doubt. I’m one of the few who thinks Ed Bane and Bill Stoneman were very overrated because they inherited the 2002 team and really the farm system was vastly overrated in the 2000’s as we all ought to know by now. If you really want to know how bad things suck now we would need a MLB version of Woodward & Bernstein and to get info from a lot of former Angel’s people. Would do think Tony Reagins and Jerry Dipoto would say off the record……ouch!!!

JackFrost
Super Member
3 years ago
Reply to  2002heaven

If you’re going to have an exception in Trout it is a pretty damn good one. In fact if given the chance to make that trade-off ( a decade of otherwise poor picks BUT you get Trout) I think ALOT of teams would take that in a heartbeat.

2002heaven
Trusted Member
3 years ago
Reply to  JackFrost

So your saying that Yankee fans would rather have Don Mattingly all by himself throughout most of the 80’s and early 90’s then a better all around championship team? Your point is ludicrous look at how we all hate the way things are now with Trout and just Anthony Rendon and a injured and awful pitching staff. So Giants fans would rather have a 25 yr old Willie Mays right now with a terrible team as opposed to those 3 championship teams in the first 5 yrs of the 2010’s? LMFAO!!!!
I don’t care about the Hall Of Fame…….I want championship banners.

JackFrost
Super Member
3 years ago
Reply to  2002heaven

First, you are using examples I didn’t use! I said MIKE TROUT. That did not mean insert any high profile player you like and make the exchange.

Sure, teams that have won big the last couple of years would not trade in their success. But for the teams like the Giants and Red Sox how many teams like the Phillies or Marlins or other teams with crap attendance would not jump at having probably the greatest player of our generation, or possibly the GOAT on their team for 15 years.

The thing about it is that I am not just talking about winning it all. Successful franchises measure that success on many levels, financial and otherwise. Part of that is creating a BRAND and national significance.

Trout does that immediately wherever he goes.

WallyChuckChili
Legend
3 years ago

Buchter owns 2 of our 3 wins

Eric_in_Portland
Legend
3 years ago

Time to call up Beckham Trout, see what he can do.

Turk's Teeth
Editor
Super Member
3 years ago

Hansel can take his corny Undertaker video and put it in Elvira’s vault. If you can’t back up the staged drama with trauma to the opposition, you don’t get to play funeral director.

Let’s give Buttrey a try.

JackFrost
Super Member
3 years ago
Reply to  Turk's Teeth

Agree on the Buttrey take. In fact in, the immediate aftermath of the blown save that was my first thought.

The thing with Robles is that his fastball is not what it was last season — he has lost a couple mph off of it. Instead of living at 96 mph he is now living at 93-94 mph. That is a HUGE difference for a closer.

HaloHaro17
Member
3 years ago

Take the W. If there’s 1 thing I’m encouraged by it’s that our starters have been pretty damn good. If Sho comes to form… woo

BushLeague
Member
3 years ago

Thank goodness this is a short season. One week in and I’m not sure how much more I can handle!

Jim Atkins
Super Member
3 years ago

This weird season is certainly living up to its billing. What was that about the limited shelf life of closers?

2002heaven
Trusted Member
3 years ago
Reply to  Jim Atkins

he was fluke in 2019 as was Kirby Yates down in San Diego ( was with the Angels BTW )

Rahul Setty
Admin
Trusted Member
3 years ago

When will Robles’s job be in jeopardy? Velo down big, results abysmal, and all in high leverage. No time this season to let him figure it out if he doesn’t have the stuff.

2002heaven
Trusted Member
3 years ago
Reply to  Rahul Setty

what’s down on the farm?

Jessica DeLine
Admin
Super Member
3 years ago

Light that baby up! Wait, put it out. No – light it up again!!

GrandpaBaseball
Legend
3 years ago

I always think we will win the close ones, but now l’m out of energy as that was some contest.

Brent
Super Member
3 years ago

We all saw that outcome coming, right?

2002heaven
Trusted Member
3 years ago
Reply to  Brent

Robles has no movement this year……..just sitback and whack!

Dass
Newbie
3 years ago

That was a noodle arm throw if I have ever seen one, but light that baby up.

John Henry Weitzel
Editor
Super Member
3 years ago

A WIN IS A WIN