Saturday, Patrick Sandoval and the Los Angeles Angels faced off against Kolby Allard and the Texas Rangers at the newly minted Globe Life Park. “How did it go?” you may ask. Patrick Sandoval threw the ball well through 5+ innings but he just didn’t have run support and was pulled in the sixth inning down 2-0. Joey Gallo hit a 2 out 2 run homerun to the opposite field to give Texas a 2-0 lead in the sixth inning.
The game started well enough. David Fletcher started the game with a lead off double, but then the next three batters made out in short order.
As the game wore on, the Angels began to commit errors, including an error in the bottom of the second inning by David Fletcher. The Angels chased Allard in the fifth inning when Edinson Volquez came in and shut them down.
In the 6th inning, Joey Gallo hit the two out, two-run home run that would be all the Rangers needed to win this game. The Angels lose 2-0.
Adell definitely isn’t ready. I’m guessing his confidence is taking a beating. For such a supposed high power offense, they’re not scaring anyone. Its brutal to watch.
A while back in MLB history, pre Bud Selig, the American League and National leagues were different. Umpires in the two leagues up until the 1980’s wore completely different protectors called the Ballon Protector. The Umpires even stood behind the batters differently so that the National league pitchers had an advantage of the inside low corner. The stadiums in the American league were generally smaller than the Senior League and fan noise was louder in the National League as a direct result of drawing more fans. National league played more “small ball” with suicide squeeze plays, hit and run or what was really run and hit, more stolen bases and sacrifice bunts to move runners over. American League relied more on the power game and it did bring in the fans. As time rolled forward the Stadiums began to look the same , the umpires unionized and the two leagues merged so the umpires became one. The two league presidents were eliminated and now MLB wants to really remove any difference of two different leagues. For example if you go over to MLB.com and check stats it includes both leagues as one and no way to just see the American or National leagues as it was in prior years. As the baby Boomers age the younger , Millennials and Gen X & Y take over MLB thinks that MLB should just be one league. Inter league play and regional play make it even more of one league. Now with the umpires calling regional games makes it more like everything is the same. So when l hear that one should give Rendon a pass based on changing leagues l fail to see the big deal. When youngsters play travel ball or tournament play you never hear that it’s playing some team for the first time is a reason for poor results. The changes taking place in MLB first pushed by Selig and now by Manfred are not changing the attendance numbers, as a matter of fact the overall attendance for years has been trending downward.
l do believe that enough is enough currently. 7 inning double headers, no bueno, starting in extra innings a runner on second is just silly. Relief pitchers must face 3 outs is not baseball. MLB can cut the length of games just by simply making two rule changes, batters cannot leave the batters box between pitches and call a balk if the pitcher does not throw the next pitch in a timely manner of say 15 or 20 seconds. Enforce these rules and baseball will return to quicker games times by speeding up the game. When l was a youngster my dad and l would go to games that started at 8pm and be home by 10:30pm and going to school the next day was not an issue. Games times were changed to to 7:40pm, then came 7:35pm then 7:10 all to try to have fans not staying out until midnight. So while the game changes not all changes are good for the game, the “old” ways worked for a long time and the only down side has been strikes and lockouts. Thanks for reading and would like to hear what you think about 2020 Strange baseball.
I do think Redon will come around, but Upton, Albert, and the utility spot filled by the misfit toys platoon including Ward are such weak links that opposing pitchers aren’t hurt if Trout, Fletch and Goodwin rake.
Eppler has collected players but has failed to build a team.
Okay – a tough umpire tonight for sure. However I just don’t see any grinding/focused ABs. I feel like they are going through the motions with the exception of Fletch and Trout and arguably Rendon (who is adjusting to the AL).
Rendon will be fine and I love the 3B he plays.
This team should be WAY better than this. I predict a run will be made in around 2 weeks and they will go something like 20-10 to finish ending up in the playoffs.
This is part of the reason I can’t stop watching. I do feel like this team has the make up to get white hot for a bit if the stars align. This season is so weird that we could sneak into the playoffs and who knows what could happen! Games like this are expected, but they still hurt because it seems they matter more with only 60ish games being played. The thing that worries me though is that it’s not like were bouncing around playing .500 baseball, we are actually losing a lot and often… 🙁
This trash is so exceptionally frustrating.
Ironic that I meant to type “team”, but my phone autocorrected it. It’s not wrong.
Your phone made a Freudian slip!
Castellanos $16M a yr……..Rendon $35M a yr
Castellanos .333 6 HR’s 13 RBIs more than Rendon obviously
You seem to take great joy in being negative. It is very irksome.
It’s kinda hard to dig deep for a silver lining on this team since 2016, when Billy Eppler took over the GM duties.
I got here in ( Halos Heaven ) back in June of 2017 so it’s been a lot bad ever since. I’m not one to sugar coat and trust me when I say I liked this team a lot better in the 2000’s for obvious reasons.
There’s less than a 5% chance that Castellanos is worth more per dollar spent than Rendon over the lifetime of their contract. Once again, Castellanos cannot play defense. Rendon can.
Honestly 2002, don’t you think it’s kind of a small sample size?
oh noes! he figured out how to post the headshots.
2020 and this team got me feeling like…
Is it snowing in Colorado?
I think I would need to learn a new language to find new ways to criticize this team.
And they aren’t worth that effort. Meh.
Didn’t even break 100 comments in the GDT. A season low by quite a bit (Especially considering I think there’s been at least one game that broke 100 in the first inning).
That inning might turn out to be the highlight of the season. Trout HR. Pujols HR. Jo’s first hit
2020 feels like…
Depends on who’s perspective you see. The kid driving isn’t hurting
back at a 20-40 pace. Is that gonna be good enough to sneak into 8th?
So your saying we are still upright
*checks box score* Yep – Rendon still can’t hit. Remember who excited we all were for the added bat to this lineup??
He’s the next Hambone. Couldn’t sign an ace pitcher so we sign an alleged “big bat.” Now all he needs to do is some blow and hookers and kill a kid’s dad.
But seriously, I’m a little worried we are seeing the effects of a post-contract year (off the roids) plus going from Quad A to the AL.
Oh my, I hadn’t thought of it like a Hamilton like situation until now. I think this ruined my day.
This is a Pujols start. Pujols was cold till he got comfortable.
Good thing is that Rendon is Younger and of actual age
It always takes a bit for hitters to get used to pitchers in a new league. Give Rendon some time.
Now Upton, that’s a different story.
Yes, his WS appearance he needed all sorts of time to adjust against the best AL pitchers. 😀
Our Pitching Sucks! Eppler Sucks! Eppler needs to sign pitchers! Our Offense can’t carry this team without good Starting pitching! How many runs do we have to score?
Wait…. Wrong day for this rant…
It’s like one of those 80s movies and Ohtani and Stassi have swapped bodies
I thought is was Stassi and Rendon
We have to catch the Pirates as they are in first place for the #1 draft choice in 2021 so “GO PIRATES! WIN”
can’t believe Mike Trout came back from paternity leave for this sh–
Note to the Angels offense — tanks for nothing.
Oh, they definitely tanked.
On the bright side, Patrick Sandoval looked really good. The pitch Joey Gallo hit out wasn’t a bad one, just a display of brute force.
Enough to not get a top 10 pick