Mariners 2, Angels 1
As the dust was settling on the MLB trade deadline, Marco Gonzales (hereafter referred to as Cy Gonzales) got ready to work. As a soft-tossing lefty who doesn’t appear to have elite stuff, Gonzales tries to keep hitters off balance in order to succeed. This is not a knock on Cy, as he’s clearly been successful against the Angels, for whom soft-tossing lefties seem like kryptonite. Cy Gonzales might epitomize them. He entered the game 7-1 with a 3.83 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP against the Halos.
The sun seemed to be a major factor early. The second batter of the game, Sam Haggerty, blooped a double in between Justin Upton and Anthony Rendon that may have been caught not for the sun. Later in the inning, Jared Walsh misread a foul ball.
In the bottom of the first, Andrelton Simmons, new leadoff hitter, popped it up to short, but J. P. Crawford lost the ball in the sun as well. This “hit” was notable for the Halos, mainly because it was one of two that they had on the afternoon before the ninth inning.
Jaime Barría worked for the Angels, and he mostly pitched well. His lone blemish was acceptable. In the third, a couple of knocks plated one for the Mariners:
.@Jfral_23 and @ODOM_JOSEPH with back-to-back knocks to even it up! pic.twitter.com/AL45y77CNn
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 31, 2020
Barría worked 4.1 decent innings, allowing one run, five hits, two walks, and striking out three. José Marmolejos also added a solo home run off Matt Andriese.
MARM💣! pic.twitter.com/cxPYLNwcMr
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 31, 2020
Justin Upton added a solo home run early, but it was all the offense the Angels could muster.
Upton sends one to the rocks! pic.twitter.com/lyloLotLvG
— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) August 31, 2020
In the ninth inning, the Angels put together a mini-rally, as Shohei Ohtani and Andrelton Simmons led off the inning with singles, but Mike Trout lined into a double play and Albert Pujols popped out. It was a tough game for Trout, who struck out three teams and had the aforementioned LIDP. Gonzales definitely did a number on him. Cy finished the complete game allowing one run, four hits, one walk, all while striking out eight. He threw 102 pitches. It was a clinical performance.
Jahmai Jones made his MLB debut as a pinch-runner in the ninth, but he was not able to score.
The Angels are off on Tuesday before playing a pair of games against the revamped San Diego Padres.
(Photo is a screenshot from Fox Sports West)
Excited about the Barria performance. Not about anything else.
Upton his hitting the ball hard
Gonzales is a good pitcher having a phenomenal year but oof… Angels offense looked bad today.
Tank szn.
Marco’s quite good but not this good! C’mon Angels, do something. 🥺
Man this team is something else. We finally put together a string of great pitching performances and the offense sucks. At least we made some trades before the deadline. Hopefully we get to see some new faces the last 20 something games.
So dang hard to get good pitching and a lineup that includes 2 for sure and 2 other possible Hall of Famers to score when the good pitching takes place. Hey Arte, these guys are working their asses off to get the number one pick in the draft.
When you lose to the worst teams, you are the worst team. What an embarrassing season.
I think–as usual–Arte hired the wrong person for the job. I had read Cubs writers talk about how Maddon is great if your locker room has vocal leaders who will police it because Maddon does not do that whatsoever. He is very hands-off. It’s why they looked to a guy like Ross in Chicago to ramp the energy up more.
Who are the clubhouse leaders here? Trout, Pujols…Heaney? These are all very quiet, mild-mannered guys. So when things go wrong, nobody is throwing chairs and getting pissed, including Maddon.
This team has no Lackey or Weaver or Torii or Erstad to snap guys out of it. That’s how you get an offense like this that can go dead silent inexplicably.
Fwiw, the Maddon hire was definitely a Moreno move. Not exactly a secret, either!
When is the point where we look to see what we’ve got with our fringe prospects?
Thaiss/Barreto/Jam Jones should get looks over Walsh and Ward.
Now, if I had my way. Give them a shot and see what happens. At least it’s something different.
I wonder what the deal is with Thaiss. Is he struggling at the alt site? In the doghouse? Service time related?
Thaiss got plenty of looks earlier this season and late last year, and looked completely lost at the plate. Walsh did to a similar extent but with less playing time. Either way, they’re all fringy prospects at best so it may not be worth stressing about. Barreto still needs to be tested for COVID so the team didn’t add him yet.
Interesting note on Barreto considering Austin Nola was playing for SD the day after being traded. Is it simply that he was coming from Oakland where there was a recent recorded case?
Regarding Walsh/Thaiss in 2020
Thaiss: 11PA/2H/1BB/3K/2R
4.4 pitchers per AB
Walsh: 13PA/0H/0BB/2K/1R
3.8 pitches per AB
I know is a ridiculously small sample size but everything I see suggest that Thaiss is the better option and deserves to get some looks.
Pujols related. I think Upton and Albert should opt out for September and let the org develop their young guys in real games instead of rotting in Long Beach.
We are running away with the AL Suck-Fest trophy. Pittsburgh is tough competition, though.
Like a lot of us – the Halos blew their wad Saturday night.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Mary agrees
Expected, don’t know why we can’t hit lefties with a righty heavy lineup. Hoping Trout and Rendon break out again quick. Every time we launch more than 6 runs in a game we always sleep the next week it seems so hope that doesn’t happen this time.
we’re in 1st with a Pittsburgh win.
Who keeps beating the Angels?
