The Angels lose vs Texas in the first game since Friday. It was a pitching duel between Bundy and Ohtani’s old Japanese teammate. Of course, facing a rookie pitcher, it was an uphill battle from the start for the Angels. Getting CY-Rookie-ed again is just TrAdition at this point.
Recap
Dylan Bundy was not perfect. He let batters on in multiple innings and gave up a solo shot in the 3rd. Scattering hits did not score, until the 6th. A walk, 2 hits, and an error in the outfield by Walsh allowed another run to score. Then another hit and another run.
3-0 Rangers in the 6th and with no outs, Bundy was pulled. He went 5+ innings and gave up 7 hits which resulted in 3 runs. Bundy did have 6 strikeouts against 2 walks, he was in the zone, just hittable.
Cishek came in for relief. He allowed a sac fly. Then Luis Rengifo botched a ground ball. A wild pitch and another single scored yet another run. Finally git a strikeout, but Cishek was yanked, came in losing 3-0, left losing 6-0. Alex Claudio came to get the final out in the 6th to stop the bleeding.
Meanwhile the offense did squat. A single hit through 5 innings, a bloop single by Fletch. That and a Walsh walk was all the offense. Ohtani pimped a home run, that was robbed.
Luis Rengifo drew a walk with 2 outs in the 6th and Fletcher got a single to put 2 on for Ohtani and the Rangers yanked their rookie starter with only 77 pitches thrown. It didn’t matter, as Ohtani struck out.
Claudio pitched a mostly clean 7th, figuring that he should have come in for Bundy instead. It was still 6-0 after the top of the 7tletting the offense have a shot at a comeback.
Comeback Attempt
Justin Upton did not give up, and hit one just left of the glove and over the yellow line. 6-1 Rangers. Walsh doubled and Pujols singled him in, 6-2 Rangers. Iglesias hit a single as well, putting 2 on for Suzuki. Then, as the Rangers fans panic, Pujols and Churches pulled off a double steal!
Another single by Suzuki plated Pujols and the deficit was now in half. A wild pitch and now 6-4 Rangers. Luis Rengifo struck out. Fletcher came up and flew out to deep center for the 3rd out.
Claudio was out there yet again, keeping the Rangers close. He was relived for Slegers after 1 out, matchups and all. Slegers got the outs, which is all the matters and the offense went right back out there.
Not that the Angels capitalized, both Ohtani and Trout struck out and Upton grounded out. Watson pitched the 9th, putting the Rangers down in order and giving the offense one last chance.
Walsh was up first, and popped up. Pujols was next and flew out. Iglesias lined a single past the diving fielder. Suzuki singled as well putting the tying run on first. Schebler pinch ran for Suzuki. It was up to Rengifo, who grounded out, ending the game.
The Angels are now 8-6 and lose precious ground in the AL West race. They face the Rangers again tomorrow, at 6:38 again. Ohtani is on the mound but will not hit.
A simiple poem:
Ohtani and Trout 0 for 8;
The result ain’t gonna be great.
I didn’t see Trout’s first two at bats, but I know he struck out twice and his last two at bats looked poor as well. I hate when Trout looks bad.
Trout is striking out a lot this year. Not making me happy. :/
Honestly though with Rengifo. I understand Maddons thought of let him redeem himself and be the hero and how much that might help his confidence BUT I think we’ve gotten enough of a sample size to know he cant hit MLB pitching at this point in his career. Not hard to see. He doesn’t have it between the ears. Will consistantly swing at trash and watch fastballs right down the middle.. gross to watch.
Agree. I would add that it IS possible that Rengifo does become a serviceable utility infielder and hitter at the MLB level at some point. He is just not that right now.
Unfortunately, we need him to be that now while Rendon is out, and when it is his turn to get a start here and there. We can’t afford glaring weaknesses in our lineup that allows opposing pitches to pitch around other players etc. In a year we have a real chance to make the playoffs we ca’t afford to give games away.
For that reason I propose bringing Ward up ASAP ( I know that it is not clear what is keeping him out and that complicates matters). In the meantime we’ll field a less than desirable lineup.
Welll, Bundy is now off to a 0-2 start.
They call that a fan who’s hoping for better things than what’s normally possible. He pitched over his head in a non regular abbreviated 60 game season last year and now it appears he might be crashing back down to earth resembling what he was in Baltimore on bad teams ( BTW he was a big part of the reason the Orioles were bad while he was there! ). He was never a #1 ace and probably never will be even though he was the #4 overall selection in the 2011 MLB Draft ( ahead of Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Max Scherzer in their draft classes and 48 spots ahead of a guy named Blake Snell at #52 in the same 2011 draft class and a supplemental pick! ). Some teams suck at scouting and player development and some teams don’t mind if they do 😥 😫 .
Don’t disagree about Bundy. Even last season I was saying we need to temper our expectations about the future. 2020 smelled like an outlier season.
In addition, this off-season I said we should wait before extending him. I wanted to see a couple months more. It now seems wise that we waited. That said, it is still early and he has not been horrible. He’s been a little unlucky as well with not getting early run support, which obviously helps a lot.
Let’s see where he is in mid-May.
The “ace” of our team would be a #3 starter at best on any other team that doesn’t dumpster dive for pitching help or overpay for reclamation projects.
Last year was fun with him at the beginning. There were even a few fans mentioning him in the cy young race. That all evaporated as the season wound down and he had some very below average starts.
Pitching will hamstring this team yet again this season. The only thing our staff has an abundance of is inconsistency. Hopefully that will change once Albertross is gone.
The Angels finally have that once in a generation player and they’ve managed to completely waste him so far. Sigh…
The closer he is to our umber 3 starter the better. He’s not likely a #1..
Not knowing shit about pitching, or advanced metrics, I have eyes and he looks to be pretty good, and might have figured some things out.
I like that he acts like a #1, the Angels don’t have many pitchers show that confidence.
I think his intangibles are pretty good (competitiveness, attitude etc) but the raw talent and stuff can’t hang with a true # 1 of another staff or even a good # 2.
Guttiness can only take you so far.
Something I’ve been trying to do is not concern myself as much with the in-game decisions of managers, because they probably make fractions of a percentage point of a difference, if that. Sure, I assume Schebler PH’ing and Rojas running would have improved our chances, but I don’t think it would have been anywhere in the ballpark of a percent. Our problem was situational, not personnel-wise.
On the other hand, something that DOES have more of an impact is the lineup card. We would have been decently better off with Schebler in right and Walsh at first. Oh well. Get ’em tomorrow.
Agree with the line-up comment and sounds good, limit the 2-game losing streaks will keep this team afloat at the top.
Meanwhile, Seattle does not have much talent and yet they are managing to win games and last night beat the Dodgers.
How in the hell are they doing it? They don’t have much power in their lineup and their SP is far from dominating. They seem to be winning a lot of one run games, which has been a formula of the A’s for many years.
My best guess without having looked at the numbers carefully is that they are executing with RISP situations and limiting big innings of opponents. This means they are “in” most games. Somehow they are pulling out a high percentage of these…
Don’t look at the standings. Just tip your cap and burn all the pages in a Barbara Cartland novel.
What does a trashy romance have to do with baseball?
Trouty is just not on all the time. but I expect that the next game to be our offensive guys carrying the load.
Rengifo was brutal today. 0 for at the plate, two errors.
Having him at bat with the game on the line was futile
Schebler should’ve hit for him.
He also mishandled two plays at third, although I don’t think the throw was on time in either situation – one from Upton and another on Suzuki’s pickoff attempt. Lost the ball in the dirt both times.
At least he doesn’t make $21M a year like the LF does.
Bundy didn’t get it done either when he needed to.
He isn’t a clutch pitcher ( won 13 games in 2017 for BALT ). He can’t pitch his way out of trouble when things don’t go his way like a ace should. 😫 Lucas Giolito won 14 games for a bad ChiSox team in 2019 and Marco Gonzales won 16 games for a bad SEA team that year too.
You really don’t like Bundy. Being our “#1” he is going to go against opposing teams better pitchers more often than not. He hasn’t gotten much run support. I’d like every pitcher to go 6+ with no earned runs, just doesn’t happen much anymore.
If he was a FA after last season, he probably could’ve got a lot of lucrative overpay offers ( about $25M a year, except not from us, since we all know Arte’s cheap and won’t pay pitchers and would’ve told him to get lost ). He often doesn’t do very well after the AS break ( we’ve seen that out of him in BALT already ). I thought we were supposed to be a good hitting team, granted Rendon’s out but still. We don’t have a true #1 guy and haven’t since the 2012 season. Don’t expect him back next year either BTW, because Arte won’t want him back for more than $9M a year.
I mean all this is typical Angel isn’t it? Look at our comparison Southern California owners of Padres and Dodgers. Those teams spend good money after bad and are usually known for having good farm systems. The Angels might spend big but once they make a bad move (Pujols, Hamilton, etc) they stop spending until those contracts are up.
I get as frustrated and irritated as the next person. Who likes to spend their time, money, energy into something that continually disappoints? I’m just not surprised is all I’m saying. Disappointment and Angels = trAdition.
Why not have Schebler pinch hit for Rengifo?!
Exactly! Pinch run instead?? Schebler will get his chance Wednesday