So the Angels lost. The real story was that someone got mad at Ohtani for half a second. Of course, Mark Canha quickly saw the error of his ways and even didn’t make a fuss after actually getting hit in the following plate appearance. Who would want to be known as that a-hole who tried to call out the most likable guy in baseball, after all? But for a fraction of a fraction of a minute, Canha was the worst person in baseball.
The baseball gods are not known to be just, however, and while he would initially suffer from a strike-’em-out-throw-’em-out double play, Mark Canha’s plunking would prove to be crucial in the game. The A’s scored without a hit in the inning and put the Angels into catch-up mode for the remainder of the night despite having opportunities aplenty.
The Angels would manage to tie it back up once on a sequence of plate appearances that no one would find praise-worthy but that we would absolutely take. After a quick Taylor Ward strikeout, Jose Rojas popped a light fly into the middle of no-man’s land. Kurt Suzuki followed by bunting him over and then David Fletcher did classic David Fletcher things.
Ohtani would go into the 7th probably a bit gassed and surrender two consecutive walks which sealed the end of the game as the A’s began to show that they aren’t the Troutless Angels offense. The second scored after being inherited by Cishek.
A takeaway from this game for some might be that the Angels can’t pick up their ace. It might also be that they have a punchless offense against pitching staffs that aren’t of equal quality to that of the Angels’. I think the real takeaway should be that life isn’t fair and sometimes villains don’t go home empty-handed.
if you haven’t seen it, Butera DFA’d, Wong up.. Also Slegers to SLC, Suarez up
Good, meh, good, and meh.
I think the (Great. Good. Meh. Suck.) ranking system is by far the most effective ever designed.
We don’t use Great often with the Angels.
Anthony Bemboom up too.
Suarez sucks. He lacks machismo to fire the ball past hitters. Claudio v2.0.
Everyone saw we are staying in Tempe for ST through 2035?
https://es.pn/3frWdJQ
This team is just too damn frustrating. You know when they start to hit, the starting pitching will suck again. They just can’t pull it together. This has been an ongoing thing.
I think this squad can complete with the mid-level teams who have pitching issues. We saw that against Texas. But elite teams have shut down pitching staffs and if you miss opportunities to score or let pitchers off the hook (as the Angels did over and over in the first 5 innings last night) it’s not going to be pretty.
Coming into this series, I felt the Angels needed to win 3 of 4 to have any chance. Having lost the first 2 to Oakland they are now 8 back, with losing records at home and on the road. Salvage a split and maybe there is a faint heartbeat. But these next two are absolutely must wins.
Until they’re not.
This kinda sums up the season so far….
From Fletcher and Bollinger: “Kurt Suzuki clarifies that the issue with the BART trains yesterday with Shohei Ohtani was that they got off at the wrong station and missed a transfer.”
Fletch is clutch. He is batting .500 with runners at second base and his late and close BA is .409
And .094 on all other At Bats
Rather have them when they count. For me at least.
whispers: (probably should hit 5th or 6th then)
aargh it’s so frustrating. It seems like Fletcher has meaningful men on splits, not only this season but for his career (.675 OPS with no one on, .772 OPS with runners on), yet he’s hitting behind Drew Butera and Taylor Ward and Jose Rojas
(obviously some selection bias, but that’s a pretty significant difference imo)
I blame a starting lineup with 5 players batting below .220 in it
Historic event anniversary.
https://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=29221142
Giants beat the Dogers!
Meanwhile, at the latrine, barnes tied the game and Pujols was robbed of a walk off hr
Can of corn in the score book the way I see it.
Down to .198
“Warning track power translates to a lot of outs”
Good that means they’ll keep GPa on the roster for at least another month.
I did not know I was on the roster, “SHOW ME DAH MONEY!!!”
The best line of the night:
“Albert Pujols starts inning at second base”
Lmao
Ha! Heard that!
“Pujols will be the free runner, which is not an insignificant thing”
Translation, he is such a slow ass runner, it would likely take 3 singles to bring him home.
Wait, what? It wasn’t Pujols as the runner starting at second during extra innings was it?
His lazy fly out to LF was the last out of bot 9th. He (pooholes) runs at 2nd to start bot 10th
🤣
I’ll take my W’s where I can get them and the guy failing on the rival team gave me a big jolly W
Edit: W jokes aside, in 2006 we were about this record and made a close push to the playoffs after the all star game. I do believe if we have a healthy, playoff-hungry, rested trout late july we can win this dang thing
“We” still paying, “we” can complain
We’ve really come to this: celebrating the failures of a senior citizen who is not even on our team?
I’m good with hating on the Astros because they are proven liars and cheats. I’m good hating on the MFYs because…well they’re the MFYs. I understand the Dodgers are the natural rivals of the Halos because of geography and the fact the have won consistently over the past 50+ years. However, hating on Pujols once he’s already left the team is just stupid. Arte put a ridiculous contract in front of Pujols and he (Pujols) did what any of us would do and signed it. It of course did not end well at all. Arte has paid the price financially and in the court of public opinion. In my opinion, it’s time to move on…..
So what the hell are we going to do for fun then?
Well, there’s this:
What’s your definition of consistent winning? Dodgers have not been that in last 50 years IMO. 1990-2013 weren’t great. Half season champions in the last 30+ years isnt too much to get stoked about. At least in my perspective.
‘Hating’ on Pujols or just looking for confirmation (his lack of success) that we made a good decision with giving Shohei and Walsh more playing time is just intrinsic fandom.
The Dodgers had the higher winning percentage in the 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s, 2010’s, and 2020’s. The Angels had the higher winning percentage in the 2000’s. Honestly, comparing the Angels record over decades is an easy compare to most teams. Just sayin’
As for Pujols, my only point is that it’s just the Angels fans still dredging up the name and history. I’d just soon forget it about it now that it’s over. However, as of May 29th 2021, it’s still a free country and folks can say whatever they want.
Have a good holiday weekend.
Yes compared to us most any franchise looks better through that span of time. Might as well make it 60 instead of 50 years though haha
Pujols will be a name brought up here alongside vernon wells, mo vaughn, gary matthews jr, josh Hamilton, etc for awhile. That’s the territory like why whoever was drafted ahead of Michael Jordan gets compared to and labeled a bust. I’ve never been one who cared for dramatics within the royal family for instance, but like sports and things like draft busts or worst contracts ever are just things that exist. A team’s fan base thats left frustrated or irritated at bad drafts or bad contracts are just dramas within our hobby.
It’s a great weekend! Hope you enjoy it as well!
Yeah, well, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.
https://youtu.be/pWdd6_ZxX8c
It’s funny, I actually think it would be a great idea for Pujols to come back as a hitting coach for his service contract after retiring.
However, the idea that he was annoyed about being a bench player and the attempts to potray the Angels as dishonoring Pujols irk me in a way that makes me want to see the rest of his playing career go down in flames.
Puljos was robbed because he robbed us. An eye for an eye. Praise the lord and….Puljos sucks.
🙌🏼🙌🏼
I blame the GIF thread.
+1
and now for the wisecrack. San Diego just scored 7 in the top of the 11th versus the Cheaters. If we’d done something like that and the other team was coming to bat we’d say “hold on to your hats, this could be bumpy”
No wisecrack here. I’m trying to get into Arte’s mind. He knows he’s got a high payroll. Does he analyze it? Does he look at the team’s record over the last 6 years? Is he so completely short term that he isn’t interested in figuring out what the problem is?
I guess it’s all about the bottom line. Win, lose, maybe they aren’t as important to profit.
I think 2014 gave him delusional hope. He’s been living off those fumes ever since.
He bought what was already high quality organization . My guess is he’s now involved in the decision making more than we will ever know. He is the common denominator since our fall off in 2010. He only hires 1st time GMs, easier for him to control. Nobody’s going to talk, Billy won’t, Jerry left in-season, no GM does that, probably all we need to know.
His early success as an owner gave him his arrogance. And he ain’t selling We are fucked as fans.
Petit is 7-0
Fuck (June 2014) Petit. He throws puss
And mows down The Angels every time.
Seriously this is the Angels the last 7 years.
This is because we have a rotten owner. He has destroyed this franchise.
Is this the end of May every year or the end of April? I’m thinking April as I still see some movement and signs of life.
We are wasting Sandoval and Ohtani.
One run doesn’t win 2 games
they call that a quality start. If Trout were healthy….
….we still would have lost. Even with Trout, the team had way too many holes to compete. A great generational talent such as Trout does not create a winning team by himself.
But we have 2 Generational talents on our team
One run in 2 games. When do we get to reload?
Depressing.
Positives: GIF-thread worked well!