It started out promising enough. The Angels went up 2-0 early on a pair of homers from Upton and Walsh. You know how this usually goes.
First Inning
Nice strikeout of J.P. Crawford followed by a Mitch Haniger strikeout using more pitches. Then a Kyle Seager fly out ended the top of the first.
Unfortunately, the Angels were 3 up three down in their half of the first. 0-0.
Second Inning
Ty France doubled to right field, Jared Kelenic struck out on a foul tip, and Jose Godoy bounced out on a slider to send France to third. Taylor Trammel struck out on a slider that he missed by a mile. So far, so good.
Justin Upton hit a homer on the first pitch he saw to lead off the Angels second inning. Juan Lagares Struck out. Jared Walsh then hit a line drive homer on a hanging slider. Taylor Ward struck out. Max Stassi walked. and David Fletcher grounded out to second base to end the inning.
Third Inning
Jake Fraley walked on 9 pitches only to be picked off at first. Donovan Walton got an infield hit to third base. J.P. Crawford hit a double to right field, but Walton was held at third. Whew! Mitch Haniger got an infield hit to the left side and Walton scored. Kyle Seager was retired on a fly out to Ward and the runners held. Ty France grounded out to second base. Canning ended the third inning with 59 pitches.
Phil Gosselin got a hit to right center. Shohei Ohtani struck out. Anthony rendon doubled to left but Phil Gosselin was held at third. Justin Upton walked to load them up for Juan Lagares. A fly out to right resulted in no score. Jared Walsh then grounded out to second base. (It wasn’t a rock. It was a rock LOBster!)
Fourth Inning
Jarred Kelenic drew a leadoff walk. Jose Godoy then struck out. Taylor Trammel singled to right field sending Kelenic to third. Then Jake Fraley Homered to drive in 3 runs. The Angels brought in Jose Suarez to pitch. Donovan Walton grounded out but then J. P. Crawford singled. Luckily, Mitch Haniger made out to end the Seattle fourth inning.
Taylor Ward came up and struck out. Max Stassi singled to shallow left field. David Fletcher reached on an infield single toward second base. Phil Gosselin lined out to left and Shohei Ohtani made the third out to serve up a second helping of LOBster.
Fifth Inning
Kyle Seager doubled on the fourth pitch he saw. Ty France then grounded out. Kelenic was batting while Kyle Seager stole third although Kelenic proceeded to strike out. Jose Godoy made the third out, thank goodness.
Anthony Rendon grounded out to second base as did Justin Upton. Juan Lagares also made out to end the fifth inning 4-2 Mariners.
Sixth Inning
Taylor Trammel grounded out. Jake Fraley walked. While Donovan
Walton was batting, Fraley stole second base and then Walton made out. J. P. Crawford hit a ground rule double to score Fraley. Mitch Haniger grounded out to end the Mariners sixth inning somewhat mercifully.
Jared Walsh grounded out to the shortstop who happened to be on the right side of the infield. Taylor Ward struck out. Max Stassi walked. When David Fletcher came to bat, the Mariners brought in J. T. Chargois to pitch. Fletcher hit into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
Seventh Inning
Now the Angels saw fit to bring in Alex Claudio. He promptly coughed up a homer to Kyle Seager to make it 6-2 Mariners. Ty France lined out but, hey, the damage is done. Jarred Kelenic struck out and Jose Godoy hit a fly out to left to end the top of the seventh inning.
Kean Wong came in to pinch hit and struck out. Shohei Ohtani hit a fly ball to center to go 0-fer. Anthony Rendon then hit a fly ball to right to end the inning.
Eighth Inning
Alex Claudio was still pitching, I guess because there was nobody available who was any better. Taylor Trammel grounded out to second base. Jake Fraley hit a fly ball to right field for the second out. Donovan Walton then grounded out to second base.
Justin Upton fouled out to the catcher. Juan Lagares lined out to left field. Jared Walsh then batted, specializing in foul balls, but he grounded out to second base to end the inning.
Ninth Inning
J. P. Crawford popped out to second base. Mitch Haniger singled to right field. Kyle Seager the lined into a double play to first base.
Hey! We got this don’t we? Taylor Ward grounded out to first base. Max Stassi struck out swinging. Then David Fletcher also struck out swinging. Brutal!
Photo credit: I don’t know. Use tineye or something.
First of all, if your “starter” is only able to go 3 1/3 innings, your already kind of screwed. No bullpen is ready for that every day, and that is kind of an Angels thing. Then comes the “Lobstah Fest”. Then the no more hits, at which point, now apathy sets in. Time to watch Mysteries of the Abandoned, or How the Universe Works.
That bases loaded one out scenario was key. Not scoring there was the beginning of the end. I have not looked at the numbers lately but we must be terrible in those situations. I would guess we’d be in the bottom third of MLB in getting runners in from 3B with less than two outs.
And I would think we are pretty low in getting hits with w/ two outs and RISP.
Actually, we are 18th out of 30 teams in getting a runner in from 3B with less than two outs. That is not very good. Interestingly, we have a good BA in those situations, but we aren’t good in general. This tells me that we are not good at “situational hitting,” that is, we are not very good at creating runs through outs; i.e., the sac fly, rbi groundout etc..
Perhaps we need to be coaching this and emphasizing more in Spring Training and at the lower levels
They bunt to advance runners in a one-run situation. In the fourth inning.
My ghawd, this coaching is just Maddoning.
This problem/issue started well before Maddon took the managing gig.
Bunting over is one thing, getting the guy in from 3B with less than two outs is another….
This drove me nuts. Even drawing a walk scores a run.
Is that even possible? I think it is with other teams.
Beat by the guy who was kicked out here, went all in, and then went through a fire sale. This whole time we’re trying to compete and we still lose. I love me some Trout and Ohtani, but a W is what I really want.
Anybody ever watch that budget docuseries on the LA Kiss arena football team? It’s quite entertaining. 4th and Loud I think it’s called. It’s on Amazon. What really got me going was what I felt were parallels between their mustachioed co owner and our teams mustachioed owner. Reactionary, meddlesome, emotional, poor game IQ, and a losing team. I laughed because otherwise I’d cry.
so….no hits after the 4th inning. Not just no runs. No hits. Not scoring in the 3rd was unfortunate. But then no hits, I tell you, after the 4th.
A couple of guys got weak hits in the fourth. Still didn’t plate those guys, though. We just plated a nice juicy LOBster.
Bases juiced in the 4th, gotta come through in the 4th there!
Still had fun. Go Angels!
And the third. I give Walsh credit for the homer, but we obviously needed those other three or four runs.
3rd and 4th *with bases loaded in 3rd.
The way 2-4th innings we’re going offensively you would think that the night would’ve produced more than 2 runs. Whomp whomp 🙁
Pathetic. Did not realize that until you said it.