Angels 8 Tigers 3
The Angels continued to roll against teams that don’t wear green as big dongs and impressive deception made the Tigers look like the third-string squad it is.
Patrick Sandoval had the ball tonight and showed once again why he deserved to be where he is. A cursory glance at the box score might tell an easy story, but the guy was shoving. Through 4 innings, he had 8 K’s with 1 walk and 1 hit allowed. While he did end up allowing a solo shot in the 5th and 6th each, he was absolutely nasty. He was pulled after walking Miguel Cabrera just one out shy of a quality start at a mere 81 pitches.
Inexplicably, Joe Maddon went to the guy he seems to trust more than any single starter on the rotation, Steve Cishek of the 14.9% walk rate. And unsurprisingly, a walk and an RBI single would saddle the starter with his 3rd earned run.
Typical Maddon doing Maddon things aside, the offense at least managed to make it not matter too much. The usual suspects were being… typical.
The Angels would hit another 8 extra-base hits tonight, play some heads-up baseball, and push runs across against a Wily Peralta who definitely was looking to have a better first start of 2021.
Going into tonight, the last 7 days had seen the Angels with the most runs scored in baseball.
Over the last 14 days, the Angels had the most runs in baseball.
Over the last 30 days, the Angels had the most runs in baseball.
The Angels are back above .500, The A’s lost a game, Anthony Rendon is back, Ohtani is in the Home Run Derby, Mike Trout is almost back, the rotation has (mostly) been solid over the last month…
There is a lot to watch for right now. Stay tuned tomorrow too as Dylan Bundy tries to see how many runs you can give up in the first 3 innings and still win a game starts against Detroit Tigers top prospect and 2018 number 1 overall pick Casey Mize.
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1406683929294172164?s=20
Some team will end up with Boyd and get a bag of towels for their trouble. So today we will face Casey Mize, we will send him home with the loss. and then we rest and the Giants will have to lose a couple as we help out the Doyers.
With Shohei leading the way on Willber Wednesday:
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1406678658316595201
We get this guy today with his 1.073 WHIP, not Jose Urena or Matt Manning this time.
Number #1 overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft 😫
Should we be looking for this guy? Is he wanted?
I found him! He’s playing a game in Anaheim! Good detectivework everyone.
We get’em? That would be a nice Father’s Day gift, bu wha wai?!?! He’s still on the other team. Bamboozled again.
I wish we had him!! 💪
Okay I’ll bite – how we’re the Angels supposed to draft him without being the worst team in the League and having the #1 pick?
https://youtu.be/vPQgfaB3S1c
OR
https://youtu.be/hhJg1finpyU
For Fathers Day will you refrain from posting please? I’d really appreciate it.
Not if they lose of corse! 😆
But can he pitch?
Happy Fathers Day to you Guys .and whenever you are able give them Kids an extra hug and an “I Love You” and thank them for being there, we can open our hearts like this once a year.
Can we play Arizona and Detroit more frequently?
Everytime an Angels starter goes 5 an Angel gets a win!
Congrats Sandoval
Going to be tough picking “Employee of the Month” for June with this many players En Fuego!
Arte has been selected “Employee of the month” for 217 consecutive months, do you really think it’s going to be different going forward?
It’s tremendous improvement to be beating the teams that the Angels should win against. That’s been a problem in recent seasons. Really nice to see them take care of teams like Detroit abd Arizona.
Since all games count the same, they have basically erased the Oakland sweep. 9-3 over last 12. That’s good!
Yes and no. I agree that beating the teams we should beat is an improvement over recent years. I think back to 2019 and that mid-summer home series agains the Orioles where we lost a couple games we should have won, including that painful extra-innings affair. So, yes, this is better.
However, this does not eliminate the importance of beating our division rivals. The games are not actually equal. Remember, when we play a division rival it is essentially a two game shift; each win gives us a game up and that team a game down, so it is a two game swing in the standings. To that point, we have not gained any ground on the Mariners the last two nights because as we were beating Detroit they were also beating Tampa Bay. Thus, it is key that we beat them head to head.
We will have a chance to do that in two weekends as we play a three game set in Seattle. If we are serious about rising in the AL West we will have to win that series. No more splitting a four game series or losing two out of three !! We need to WIN these inter-division matchups and NOW. In 2002 we started out slowly against Seattle but then had a huge mid-season three game series against them at home that we SWEPT. So, we did turn it around and dominate them, despite that slow start in April. This is what needs to happen.
I hear you re Division rivals. But I will say that looking at the 2002 team’s record against other teams was eye opening. That year they lost season series to Seattle and Oakland but beat up on the sub .500 teams. Now they weren’t destroyed in the season series- it was close. I think Oakland won the series 11-9 and it was similar with Seattle. So what a team really needs to do is avoid the sweeps like recently in Oakland. If they can play somewhere around .500 against the division rivals and beat up on sub .500 teams, that’s a pretty decent season.
Agree. That is a plan that can work. If we hold our own against the AL West and continue to dominate the Central etc we can advance. But we will also need to play well against the AL East, which as you know we have not done in recent years. In 2019 the Yankees kicked our asses, as have the Red Sox in recent years. We play both those teams coming up. We have four games in New York and three at home against Boston. We absolutely have to split that series in New York at worst. If we split in New York and win two of three from Boston we’ll be okay; that is going 4-3 in these games coming up. I’d say we have to win at least one in Tampa Bay but probably two since we need to make amends for having been swept by them at home in May.
I’ll say this now, if we lose 3 out of 4 in New York we are not going anywhere this year. Especially if we lose three in NY and two of three in Tampa. That will tell you that this Detroit series was Fool’s Gold. We need to at least hold our own against the good teams, and going 2-5 in this upcoming road trip would not be doing that….
I agree but I could live with 3-4 against the Yanks and Tampa Bay.
If the team could play at or just below .500 against the good teams and beat up the sub-500 teams – that works. But that strategy makes games like today important. If they are going to be sub .500 against good teams, they need to complete sweeps against bad teams.
Basically the strategy is such that it leaves very little room for error. If the team has a bad series and loses to a bad team…..well that screws things up.
I’ll add that the AL West is much tougher now than in 2002 bc of the addition of Houston. That makes it harder to play in the .500 or just below range against the division.
Again, totally agree about the lack of room for error. Today’s game is dangerous for a few reasons. Number one, we are coming off a couple blow-out wins so the tendency would to be over-confident. Plus, we are facing a better pitcher from Detroit today than the last couple of games. Finally, we have Bundy going for us who has been terrible lately.
You are correct, this is the kind of game we absolutely have to win if we as a fanbase want to settle for a 3-4 East Coast swing.
Frankly, I could easily see Bundy giving up a couple runs in the 1st inning and us falling behind. After scratching back I could see us losing today 6-4 or 5-4, something like that. Of course I hope this does not happen, but Bundy simply can’t be trusted.
Honestly tho. How in the living heck did we end up with the 2 best players in baseball on our team! Like literally 1A and 1B…Insane how lucky we are. Which of course balances out with how unlikely we are to have this bullpen. Nonetheless it’s amazing to see.
I can’t wait for Trout to be inserted into this lineup!!
Can he take Cishek’s spot in the pen too?
You know the wheels will fall off when that happens because…it’s the Angels
Man, these games have been fun. It’s a shame that wins against the Tigers don’t actually count.
Haha!!
Winning the games they should win!!
Was wondering where he went….
Welcome Home My Friend!!!
We missed you so stay for a while !
He wants too!
Good win boys! Except for 3B..😎
3 in a Row. Shuffle bot MIA
How about Ohtani Bot
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When the Guys that love it when the Angels lose so they can complain find out the Angels won again
.
Notice how they’re never on the GT when we’re winning.
I was celebrating Fathers Day with this
i’m back again to fantasizing how good the lineup can be if Trout comes back, Upton continues raking, Rendon rebounds, Stassi somehow does Stassi things, Fletch is Fletch, and Ward continues doing his thing.
lesigh. i know i will be buttercupped
And Walsh keeps reminding us why we DFAd Pujols
yes Walsh too! can’t believe i forgot him. if we can get to the point where Iglesias is the weakest hitter, we are in a good spot
And the starters don’t look…terrible?
yes! still hopeful for Bundy and the bunch. if we have a three run lead (tall task, i know) the bullpen can’t blow that every time!
And the Blowpen keeps Blowing?
Never, ever seen a play like Fletcher’s tonight. Stealing second on a lazy play by the catcher? Then taking third on an error? Seriously, anybody ever seen that one? Ohtani and Walsh are en fuego. Loving how Rengifo is looking, too. Hope he doesn’t get jerked around by roster roulette, he deserves a spot with the big club playing like he has been.
They extremely forgettable Taylor Ward is also extremely hot right now. This is actually a huge deal. If he can manage an OPS over .800 that’s better than Calhoun and his defense hasn’t been too bad either. On top of that he and Lugares mean that we don’t need to trade for an OF if we are in contention, and we also can leave Marsh/Adell in SLC for as long as they need to bake. That’s a lot of value from a guy with no real value.
So happy to obtain a top of the line defensive collegiate catcher with a weak stick.
TrAdition
But that sh^t duzn’t werk in the playeoffs……right!
LOL!!!! 😆
If it continues, repeat it next year. Lot of options with him playing this well.
His defense sucks especially in right field
Has trouble fielding it cleanly and can butcher it….But overall catches it.
Arm strength, suck -. And we have worse.
I’m not sure of the arm strength. Ex(?) catcher, should have some muscle in them noodles. It is more likely he doesn’t have the instinct on where to throw the ball, and that auto range on throws that come with years of experience. He seems to be skittish out there.
Does it? I mean, I’m not saying he’s good, but he’s getting better and his Rdrs is -4 as it stands now. It was worse. He also has a strong arm and has a couple assists in 40 games. He’s no Roberto Clemente, but we have survived far worse out there, he’s got 2020 Brian Goodwin beat by a mile for example.
I actually wouldn’t mind him ending up on our bench moving forward, as 4th OF/back up IF. Wouldn’t have thought he had a shot staying with the team a year ago.
His defense is real suspect. He really needs for Joe to get off his ass and do some extra drills on ball tracking, every damn day.
Make TeeDub an all-around player WOOP-WOOP
I know not to pull the mask off the Lone Ranger, but trade him. Now.
That’s a really good point. Letting Marsh and Adell fully develop is huge. What a shot in the arm it would be to be able to insert both into the lineup next year and they hit the ground running. No idea where that would leave J-Up but that would be an awesome problem to have.
We could ease them in, and giving people chances for days off or account for the inevitable (hopefully minor) injury.
Adell had 2 hard hit balls last night. One I thought was a HR off the bat, but it went straight up instead of out for a mile-high flyout to center. The other was a hard hit grounder that could have easily been a hit if it hadn’t gone straight at the second baseman.
In the end, he finished a disappointing 0-5 with 2 Ks. Thaiss had a great throw to catch a runner stealing and hit a HR, but overall I wasn’t that impressed with him at catcher.
For tonight, I am happy.
Well that was an easier call for a win than tomorrows game. But a sweep is in order because of how bad the Tigers are. Bundy can use some killer instinct.
he’ll come em with the 87 mph heater
Maybe a late scratch. Get Suarez out on the bump to start things off.
Bundy… a casualty of no sticky stuff…