Angels 6, Rockies 2
Perhaps it was always going to end this way. After all, the Rockies are now 10-37 on the road, so maybe we fans didn’t need to go through the stress and the agony and the pain that we just witnessed.
Make no mistake, Shohei Ohtani is an ace. I still get nervous when he’s pitching, but not because I’m worried he won’t do well. I’m invested in him as an Angels pitcher for the first time since, well, since forever, it seems.
And on the pitching side, like he has so often this year, he delivered, pitching seven innings of one-run ball, striking out five and walking none. The lone blemish was a hanging slider that just got crushed to right.
No matter. Shohei sliced and diced, largely with some top-tier stuff, throwing 40 fastballs (average 95 mph), 27 sliders, and an assortment of other pitches, including 11 cutters (3 whiffs on 5 swings). That splitter is still nasty. Oh yeah, and he hit 100 on the gun (real, 99.7 mph 😉).
By the way, he hits, too. Ohtani snuck a ground ball through the infield in the first inning, scoring David Fletcher. He later stole second.
Walsh cashed in Ohtani, and the Angels were up 2-0 on Germán Márquez, everyone’s favorite trade target. Márquez pitched 6.1 innings, giving up three earned runs and getting quite a bit unlucky.
Walsh later suffered a side injury that caused him to be removed from the game.
Jack Mayfield, everyone’s newest favorite player, homered yet AGAIN, showing his penchant for hitting the ball hard enough to just sneak it over the fence. It was not barrelled.
But because these are the Angels and because things have to be interesting, Ohtani was pulled after seven innings in favor of José Quintana, who retired just one of three batters he faced and allowed a towering home run.
Steve Cishek came in with an inherited runner on first and did his best to let it score. With runners on second and third and two outs, Sam Hilliard drove a ball to the wall, but Brandon Marsh tracked it down. Hilliard’s ball had a 45% chance of dropping in for a hit.
The Angels tacked on two more insurance runs in the eighth, and Raisel Iglesias slammed the door in the ninth.
There was some consternation about the strike zone tonight, so I will post the marks here.
Well, Perry may be somebody we can count on to “do the right thing.” It did not look great in mid-May as his bullpen acquisitions (Raisel notwithstanding) appeared to be pulling down the team. But unlike Eppler he appears to someone who is willing to both acknowledge and correct his mistakes.
He sent down Slegers and his horrific 1.901 WHIP, he sent down Canning, he pulled Bundy from the rotation, and he just released Claudio. Now it is time to DFA Quintana.
Perry worked to stock the pipeline with pitching doing the right thing in the draft, and now he has to continue his work. Get rid of Q !!
This team needs to continue to cut out the dead wood.
Perry acquired Jack Mayfield. Perry for President!
Acquired him twice
I didn’t hear the crew talk enough about what Ohtani did by putting pressure on Marquez in the first. Got in his head with the pickoff throws which threw him off added to his pitch count by walking Walsh and reaching 25 pitches in the first. That set the tone plus Ohtani working that run in with the RBI, distract the pitcher SB. and score a run. Marquez got in a groove after the first,, so Ohtani’s early activity was huge. Gentleman Ohtani strikes again. Oh, how about Shohei’s defense. Gold glove?
Those 5 pickoff attempts(including 3 in a row) made me worry about Sho’s energy too, but stealing second anyway certainly brought damage to Marquez.(And it was funny lol)
Oh boy. Pitchforks for the new crew already? 😂
Wha? Where?
Great username!
Don’t know if humor was intended, but it is a hilarious situation how the org let this happen. Now Vladdy does not get his number retired !! Sorry Vlad, but if I am choosing between you and Mikey he gets it.
Why can’t they just both get it? Kinda like how kobe has two numbers at staples
How can you retire the same number for two players ??
The point of “retiring” a number is that the player who wore it
“owns” the number for lack of a better term. Giving it to two guys defeats the whole purpose.
It’s called “Retire it and grandfather Trout”. Much like Rivera got to keep 42 until he retired.
Unreal, them Mariners just came back and now lead 11-8… another team to worry in front of us
M’s are for real. They can pitch and hit opportunistically. Angels just gotta keep winning and taking care of business. .
They’re gonna add to their team by the deadline. I see Haniger coming back and they’re gonna improve their starting pitching. Plus they have assets. Well done Jerry.
They have “for real” been getting alot of favoritism and help from umpiring crews and especially HP umpires. The gambling community usually would not tend to bet Seattle but maybe they should…
would still like to see evidence of “help from umpiring crews”…I have disproven this twice yet you keep bandying it about
We have seen clear evidence of this in the games against us. I don’t think you disproved anything. We saw this very much in the last series in Seattle before the break, and a strike being called that was a foot outside when Shohei was in the box (the worst example). The larger question of how much “help” they receive against all/other teams is still open.
I am planning on tracking M’s games as to ball/strike calls on Gameday and will report back what I find.
BTW, I don’t necessarily trust compilations from outside sources. I want to accumulate my own pitch by pitch data on games I see with my own eyes.
lmao okay, actually shocked this narrative is being believed.
if you don’t believe outside sources, you go do you. of course, you will definitely go into your accumulation of pitch data unbiasedly, naturally.
Q is in da house, I have seen him, he pitched last night
Great. Glad you brought that up. I will gladly admit to having a bias. Just as ALL persons investigating anything will have a bias. That includes the so-called trusted sources you use when you think by quoting them that you have “disproven” something.
You just entered my wheelhouse as I have studied the Philosophy of Science over the years and have a pretty good understanding of the pitfalls involved in the so-called empirical method.
So, yeah I will gladly have a conversation about the validity of the data you source or quote.
Okay, first of all, you keep bringing up the premise: “the Mariners are screwed.” Therefore, you should have the burden of proof.
https://twitter.com/UmpAnalysis/status/1419396369538863108
The Mariners have received 7 more runs than the Angels this season. Is it possible that those runs have all come at crucial times? Of course. Is it likely? No. Thus one would have to dig into the data, like you mentioned. I look forward to your report. As of now, the overwhelming odds state that the Mariners are not four games ahead of the Angels (I guess you would posit that they have earned even more than 4 free games, because you think the Angels are better than the Mariners) due to umpire calls.
Finally, you do realize it is “a lot” instead of “alot,” right?
I am not heavily one way or the other, but this tweet is pretty relevant:
https://twitter.com/JomboyMedia/status/1419126050521505792
I got to spend some tome with Chick Hearn way back when. He always said something like if you blame the ref – you did not play well enough to win.
Yeah, I have heard that. But alot of people don’t understand the subtleties of momentum and how one well placed call can change a game. For example, somebody wrote a comment here recently that the “Angels need to overcome the bad calls,” or something to that effect.
I responded that they clearly do not understand how the HP umpire completely controls the pitcher/batter interplay by how they call the game. Now, I will admit that unlike football and basketball there is very little the umpires can do to manipulate outcome once the ball has been hit into play.
Unlike football and basketball where nearly any play/score can be reversed by a foul (in football for instance, holding can be called on literally any play, and we often see it called on TD’s or “big” plays as opposed to shorter gains, etc.) or penalty there is no way to take a HR off the board once it has been hit. In theory, this means that baseball is less susceptible to manipulation than the two aforementioned sports. We can and do however see shenanigans in replay/reviews as well as regular calls/plays at homeplate and the bases.
They will still find a way to fail
Shohei Ohtani, 6.2 bWAR, 6.0 fWAR and it’s still July.
Kyu-Ji Kyu. Mr. 99 mph baybee. Otsukaresamadeshita Shohei!
Kyu-Jyu Kyu
but he threw it HYAKU BAN MPH
Full body cast for 6 months?
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1419888301125734403
Iron Lung
I like that our new Athletic beat writer called him on his BS health evaluations
Just needs a Gatorade
Powerade Patrick
https://twitter.com/jackie930/status/1419876637248794627?s=20
This is pretty cool and funny from Captain Jack’s wife. Gotta cheer for guys like this
They could have turned off the lights during the post-game interview … Jack’s smile alone could have lit the place … Check these pearly whites ….
That post game interview was great. Always nice to see someone having the best night of their career and get recognized for it. Stay the course Captain!
I was rooting for Eaton to walk to load the bases in the 8th. Had Jack gotten one more AB the dude was gonna hit a salami. He has been locked in – out of his mind for several games now.
What I got from Joe. Clueless on his starting first baseman condition. Will be using Quintana more in the future in high leverage situations
Will be using Quintana more in the future in high leverage situations
This gif was also my reaction last night when Quintana was making his way from the pen to the mound.
Yeah wtf was that?! Worst idea ever
the philosopher in me wonders what’s going on with Trout being out. We were 17-19 when he got hurt. Since then we’re 33-30. I suppose that’s not significantly different and can be explained by who the opponents have been. Still, you’d think without our best player we’d do substantially worse. From our low of 19-27 we’ve pulled it together to go 31-22!
Do players let up, thinking “Mike will do it”? And then have to do it themselves with him out of the lineup. Anyway, it’s nice, with the best player in baseball out, to have the other best player in baseball.
Joe was messing things up in the beginning, and now the rest on the team is playing better. With Trout in the line up, we would be winning more games.
What is our record without Pujols?
we were 9-15 with him, now 41-34 without.
There’s the problem, thanks
Yes
If the Angels have a better record without Trout than with him, wouldn’t that make him a negative Wins Above Replacement player?
No. The question is how many wins would the Angels have had Trout not gotten injured and been in the lineup. I’m speculating something around 3 more wins.
I was thinking 4
Ohtani is my favorite player(Sorry Trouty), was a joy to watch him pitch tonight.
The future is bright
How can he not be?
Undrafted Jack Mayfield
needs moar pic
We missed out, what round?
Think of how dumb the Astros are for letting this guy go. WE LAUGH AT THEIR FOOLISHNESS
I’m sure they’re crying over it, 21 games over .500
Well we knew that Ohtani was going to pitch a heck of a ballgame, did expect better from Fletch and JUp. Marsh should stick ’til the end. Q will be dropped tomorrow or should be. Eaton and Marsh and Largares are a MLB outfield.
Scary is Walsh dinged. But we got the Goose so we are fine. Plus we got Mayfield at third and that is a huge bonus.
RE: Q should be dropped
I agree. One loud fan (ahem) was chanting “D-F-A” long before Joe strolled kut to the mound with the hook.
When my son and I are at a game, we usually sit somewhere along the 3rd base line or in left field by the bullpen. I’m always checking the pen whenever a pitch count gets around 85 or a pitcher is struggling. When i see certain pitchers warming up (Q, Claudio, Slegers), I always cry out “Oh No!”.
So, you mostly never watch the game on the field
Always watch the game, also sneak glances between pitches at the bullpen.Hot dog and soda trips between innings.
Did anyone notice J. Mayfield, Captain is batting above the Mendoza line, a nifty .203?
.219.265.563.827 with the Angels before today
That OPS!
Add his superb defense and clutch hitting and yes Anthony you can take your time.
Will Joe have any real info on Walsh’s injury?
my guess: “Walshie told me he felt a little funny so we took him out to be safe and he should be good to go”
the reality: Goose will be at 1b for awhile
I’d rather have lose the game than lose Walsh.
He said they’ll know more tomorrow…..then said he needed to go, wanted to get his bullpen availability ready for Tuesday. Mumbled something about Cishek…mumble, mumble.
winners! 50-49. If we need to win 90 to make the playoffs that’s only 40-23 from here.
That’s .640 baseball. Extremely doubtful but not impossible.
3 in a row!!
I don’t get why you posted this, but I love Wall-e
Angels Win!