It was Sunday morning baseball. Tucker Davidson went up against Luis Garcia. David Fletcher was not in the game because he is day to day with a sore finger or wrist. Mike Trout had the day off. Jo Adell was in the lineup.
Inning 1
Mickey Moniak led off with a triple to center field. Shohei Ohtani homered to drive him in. 2-0 Angels.
Taylor Ward followed this with a hit to right field. A wild pitch allowed Ward to make it to second base. Luis Rengifo struck out. Mike Ford lined out to left. Matt Duffy also struck out.
Jose Altuve came up and would have been safe at first thanks to crappy play by Duffy. He tried to make it to second on an overthrow but was thrown out by Thaiss. The official scorer gave Altuve a single. One away. Jeremy Pena struck out. Yordan Alvarez drew a four pitch walk. Alex Bregman popped out to first.
Inning 2
Matt Thaiss popped out to Alex Bregman. Jo Adell hit a shallow fly ball to center for an out. Andrew Velazquez, no longer a switch hitter, lined a homer to right. 3-0 Angels.
Mickey Moniak popped out to the shortstop to end the Angels second. Kyle Tucker came up and doubled to Ward in right on a ball that should have been caught. Yuli Gurriel grounded out to Rengifo advancing Tucker to third. Trey Mancini struck out. Christian Vasquez grounded out to Duffy to end the inning.
Inning 3
Shohei Ohtani doubled to lead off the third inning. Taylor Ward struck out. Luis Rengifo grounded out to first and Ohtani made it to third. Mike Ford hit a fly to shallow right center where Altuve caught it for the third out.
Mauricio Dubon came up and homered to make it 3-1 Angels. Jose Altuve got an infield hit. Jeremy Pena hit a base hit through the right side. Yordan Alvarez worked a full count and got hit on the hip by a pitch, whereupon Phil Nevin went to the bullpen in the form of Mike Mayers. Alex Bregman came up with the bases loaded and nobody out. He hit a grand slam. 5-3 Houston. Kyle Tucker flied out to right. Yuli Gurriel punched a hit through the left side of the infield. Trey Mancini walked. Christian Vazquez struck out. Mauricio Dubon flied out to Ward to end the inning.
Inning 4
Matt Duffy grounded out to short. Matt Thaiss singled to Altuve. Jo Adell Grounded a single through to right. Andrew Velazquez struck out. Mickey Moniak lined out to right.
Jose Altuve struck out. Jeremy Pena grounded out to Velazquez. Yordan Alvarez flied out to Mickey Moniak in center.
Inning 5
Shohei Ohtani hit a fly ball out. Taylor Ward grounded out to the shortstop. Luis Rengifo hit a double through the right side. Mike Ford hit a flyout to center.
Alex Bregman struck out looking. Kyle Tucker walked. Yuli Gurriel chopped one through to center to put men at first and third with one out. Trey Mancini homered to make it 8-3 Houston. Christian Vazquez lined out to right. Mauricio Dubon popped out to second.
Inning 6
Bryan Abreu came in to pitch for Luis Garcia. Matt Duffy led off with a hit. Matt Thaiss walked. Jo Adell popped out to first. Andrew Velazquez hit into a force out. Duffy made it to third base. Mickey Moniak popped out to the shortstop to end the Angels half of the sixth inning.
Jose Altuve came up and hit an infield hit to Velazquez. He stole second base. Jeremy Pena flied out to Moniak. Jose Altuve advanced to third on the play. Zack Weiss came in to replace Mike Mayers on the mound. To make a long story short, Altuve scored on a wild pitch.
Inning 7
The Angels didn’t accomplish anything this inning. The Astros also didn’t do anything but draw one walk.
Inning 8
The Angels failed to score in the eighth inning. Jordan Alvarez homered to make it 10-3 Astros. Kyle Tucker homered to make it 11-3.
Inning 9
Jo Adell got a hit to salvage a little bit of face. Andrew Velazquez made an out. Moniak doubled to score Jo Adell. It was 12-4 here. I missed a run somewhere. Shohei Ohtani and Sierra made outs to end the game. The Angels lost badly.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Is it still a tribe of Guardians? Noone told me……
I just saw that if we were in the AL Central we’d be in fifth place, so there’s something……
Maddon on Sunday Night baseball right now continuing the tour bashing the front office…
Are we all officially in a toxic relationship with the Angels?
I think he’s right
No, they were very good at losing today.
We now interrupt the post-game thread for a public service announcement from “Team Tank” leader Generalissimo Marte:
”Pitch me every game, I will not disappoint”.
And I thought First Lieutenant Jesse Chavez was operating as the Marte’s Tank Loader but did not recognize we sent him on a return mission to the Braves.
The Angels were just plum Tuckered. And then came Friday the 13th and the nightmare that came with him.
Small silver lining – So far Moniak doesn’t seem to be a bad replacement for Marsh after all. Adell will look like the odd man out again going into 2023.
We have Trout – and then everyone else needs to prove themselves. Ward, Adell, Moniak, Sierra, Aguilar, Orlando Martinez, Torii Hunter and the Trash Pandas.
Do we have enough to not pay for/trade for a corner OF in the offseason?
We lose the plot because all these other stupid GMs across the league want quality, not quantity in return for their players……..
For a while there there was a small glimmer of hope that the Angels might actually take a series win over the cheaters.
Why is everyone pent up about Mayers? We had Tucker “Frigg’n” Davidson starting the game. The Angels “don’t care” comments start right HERE.
I personally thought the Angels “did not care” about winning as soon as they broke camp with Wade, Marsh and Adell as everyday players and failed to acquire above average replacements when Rendon, Fletch and Trout went out.
yeah, that too
You’re exactly right EIP…to strand Mayers out there was asking for trouble but to bring Mayers with the bases loaded was wrong. Mayers gives up the home run ball, not the best choice. But Tucker had loaded them up. To me, there is something about Tucker that also reflects very poorly of the Angels FO. It’s as if Perry wants to prove his ex-Braves; Tookie and Dookie (Davidson) are excellent finds. The in-season acquisitions have been real bad.
I agree. If Davidson is a bust (which he is) then he gave up D-Cell (now 0.57 for Atlanta) for a bust and Chavez, just to save Iglesias’ salary for 2023 which, by the way, indicates that if Arte is still the owner money will be tight.
C’mon, the CtPG theme on Mr. Davidson wasd that “Perry stole him because he knows the Atlanta roster and farm system soooooo welllllllll”.
Ya’ right.
Well, Mayers wasn’t fixed after all. Yeesh
what a disaster. I’m opposed to the “we’re gonna lose so we might as well lose big and leave in Mayers” school of thought. I know there is at least one here who doesn’t care. We have 22 games left. I don’t want that to happen too quickly because I’ve got a lot of living to do and don’t want to lose however many days that is. But I’ll be glad when we get to the last day of the season.
Eric – just #embracethesuck. It’s easier that way.