Angels 3 Nationals 2
It was the Brett Phillips game!
If you were looking for a little bit of everything – this game had it. What? Wrong copy paste? OK. Not much happened – sort of. Griffin Canning pitched. Shohei Ohtani didn’t play. Brett Phillips got his first start. Mike Trout DH’d.
We did have some excitement in the 3rd when Brett Phillips stole the first run of the day. He drew a walk, stole second followed by third, and scored on a wild throw.. Pretty fun to see him cruising around the diamond!
For their part, the Nationals got on the board in the 4th when they started the inning knocking 3 straight singles off Canning. But wait, there’s more! A 4th straight single loaded the bases. The Nats then went ahead on a groundout and Canning escaped further damage with back to back Ks. Phew!
The Angels struck back in the bottom half of the 4th when Brandon Phillips – yes that guy again – walked (okay, ignore where the pitch ACTUALLY was) with the bases loaded, knotting the game and 2 and knocking MacKenzie Gore out of the game. Sadly, that Phillips WalkRBI would be the only Angels run in the 4th. LOBsters. Amirite?
Brett Phillips does it all:
Logan O’Hoppe is still making Perry Minasian look good:
No thanks to Ward, Trout, and Rendon who all went o-fer, The Angels really won this game on the backs of Brett Phillips and Logan O’Hoppe. Certainly can’t neglect to mention the pitching. Canning allowed just 2 runs over 5 innings and the bullpen put up all zeros! Angels pitchers retired 18 of the last 19 batters faced. It’s the Nats, but it’s a win!
Angels win!
My favorite part was Phillips grabbing the mic from Erica. Haha. BTW, who else thinks Erica did a bang up job with the post-game show last night? She hitting her stride.
“I saw Brett Phillips play today. He did well. He’s also a likeable guy. I can’t help it. I have to shit on Phillips. I can’t think of anything to bring up I haven’t brought up before. But if I don’t say something someone may get the idea that he’s good. I CAN’T HAVE THAT. I guess I’ll just repeat the same complaint again. It’s for the good of everyone here. He’s even more dangerous because people like him. He could generate wrongthink at any moment. Then who will hold my dad, I mean Arte, accountable? I have to say something negative about Phillips RIGHT NOW. Why doesn’t anyone like me?”
There isn’t actually anyone saying that but you told that straw man!!
Meh he still doesn’t have a hit.
He didn’t get a hit yesterday, however, he had more to do with that win than any other Angel !!
Rendon continues his assault on the worst contract in Angels history by hitting into a double play and running into another one, making us remember his predecessor for that honor, the ancient Albert Pujols.
Our ability to select big ticket FA’s is remarkably terrible.
And yet still so much more successful than CtPG guy in just about every measure of life. Plus he has the rakish look of a swashbuckling pirate that drives women into a frenzy and makes some men choke on huge wads of envy. I bet Rendon cooks fantastic Mexican food and makes awesome wood sculptures in addition to being good at baseball.
He’s good at everything except being a good ball player for the LA Angels, at a cap-filling salary. Being good for another team is irrelevant. See Albert Pujols as another example.
Seager out for a while
https://sports.yahoo.com/rangers-ss-seager-least-4-202245864.html
Stupid Young. Tall and stupid.
Now that Loup and Tepera have pitched well, perhaps they have increased their trade value, so maybe we can trade ‘em for a bag of balls. Not one bag each, one bag total.
Can we hold out for a 6 pack of IPA?
What a game for Phillips. Did more today than I figured he’d contribute all year.
Great day at the ballpark. Took my son and wife. Met up with John Henry for a bit.
Bizzarro Angels game. Bullpen: Good! Troutani: Not helpful!
Yea angels
I like Philips’s speed but not much else, Angels are a slow team. He was called out for a home run saving catch that was not a home run ((that’s for you Gubi) and he’ll keep amusing us to camouflage the shortcomings in his game.
So is Phillips the outfielder Squid or is Squid the infielder Phillips?
The Angels were what seemed like always walking batters. They used rack up 12 K’s a game. This team does not seem to issue 5-6 BB a game and it is common to see less K’s per game. The team also has improved to driving at least one run in as opposed to no runs when the bases are loaded with one out or less.
We also just won a series, so in counting series wins we are doing fine.
This team is starting to gel and see the light of being winners, hopefully anyways.
And yes, Phillips had himself a good day. 👀
I’m really curious to see what Walsh can bring to the table when he returns in a couple of weeks…..
yeah, 3 outta 4 series wins. coulda/woulda/shoulda been all 4. i’ll take it all year long
This guy is nuts.
https://twitter.com/SamBlum3/status/1646290933418450945
Could be a long wait for a Brett Phillips home run
We need to introduce the art of the HBP to Mr. Phillips.
He can’t hit, but if he can up the OBP by hook or crook….. he’s fun on the base paths and can play a better CF than most.
I take back half of the sh*t I talked about him previously. For now, haha
Pretty much. Haha
He’s the classic, I’d like to party with that dude, type. Haha
I know Ohtani didn’t play but let me ask the basic question. Why can’t a lineup with supposedly the two best players in baseball and several other decent ballers score runs? It’s the same thing continuously. Playing bad teams, 3-2, 2-0, etc. Good teams beat poor teams by scoring 6 runs a game. The Angels don’t. It’s very odd.
I would protest by not watching the Angels for a month and absolutely avoiding commenting on the Angels on the internet. That’ll show em.
Good to know. I won’t expect to see any negative comments from any of you within the next few weeks. I won’t hold my breath though.
How?
See all of the negative comments above, including the derogation of Phillips. People below told me it was a win so lay off. The failure to score is just baseball, etc. Then others are all over Rendon etc.
Actually, Gitcho’s deep chasms of Sar coupled with his elite snarkiness make him one of the more positive people on this site.
Sarcasm is not “positive.” It typically has a decided bitterness underlying it and the people who use it religiously tend to be self-righteous, angry people. Usually narcissistic as well.
Its called “Baseball”
Wins are wins. You don’t get anything extra for beating a team by seven runs.
You might get extra confidence…like that sweet little girl in the “Confidence pass it on add”.
What she will soon find out, that leads to lack of self awareness, over confidence and eventually big time disappointment, then bitterness and anger. Before you know it, your posting here about a perpetually losing baseball team with namless pictures of players from other team’s we didn’t draft.
Or your in pron.
Two things can be true at the same time. Winning is the ultimate litmus test, but let’s not act like we’re ALL not frustrated watching this “superior” squad eek out 3-2 wins and needing a rookie catcher and scrub Phillips to do so.
You need to be good to win games 3-2 or 2-1.
In alot of ways it is harder than winning 7-3 or 10-4.
I disagree. I enjoyed watching the bullpen hold on for a close victory. And offensively, in a game where Ohtani sits and Trout DHs (wherein he historically doesn’t hit well), they are gonna need someone else to step up. Today it was Phillips and O’Hoppe. That’s actually what playoff teams invariably say, “Somone different will win it for us every night.” A 13-0 bludgeoning is also fun to watch, but eeking out a 3-2 win is a different kind of fun.
I agree with your comments Rally. For the purist or true baseball fan the 3-2 win is much preferred to the 10-1 thrashing. All the elements of strategy come into to play in a close game like that. Not the case in a 10-1 game..
And I also agree with your statement about playoffs teams ; they don’t just rely on one or two guys to win games. The whole team contributes.
I don’t like the Angels scoring a lot of runs. It mean they won’t score any the next day
It’s true, and it’s seemingly the same thing every year: we never have easy wins, barely squeaking one out at home 3-2 against a bottom 3 team, and have absolutely soul crushing losses. 80% of our losses already 4/5 are absolutely devastating. Opening day was first time in 26 times a team lost with an outing that good by a starter; blowing a 6-0 lead at home Sunday prob happens once a year so ok it happened but it had to happen basically within a week of the first time in mlb history an opening day loss like that occurred.. And then blowing a 4-1 lead at home to the freaking nationals, absolutely devastating. Any one of these losses by themselves or spread out over month is fine but we have 3 in just over a week. And the Toronto game Sandoval pitched shouldn’t have lost that pitching like that. On its own it’s fine but add it to the Ohtani game and the 6-0 blown lead and the 4-1 blown lead to the shit nationals all in span of just over a week: Devastating soul crushing losses bunched so close together. Never easy wins, which helps the bullpen in long run. Now we go to play 7 in Boston and New York. If we just went 2-2 in those 4 devastating losses in a week hell even 1-3 and went to this east coast trip 8-4 instead of 7-5 it’d be so much better. We prob go 2-2 in Boston 1-2 in New York come back home at 10-9 maybe 9-10 and say it’s ok we 1 over and we will will right the ship with the terrible bottom 3 team KC royals! I remember we said same thing last year and iirc the royals swept us at home. I bet same exact thing happens this year, or maybe we do take 2 of 3 from KC (def won’t sweep them at home even tho they prob be worst team in league bc that’s too much to ask), barely squeaking the 2 wins out getting blown out 10-2 in the one we lose. Good teams have some easy wins against shit teams, we never do. Everything is hard.
Not sure there is such a thing as loses that aren’t soul crushing.
Yeah there are… Let’s say you are playing a three game series and have won the first two… The third game is a getaway game, a day game. You rest your best two offensive players in hopes they will be fresh for an upcoming weekend series with your biggest division rival which will be a battle for First Place…Let’s also say you also start your Number 5 starter in this getaway game.
Your opponent gets up early like 3-0 or 4-0… They then cruise to a 7-1 win.
I don’t think I would see this loss “soul crushing.” In fact, I definitely would not. Yeah, it would have been cool to get the sweep, but we did win the series, AND we have bigger fish to fry coming up, which makes resting the stars and ultimately losing the game somewhat less painful, acceptable even.
Blowing 6 run leads at home and not capitalizing on pitching gems from starters are def more soul crushing than the average loss. Those are games that you should have won and we already have 4 in a the first week and a half. The lineup is good, the starting pitching is actually pretty good, the team is too good to have so many losses like that already.
Uh oh. You had to see Canning, Loup, Tepera AND Phillips all in one day. Is everyone OK? Did anyone rupture anything important? Anyone need a purification ritual so they can sleep tonight? Maybe a special crystal to stick up someplace? Do you still not feel like a winner? Call 1 888 LIK TEARS.
Best thing about todays game, Angels had only 7 hits but took 6 walks. Nationals took no walks even though the hate pen was probably trying real hard to walk in several runs. 7-5 is exactly 7-5. small yeah.
Good win today!
Brett is so frank it is refreshing. Dude knows his role and did amazing today.
MVPhillips
LTBU!!!
Ok Jo, please work to cut the Ks at SL for another while, the Phillips guy is good now.
LTBU!
Well, I was wrong about the 1 run loss, but of course am very happy with the 1 run win !!
And also, if I am not mistaken this is the first game the Angels have won without the benefit of a HR for their offense. It is good to be able to win games like this where you manufacture runs.
I will take 7-5 after 12 games. Now, let’s get after the Red Sox!
Ung. If we manage to not catch “Red Sox let down disease” then I know we have a fairly strong team.
Yeah but now 6-14 is impossible
Season blown.