The Texas Rangers are in town for the first of three against the Angels, after which that other Texas team will arrive for three more. The Angels need to take a chance, send all these bozos packin’ and emerge as undisputed division leaders!
I swear I’m not a Texas fan. I just heard this song live in Flagstaff in about 1977/1978 while I was abusing one or more substances. I found the song hilarious. Man, those were the days! I still do find it hilarious. I since have found out at least the lyrics were written by Stuart Margolin which is very cool because I am a fan of his (RIP).
Now on to the first Rangers game. Nobody scored in the first inning. The Angels got some tough breaks in their half. That’s baseball.
Texas didn’t do much in the second inning except that Jonah Heim stole second base on Matt Thaiss. They didn’t score. The Angels also didn’t do anything of note. Here is Anthony Rendon showing why we don’t have Taylor Ward or Matt Thais playing third base.
Anderson walked a couple of guys to start off the third inning. He added another walk after getting Adolis Garcia out on a sac fly. It all led to a result of 1-0 Rangers.
In the third Zach Neto reached on an error by Dane Dunning. Mike Trout singled. Unfortunately, Shohei Ohtani made out on one pitch to end the inning.
In the fourth Texas scored runs and it was obviously time for the Angels to put it into second gear. Marcus Semien hit a ground rule double to score a run and Nathaniel Lowe reached on a throwing error to core the other run. 3-0 Texas.
Anthony Rendon singled and then Renfroe grounded into a double play to erase that. Taylor Ward struck out. 3-0 Texas.
In the fifth inning Texas didn’t do much. Neither did the Angels.
Jaime Barria came in for the sixth inning. Marcus Semien singled but Barria held the Rangers scoreless at 3-0 Rangers. The Angels once again did nothing in their half of the inning
Jaime Barria was lockdown in the top of the seventh inning. Good to see. Hunter Renfroe got a one out single in the bottom of the seventh. None of the other Angels batter were able to do anything.
In the top of the eighth, Leody Taveras reached on a single and made it to third on a fielder’s choice and a throwing error by Anthony Rendon. Oops! Robbie Grossman reached on a fielder’s choice with Taveras out at home plate. At this point there were two outs. Nathan Lowe singled to make it 4-0 Texas. That was the extent of the Texas scoring in the eighth inning.
Gio Urshela got a pinch hit single in the bottom of the eighth inning. Luis Rengifo grounded out and Zach Neto hit a fly out to left. Mike Effin’ Trout singled to destroy the shutout. Oh wait. That’s not his real name. Shohei Ohtani grounded out to end the inning.
Top of the ninth and Barria is still pitching … and pitching effectively I might add. The Rangers went three up three down. The Angels needed three runs to stay in the game. Anthony Rendon came up. He singled. Yee Haw said the non-Texas fan! Hunter Renfroe did not reach safely, unfortunately. Taylor Ward also failed to reach base without making an out. Brandon Drury singled to send Taylor Ward to second. (He had reached on a force out). Chad Wallach doubled. Taylor Ward and Brandon Drury both scored. Bloody Hell! This is an actual game! Luis Rengifo, he of the four RBI game yesterday, is now up as the potential winning run. What did he do? He singled to tie it up in the bottom of the ninth. I might take back some of the stuff I said about him. (I might). Zach Neto was unfortunately out on a fly ball to right. Oh crap, the ghost runner is incoming.
Now we get Carlos Estevez. We might even win this! He struck out Leody Taveras and Travis Jankowsky. Marcus Semien walked. Robbie Grossman grounded out. Ghost runner be damned!
For the Angels, Zach Neto started the tenth on second base. The Rangers intentionally walked Mike Trout to bring up Shohei Ohtani with two on and no outs. He grounded into a force out. Zach Neto is now on third with one out. Anthony Rendon was standing there with a bat in his hands when Josh Sborz threw a wild pitch to score Zach Neto. 5-4 Angels. Sbatz all folks!
She said “Tex I’m gonna cut you boy from appetite to thirst!”
Stuart “Angel” Margolin – loved him in the Rockford Files.
Little Joe in Kelly’s Heroes.
Tejas has a solid lineup from a run production standpoint:
Yet their team OPS is 50 points lower against LHP’s and their now below .500 on the road.
So Lets Gooooo!
Based on the stats, they seem
to be a homer or nothing type offense, but dangerous nonetheless.
Tonights Lineup:
Neto
Trout
Ohtani
Ward
Drury
Lanb
Urshela
Wallach
Rengifo
Halo Power Baby!!
2/3 Ren off day?
Couple pretty good pinch hitters ready to go on the bench.
‘Froe seemed to be grinding a bit. Good off day IMO.
https://twitter.com/EricaLWeston/status/1654971273360064512?s=20
I’ve heard Rendon’s awful and we can’t win with him which is why it’s his fault we lose when he’s hurt so… he’s gonna be out for the year and?… happy?
Not sure.
Donkey, what should I think here?
Feels more and more like Tony Fred Lynndon every day
I also loved Tony’s getting out of the way so Neto could have room to score.
I wish he’d done it with more flare. Like perhaps a sweeping bow, presenting the plate to Neto. Yet another reason we need to hate Rendon.
He should have broke into a Matador routine and coaxed Neto to home plate with his red sash.
Smart play Anthony .400 OBP Rendon.
Maybe get rid of Loup ???
Lol.
I thought The Party Blummer did a good story in the Athletic today on the Loupster and why hes been so Pooped.
He may be fixable or he may not but I dont think his problems are completely do to him just being a puss thrower now.
https://theathletic.com/4493551/2023/05/05/angels-aaron-loup-pitch-sequencing/
I am not Athletically inclined. What are Loup’s problems? Other than being “hurt”?
He sucks
You beat me to the low hanging fruit…
Basically, despite him giving up like the softest contact of his career ( 7th in the league in slowest exit velocity) his BABIP is around .410 which has led to a much ERA than what should be expected. SO’s are about the same as last year ( but 15% below what they were before he came here) but walks per 9 are up considerably.
He attributes these issues to the fact that he is throwing alot more off speed pitches than he has in the past ( curve ball usage from 2.8% last year to 13.2% this year & Change up 12.5% to 23.6% this year) . Part of this is due to his own decisions but also partly to an organizational philosophy to throw more off speed pitches and get more swings and misses to offset the shift banning that is now in place.
I’m sure there are other issues but it sounds like he thinks he needs to throw more fast balls.(hence why he said he was pitching like a scared little bitch) I just wonder at his age (35) if thats such a good idea.
Not sure if some of these comments will give the Platypus a rager and finally get the Loup fa’d once and for all.
Weeeellll…. it kind of depends on what he/they mean by “fastball”. I mean, he kinda doesn’t have one. He throws a sinker and a cutter. As far as I can tell he still throws the sinker twice as much as the change and almost four times as often as the curve.
His curve is also actually his most effective pitch thus far this year as far as I can tell. Followed by…. his change up. His cutter WAS his out pitch to lefties but they are contacting it better than they used to and he’s wilder than before Angels with all of his pitches.
By the way all, if you ever want to see rep breakdowns in many different ways with video etd this site’s (Pitcher List) free and stuff and here’s Loups page on it.
But yeah, look at the video of his pitches from year to year and watch him now, he’s off and it’s not because an AGM gave him a binder. His control’s become bitch like.
I’m starting to love that theme around here by the way. Partly because I was here when Sothasaurus Minx was around. And I remember what everyone said they wanted then. But I also just love the mental image of a GM walking up to some dominator like 2019 Mad Max, giving him a folder full of stats and notes, and Mad Max just falling apart and having an 8.00 ERA because of it. Then they take the folder away from him. 2.00 ERA.
And that was with Quijada’s torn UCL
So cool for Chad Wallach. Six in a row today!
Great picture of the “Big Wall” scoring the tying run.
I think Nevin calls him the Big Wally
Gold.
Luck has a way of coming around. All the bad luck at the start of the season has turned to pretty good luck over the last 5 games! Keep if going.
Teams lose games that they should win, win games that they should lose. Baseball.
Luck? How about execution. And with 2-Tommy John diagnosis’s in the last 5-days, just feels unfortunate.
Execution? Im still for it.
John McKay, is that you?
All the bad luck
at the start of the seasonover the last 8 years has turned.There. FIFY.
Never a doubt.
This game and recent win streak will be what we refer back to as the turning point of the season when we win the World Serious!!.
Champiham sandwiches for everyone!
Is champiham the same as fried boloney?
I have no idea what the “World Serious” is, but I am intrigued.
Only highlight is the Rendon catch ?
Where is the big double by Wallach ? Or Rengifo’s game tying single ?
@MASTHEAD: Looks like we have a volunteer for post-game writeups! 👆👆👆
Other than Texas scoring, that was what was available at press time. They’ve added some stuff overnight. Knock yourself out. The condensed game is probably where you’ll see what you want to see.
Thanks for the write-up Charles! 👍
great stuff! Thanks!
Legitimately impressed that nightmare 4th inning didn’t unravel them and they kept fighting. There was some real “here we go again” energy there or a while.
Go team go!
We need an Obligatory complaint.
Ohtani 0-fer and 6 Lobsters,
DFA! If we are Serious about Winning!
This is why I sneer knowingly everytime I look up the quote where Nevin said he’s going with the best players regardless of any details I want him to ignore so that I can sneer at it.
SpongeRanger and Patrick
Shufflebot coming. Editors it is apparently ‘awaiting approval’
Cool, I thought maybe you were away tonight!
Yeah, I’m not sure why it did not accept it right away. But better late than never!
I just woke up and approved that stuff.
Thank you. I’m out of the country so sorry for posting so early in the morning!
What is there to approve, lol ?
Some links require approval. Twitter links come to mind. If I’m at my desktop, I snapshot the tweet then upload to imgur so it can post immediately instead of awaiting approval
Walkoff shuffle!!
I just realized that I think I feel I HAVE TO rec shufflebot for good luck. Silly Gitch.
Hopefully there will be 4 dancing tomorrow
Shufflebot fully charged!
https://giphy.com/gifs/10uTjZCI1pGVZS
Zebra right back at him
https://giphy.com/gifs/carnaval-carnival-dance-10hO3rDNqqg2Xe
Still perfect in games attended
Just not write ups…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLYV_nO4Xfc
video credit: opiejeanne.
This is the type of game where we normally are the ones blowing a 3-run ninth-inning lead. Feels good to be on the other side for once. It felt like the team was sleepwalking through the first 8 innings. The defense needs to tighten up, especially on routine plays and Anderson was not good – 6 walks and a hit batter over 5 innings. He really needs to figure it out if we want to make a run. Bullpen has been lights out. Let’s win the series tomorrow!