The Angels headed down the 5 to Petco Park in San Diego for a rare, but soon to be more common, matchup against the VERY underachieving Padres. Blake Snell, who has been dominant of late, faced off against Jaime Barria.
The game immediately got off to a promising start for the boys from Anaheim when Taylor Ward hit the first pitch of the game deep to center and off the wall for a leadoff double. A graphic showed that it would’ve been a homer at Angel Stadium, but alas, he had to settle for a two-bagger. He then ended up being left on base thanks to a K and a double play.
In the bottom of the first, the Pads hit the ground running with their own leadoff hit courtesy of Ha-Seong Kim. He switched places with Juan Soto after a grounder, then one out later Manny Machado singled. While he was on base, he had a humorous exchange with Hunter Renfroe:
Moments later, ex-Red Sox SS Xander Bogaerts hit a 3-run homer to try to make his 10-year contract look good.
Over the next three innings, the score stayed the same despite the Angels getting 7 runners on base against Snell. They just couldn’t get any big hits. LOBsters for all! This included former Padre first-round draft pick Hunter Renfroe striking out with the bases loaded.
In the bottom of the 4th, SD’s Cronenworth showed the Angels how it’s done by immediately singling home Bogaerts after Xander doubled. 4-0 San Diego.
In the 5th inning, the Halos loaded the bases with one out for Hunter Renfroe again, but of course he struck out again. Once Blake Snell came out of the game after 5 tightrope walking shutout innings, the Angels started to get on the board against Padre reliever Domingo Tapia. After a Rengifo single and a Moustakas pinch-hit single Taylor Ward drove in the first Angel run of the game with a double down the right field line. He appeared to be thrown out at second base by an awesome Tatis throw, but the out call was overturned. 4-1 Padres.
Tom Cosgrove relieved Tapia and was greeted by a Mike Trout RBI single to bring the Angels a little closer. 4-2 Padres.
In the bottom of the 6th, rookie Victor Mederos relieved Barria, but he was shaky, giving up a walk and three singles before being replaced by Tucker Davidson after allowing an RBI Machado single and a Bogaerts single that loaded the bases. Davidson could not do a Houdini act since Cronenworth ended up driving in another run with a sac fly. The inning would end with the Padres having a 4-run lead to lead 6-2 after 6 innings of play.
In the 7th, Tim Hill came in for the Friars, which was pleasing to Luis Rengifo. A solo homer to the opposite field brought the Angels to within 3 again. That was the closest they would get from this point on.
In the bottom of the 7th, Davidson walked two batters, leading him to be replaced by Sam Bachman with one out. The Padres continued their clutch hitting on this night that has been missing most of the season. Fernando Tatis Jr. gave himself a reason to dance on third base when he tripled in both of Tucker’s walks, making the score 8-3.
Cronenworth then singled Tatis home, extending the San Diego lead to 6 runs. Mike Trout led off the 8th inning, but on his second strike he was in pain after his swing and had to come out of the game. Looked like something wrong with his hand, hopefully not his hammate bone. As Randazzo and Gubi said, if that is the case we will be seeing Jo Adell on an express flight very soon. Fingers crossed! Moniak finished the at bat, striking out swinging and no runs were scored.
Sam Bachman continued to be fed to the sharks in the 8th inning and surrendered a walk and 2 singles to Soto and Tatis, with the last one scoring another run, extending the lead to 10-3.
Josh Hader shut down any possible Angel threat in the top of the 9th and the game was over. Crasy to lose a game 10-3 in which we get 14 (!) hits. Shohei/Independence Day tomorrow. Hopefully we get good news on Trout and some Angel fireworks.
Renfroe and rendon, you two bums should never hit with risp.
You missed a Ren
The franchise has had a lot of practice playing without Trout the last few years, it’s not like we’re in uncharted territory with him being injured.
We’ll win some games without him – which would have been the outcome with him.
Pitching still remains the biggest problem. Same as it ever was.
Jo Adell is on a plane, probably can cancel his Salt Lake lease agreement this time. Must admit it will be interesting to watch him for the remainder of the season. Will need the next round of Alabama Shakes pitchers rotated through the system. No more 1.1 inning, 50 pitch outings from “Sam I Ain’t.” Dancing Barria lost his usefulness. Send down the new guy with the name that starts with an M and his 13.50 ERA. Don’t even remember do we have Webbiessantz on the roster now? All 3 pitch the same hard to tell them apart. And of course Herget, I’m sure he’ll be on the plane with Jo, come in and share with us his low-grade side arm center cut meatballs. Probably will be in tomorrow in a high leverage and blow it.
Lots of time to fall out of contention (if we hadn’t already) see what we get for Shohei.
Unfortunately Arte might not have the testicle to trade him. He’d need a set of two to pull it off.
Arte won’t approve a trade for Ohtani even if it’s the right thing to do from a baseball perspective. Instead he will focus on marketing and the Angels will end up with a 2nd round compensation pick.
I mean….really?! 😂😂😂
Looking at Sammy, Jeff, and Sarah’s tweets, I don’t think we will hear any more update on Trout’s condition. It is par for the course when it comes to Angels trainer/medical staff. The x ray should have been processed, reported, and billed almost an hour ago.
With due respect to Mike Trout, I would say Angels have done well thus far despite his mostly unimpressive bats thus far. This most likely unfortunate loss of Trout for possibly 2 months at least (I am about 50% certain that it will be reported as hamate bone fracture and he will be scheduled for surgery as soon as July 5) will be huge mental downer for the Angels, but it is Nevin’s job to use this event as rally cry to motivate the troops to continue their quest for playoffs. “Do it for Mike!” This should also force Perry to become aggressive in trading for some OF with quick feet with consistent batting ability to serve as Shohei’s protection. I know Cody Bellinger is struggling off IL, but someone like him now that Cubs are heading for becoming seller.
In the meantime, as you say, I predict arrival of Jo Adell in San Diego tomorrow. This is the huge opportunity that Jo was waiting for. It is unfortunate that it happened because of Mike’s injury, but I hope that Jo would display his ability as offensive juggernaut like Mickey Moniak did when he was called up. I anticipate he would be fielding RF, which moves Renfroe to 1B or sit Renfroe and play Moose at 1B. Infield is still a mess, but thinking of better defense, I would field Fletch at 2B and Velazquez at SS. Keep Rendon at 3B. I would also consider batting Adell in 3 hole to provide protection for Shohei, who would bat in 2 hole.
If we manage to win the next four before ASG, which is quite doable, 4 wins in a row will do a lot to erase the most of the bitterness of Trouts loss tonight.
Not quite sure what about the team’s play would make you at all confident they will win the next four?
Also – have you watched Adell play over the last few call ups to the bigs?
Not confident at all. But there is also no guarantee that we won’t either. I apologize for double negatives, but if we assume that we have 50% chance of winning every game, then we have 6.25% chance of winning all 4 of them, not zero.
Yes, I have watched him play in just one game. According to BBRef, he got 4 plate appearances, 3AB, 1HR, 1BB. He did not get to play any other game. Do you have anyone else on your mind, sir?
Then you have not been watching Adell. His defense has been awful and his offensive less than league average. Over a full season of at bats (525) he has generated -1.6 WAR over his MLB career. Yes, that’s MINUS 1.6 WAR.
I don’t see him as a savior or a solution.
Also I think the 50% win probability is overly simplistic. Depends on who is on the mound, who is in the lineup, who is available in the bullpen and who is managing. But I agree you never know what is going to happen.
Problem is we don’t have a 50% chance of winning every game ; take last night for example. With the pitching matchup of Snell vs Barria we had a chance that was SIGNIFICANTLY less than 50%, so that outcome was not surprising.
The Padres opened as (-181) favorites and that line went up to (-200) or more in some places… So, it is not true that every game is like a coinflip.
I think 1-3 is the most likely outcome, which will effectively put us out of the race — not mathematically but realistically speaking.. I also see a possibility of LOSING the next four which would bring on talk and plans for 2024…
As to your comment about winning the next four I have only one response Kiyo ; it is not a word but rather an image :
😂
Barria and the M guy can share an Uber to the Greyhound station and both take the next bus out of town …
Trout is not optimistic. I am very sad.
https://twitter.com/SamBlum3/status/1676099373103742981?t=7CKod5KyINePAPKZ7H9heg&s=19
https://twitter.com/RhettBollinger/status/1676099513008934912?t=U8omlUnqaCgoqsNbebrIDg&s=19
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1676099417424945154?t=JMbG1e5RvYLc4YQ43cUuzw&s=19
“You Can’t chase wins every night “
– Phillip Nevin July 3rd , 2023 the year of our lord.
When asked why he used medredros he of the 6 ERA in double A In a 2 run game.
That’s a quote of someone who is unfit in their role.
Wow lol
Yep.
Phil confirmed what I’ve been saying for months and months about him, actually going back to last season. Namely that he is an idiot.
You can if you want to win and you possess a competent bullpen.
You’ll be chasing your next 3B coaching job Phillip if you keep expanding the deficit from 2 runs to 8 runs every time your team gets close
I think Phil prefers to “chase” losses lol…
😂
I can’t interpret this as anything other than giving up with the score 4-2
Chasing wins every night is literally your job… I think Phil takes the preservation part of “manage more seriously than chasing wins. As Evidenced by pulling Trout super early last week when he could have had a game changing AB. There is no way that mentality does not negatively impact his club. Not chasing wins Says a lot.
Yep. From the OC Register, “ With the Angels still losing, Nevin didn’t want to burn his high-leverage relievers in a game they were losing,”
Now that’s not we’ll written but it gets across that Nevin considered it a probable loss
There’s been like 5 “This is the worst loss of the season” so far. But this one does really hurt. So much bad. Wonder if Nevin and can rally the troops and keep marching forward after tonight.
This is the movie clip of how Trout hurt his left hand.
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1676087115074134017
I thought he fouled it off his hands but the CF view showed it was just during his swing and the ball was halfway down the bat
Many people are thinking it is the hamate bone fracture. We will see.
I hate Josh Hamate-ton
😆
All those over-swinging Ks finally did him in. That and the extra hours of work every day for the last 2 months trying to get his swing back. No more breathless reporting on how hard he’s working.
It is quite likely that Trout fractured his left hamate bone. According to hand specialist website:
Hamate bone fracture in baseball or softball player occurs due to repetitive swings of the bat or repetitive blunt trauma.
Tonight feels like the beginning of the end sadly.
it almost feels like it’s over for the season
Last year it was the second week of May, so …. Improvement?
I’m smiling weakly in agreement. It has been better. We’d have to go 28-47 to end up with the same record as last year.
Losing 5 of 6 and maybe losing Trout brings out the worst pessimism in us
What made tonight worse was the success of Rengifo. 🤣
Season will be determined by the X-ray results on Trout’s left hand.
🙏🙏🙏
I don’t know. I’m not sure it matters that much. This is an organizational problem not a player problem. That said, if Trout is out for an appreciable period of time, I’ll be sad for him, because it must be frustrating to have so many injuries over the last four years.
Let’s hope for the best for Trout. But, for the team, it feels that we are missing some key ingredients (s) for an extended playoff run.
If Trout is out for an extended period of time we might be cooked.
I don’t fully understand what ’71 is getting at but sure.
4 losses back of WC2-3 and potentially losing our 2nd best player for a while. 😥
Free Mickey! Free Jo! Free 3 Cabbages.
Lets gets some hits and lets steal some bases. it works for the D Backs. it works for the Marlins and now its working for the Reds.
Lets go!
I’m saying this team has done nothing for 5 seasons with both Ohtani and Trout. I’m not sure what magic sauce you think ‘23 has to make things any different. Winning teams get there by building a productive baseball organization that focuses on generating young talent. Perry is starting to focus on developing and promoting young talented players. The team needs to do that for a few more seasons and bring a fresh new group of young players who are motivated and build a team.
But Arte and this Org has focused primarily on marketing. Big splash free agents who grab headlines but have been largely disappointing (Rendon for example). Not trading Ohtani when a fortune of young talent was available.
So I really don’t think Trout is going to make a huge difference one way or the other. Moniak can fill in. But beyond that this team as built is not likely to make the playoffs with or without Trout.
Well then there’s only one thing we can do…..
“some key ingredients?”
We’re trying to make a pizza without dough tomato sauce nor cheese and pepperoni. Someone’s bringing only sardines to the Mike Butcher cooking lesson