The Angels played the Braves this morning and looked to end this road trip with a win. But in order to do that, they needed their new SP to pitch well, so, how did Lucas Giolito do? He went 3 and 2/3 innings, giving up 9 runs on 8 hits, striking out 2 and walking 3. By far the worst start of the road trip, this was not what you wanted at all.
It was up to the offense to salvage this game, and it would take a miracle. And they did not have it, at all. Yeesh, this wasn’t even a great pitcher today for the Braves, but a guy that they claimed from the Rays. Come on. Only scoring one off this guy?!
Not that it would matter as the bullpen allowed more runs anyway…
“Highlighted” Recap
Lucas Giolito did not have a good time. He allowed 3 in the 3rd inning and it was just the start,
But the Angels did score 1 run in the 4th.
Not that it would be close for long as the Braves scored 6 in the 4th and put the game out of reach. Down 9-1, the Angels got nothing in the 5th and were being dominated by Chirinos.
Even when they took him out they struggled and barely, and I mean BARELY scored a run on what should have been an inning ending double play in the 6th.
It was truly pathetic, but, Escobar did hit 2 in with a triple so it wasn’t a complete blow out anymore, just down 5.
Not that it mattered as Barria gave up 2 more runs to make it 11-4 Braves.
And another one in the 8th to make it 12-4 Braves. But hey, at least he saved the bullpen?
Neto doubled in a run in the 9th.
Angels lose before lunch.
Upcoming
Anyway, it is best to forget that this game happened. 4 Game Series vs the Mariners starting tomorrow. Page turn or whatever.
Remembering back to those multiple “how the fck did we blow that lead?!?” games? Those “meaningless” early season meltdowns are coming home to roost.
Yes, yes. Teams blow games. But they made it an art form. A season or mores worth of head shaking losses in a couple of months. Imagine what position they’d be in if they won just half of those multi run meltdowns.
Good teams don’t do that. Mediocre teams wallow in it.
Still patiently waiting for this team to wake up and play playoff baseball. It’s august. You’re on the outside looking in. Wake the Fck up, it’s time to start chasing wins.
Yep. The Sunday game we blew against the Asstros most recently. It’s a game we should have won but it was against a good team so I can excuse it but that one Saturday game in June against the Royals where we had a 8-2 lead and lost 9-8 – inexcusable. That one hurts and it’s especially going to hurt if this team finishes one game out of a potential wildcard spot.
To be fair, if you are going to talk about the games we “blew” or lost leads late then you need to talk about the games where we did the reverse — where WE came back late and pulled out an improbable win. There have been a few of those as well, most notably the 13-12 extras innings win on that Saturday night against Houston. That was without a doubt our best win of the season and we had no business winning that game.
Yet we did.
Another game was the middle game of the St. Louis series in May. In that one we were down 4-3 going to the 9th. Jake Lamb hit a HR to tie the game and then Trout hit a HR to put us ahead… Though that was not a huge comeback, most of the time your team leads going to the 9th you expect to win… And the Cards should have won that one, but we pulled it out …
Another game we “should” have lost but didn’t was the Friday night home game vs Texas when we trailed 4-1 going to the 9th. Now THAT was a game the Rangers let slip away… We had a great comeback in the 9th to tie it and then won it in the 10th…
Just trying to be balanced here …
Dude, we’ve blown more games than come back and won. I just highlighted two of them and I was responding to the OP who brought it up in the first place.
Reds are showing their youth, and Cubs are now taking advantage. Cubs playoff chance stands at 28.7% per FanGraphs.
Jeimer Candelario hit 7 times in last two games, probably the best traded player in terms of offense for the last 2 days. We could have used him.
PERRY FAILED
Jeimer Candelario now hit 8 times in last 2 games. The last one was from a position player, but it still counts for his batting/slugging average..
Every GM who wanted to trade for Dylan Cease is breathing huge sigh of relief this evening.
Giolito with a 13.5 ERA with the Angels. He sucks
Shane McClanahan looks like he’ll be the loser tonight vs the Skanks. Last 7 starts his ERA is 6.12. He must suck, too
Fujinami, Sho’s BFF from high school baseball days, just plunked Chappy, He is a good friend of the Angels. He plunked Jansen, too. Bad news is that the bases were loaded, giving two run lead to the Blue Jays. 😭
I don’t care about him, but a 13.5 ERA isn’t good
It is difficult to sweep 3 game series, and give credit to Gerrit Cole, who survived 2 run first inning.
Someone should remind Gio his a free agent after this season. His 6th start since 2022 with 7 or more runs given up (aka an auto loss) ties his for most in the bigs. Thats a huge factor I didn’t know. When he’s on he’s good but he is frequently off at a level where your team has no chance to win. Probably something Perr should think about if and when we are ever buying a rental again.
Ominous sign from the Mets and the Shohei sweepstakes?
I don’t think it comes down to that. There are numerous other teams out there that will want Shohei and offer him the moon. Arte can offer him the moon too, but with lots of losing seasons to count on as well. Not so sure how Shohei feels about that. I’m surprised that some on the blog really believe he’ll resign with the Angels…. better yet, with Arte at the helm. Of course Arte’s gonna try and make it work. But all he can offer is gigantic sums of money, but not much more than other teams will offer. Sho could care less about the money.
Of course I know other teams will want in on the Shohei sweepstakes. I was talking specifically about the Mets.
Since Cohen spent like a drunken sailor this past offseason, and that’s why most everyone expected him to spend like a drunken sailor again this coming offseason with Shohei on the market.
I thought Cohen took his lumps and admitted that spending lot of money alone does not bring wins. I respect his honesty with the players and the courage to show up in front of New York media.
Cohen (and Eppler) said next season is going to be a rebuild season, declaring to and lowering the Mets fans expectation. However, I am curious to see if the Mets would go after Yoshinobu Yamamoto of Orix Buffaloes whom Eppler has been keen on for past few seasons.
BTW, Yamamoto has pitched Tuesday, 7 innings, no ER, scattered 7 hits with 7Ks. He has earned 10th win, the first NPB pitcher to have 2 digit wins this season. He lowered his ERA to 1.67.
The Mets are like that a crazy uncle who spends a large wind fall, then realizes he way overspent and will be further in the hole down the line….
Signing Carlos Correa for $315 million while not knowing that he was going to play third base is the definition of cray-cray.
https://gfycat.com/homelyvillainousislandcanary
Was that Suzuki from a few years ago?
That’s Conger.
You crushed me!
if Toronto and Skanks lose today it’ll be ok-ish. Seattle is now 1/2 game ahead of us but we play them 4 times coming up and we need to win 3.
We’re not going undefeated the rest of the way so no need to panic over any particular loss….like today’s.
All those trades for nothing. Hopefully Trout has a MVP caliber season in 24 and we can trade him to restock the farm. There should be a few other players that we can trade to next year to for restocking the farm. I am so done with how this organization is operated that I want a full rebuild.
Yep. It’s been pretty obvious to me that usually, more often than not, when you’re trading from desperation without any real chips to trade, it goes down like this. Gioloto doesn’t appear to be a prize Perry catch, unlike what he did last year getting Monial and O’Hoppe. Build the damn farm if you ever ever expect to win, cause it’s not gonna be for several years at the soonest. Never if Arte won’t sell, or new ownership that let’s the whole think bottom out and REBUILD, like every other good team has done, including the Dodgers, Stros, Phils, Boston, and other teams. Arte’s ‘plan’ is a plan for guaranteed failure.
I’ve been saying this for years. The plan to always be ‘competitive’ and have a team that is ‘marketable’ has landed the Angels in the middle of the pack for a long time now. I’m a believer in tearing down to build up. The refusal to do so in favor of being ‘competitive’ year after year is not running a baseball Org in my opinion.
It is why I firmly believe Arte has to go. Not because he is ‘cheap’ because he really is not. He is actually pretty generous in his spending. It is his lack of baseball knowledge, his failure to surround himself with baseball people and his being deeply involved in baseball decisions that is my frustration.
Can’t trade Trout unless Trout wants to be traded.
I am sure he would be happy to be waive a no trade clause to play in the play offs.
Lots of prayer for Domingo German.
https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1686864716185075714
Yankee fan buddy says likely related to last year’s domestic abuse contiuing issues – better to use alcohol as a front to avoid bigger suspension when using wife/kids as punching bags.
On radio, it has been mentioned that German is starting in patient treatment for ETOH; so, it may have dual purposes and meanings.
I have little sympathy. Sorry. I’ll ponder why I dont
Since I lack in specific enzyme to digest ETOH, I don’t tolerate alcoholic beverages. I become an angry octopus in my face with a smidgen of beer or wine. Probably a good thing for me. However, I have had several buddies on adult baseball team who had problems with alcohol, so I am somewhat more understanding though they disappointed the baseball team with their no shows on game days.
However, when it comes to men hurting women or people abusing children, I have absolutely no sympathy for them.
Whether it is ETOH and/or domestic abuse, I am glad someone recognized his issues, and he is at least under treatment (or separated from his family.)
Boston leading Seattle 3-2 top of the 7th.
Extra innings, please…
Tied with a chance for lead.
Yes – we need BOTH teams to lose.
Just for today, Manfraud decided to suspend ghost runner rule. If they are tied after 9 innings, both teams lose.
No. They force all pitchers to throw at >100mph
For 30 innings
😆
I’m afraid this will be a common refrain down the stretch.
Looks like Mariners gonna win.
Sho is obviously resigning with us but if he were to go anywhere the Braves would be the only place I would except. Extremely well ran org. Stocked talent for the future. Great park and a great city that is continually getting better.
San Diego wouldn’t bother me. In fact, if it goes that way, I hope that’s where he ends up.
Yea SD is the only place that rivals being a Halo from a quality of life perspective. Live on the beach + easy drive to the park & Chill fans / media.
Padres won again, now only 4GB WC3. Call me crazy, but I think Padres have much better chance of reaching the playoffs than the Angels. It was 40.4 % according to FanGraphs before today’s game. They are still one game below 0.500.
you crazy
😆
All the MLB Tonight crew just picked us to get in of the remaining teams fighting for 3rd WC. That means we are in.. they are the experts
Thank you for the info.
Hahaha I hope you can detect my sarcasm. I find it hilarious that the media is now kind of on our side after many of the same peeps were predicting our demise and calling us dumb asses for not moving Sho. Public perception is so fickle
I did not see ‘italicized’, so I did not detect. Still not comprehending 50% of American jokes.
Many national podcasters like Rich Eisen and Ben Verlander have altered their tune 180 degree, who used to call Moreno variety of names, now fully support his decision keeping Sho.
That means you believe them.
*accept
I’m sorry. He’s ‘obviously resigning with us’? Where did you pull that one out from. Maybe you haven’t been following, but he wants to Win more than Anything else. Why would he resign with an organization that is likely to be the longest out of the playoffs of any MLB team if they don’t get in this year.
You probably haven’t paid attention to his numerous comments saying he likes playing in Anaheim, but he likes Winning even more. Arte should have sold last off season. Shohei is smart. He knows it’s a lost cause with Arte at the top.
Yes he will resign his position on the Angels effective end of the season.
#facts
well, even if he doesn’t re-sign with us i hope he doesn’t resign from baseball. i’m hoping for the giants 1, padres 2, doyers 29.
His source is apparently: “just trust me bro”
Oh well, classic turn-the-page game.
I have hopes that Giolito will turn it around. I think he’s more of the pitcher in the Toronto game than this one, and this game is an outlier.
I’m glad they got one game against the best team in the league, and a quality win at that as well.
We should have a good showing against Seattle this home series.
So, let’s see. After making a fantastic catch at the wall early in the game, Adams then showed us that:
– He’s not a good hitter (0-4. two Ks)
– He’s not smart (two throws that either sailed or went to the wrong base allowing the hitter to take second)
– He can’t throw accurately (overthrows)
– He’s really not a good fielder. Other than the great catch, he ran multiple circular routes on fly balls and failed to catch a line drive hit right to him.
I realize he is a rookie, but this was not a good look.
So he’s basically an athlete trying to play baseball?
Let’s DFA him.
Seems to be a very difficult path to reach the playoffs. The Texas teams are loaded. Too many good teams in front of us.
Sure, we went for it with these trades. But, did we not think these other teams were also going to improve? One step forward, two steps back.
MFYankees, Red Sux, and Mariners practically speaking raised their white flags by not doing much at trade deadline. So it is going to be Blue Jays and Angels for the last spot. As long as Angels keep it close with the Blue Jays, we still got a chance of something in late September to cheer for.
I will be cheering for Orioles tonight.
Additional blow to the Blue Jays as they announced Bo Bichette was placed on IL, calling it ‘Patellar tendinitis’. MRI revealed “no significant structural damage’. If they are doing like what Angels do with their medical information, the Blue Jays did not want to say it was ACL strain and peppered with -itis and no significant structural damage, meaning there was no breakage but there was a strain (probably 2nd degree) in some ligaments that are attached to the knee cap. He will be out for 6 weeks minimum IMHO.
Blue Jays August schedule is pretty tough; they got only 2 games against Phillies and 3 games against Nat’s that they can relax somewhat. The remaining teams are all contenders.
First well thought out post. Everyone else seems to concentrate on if we just do this or that. And if such and such team just loses. NO. The other teams All got better, and a lot better than what we got.
The only good outcome from today’s game is that our top 4 BP guys are fresh for tomorrow and coupled with Ohtani on the bump, I like our odds in game 1 a lot.
Here’s to Seattle going extras with Boston and having a flight delay or three.
That is essentially what Jeff Fletcher mentioned in his X.
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1686811845045141523
😂
The curse of Darin Erstad.
According to TV broadcast, the last time the Angels won a series in Atlanta was 2005…. The Johnny Estrada collision.
Karma?
This is one of my all-time favorite plays in Angels history !! Definitely in the Top 5 because of when it came in the game and the significance … The Angels ended up winning by only 1 run so it was indeed a pivotal moment/play.
lolwut… Angels won 4-2…
https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2005/B06060ATL2005.htm
lost next night 3-2
won next night 8-4 for a 2-1 series win
I saw (in person) the next game after this Atlanta series – Friday June 10 at Shea stadium where Bartolo Colon shone in a masterful 12-2 win … including a batting K where he fell on his ass and then later in the game he got a hit.
but it certainly was a turning point in the game
My bad… I was remembering a 3-2 win. Nonetheless, it came late in the game if I remember correctly …
Pretty good memory! Yep, it was a decisive inning.
I just realized that this is Garret Anderson’s bat in the photo as the box score says Erstad scored on GA’s hit! I recognize the tape job as I have one of his bats from a Spring Training trip:
The Angels just proved that they are not the best team in the Majors, but could they be the second best team?
The Braves are the best. The Rockies/Royals/A’s are terrible. Everyone else is equally mediocre. There isn’t an AL team that the Angels couldn’t take a seven-game series from.
The Rays have had our number for many years now, with the 3 game set early last season being the rare exception…. Go look at how we’ve done against them over the last 7-10 years . It is not pretty…. Toronto also seems to be a team we can’t beat …I haven’t gotten to the NL but I think the Dodgers would make quick work of us …
Should I go on …?
Houston owns the Angels, but darn it if the Halos shouldn’t be able to beat them this year.
Yep. How could I forget the Astros ? When was the last time we won a SEASON SERIES from them ? I can’t even remember !!
maybe never, honestly!
Someone may have taken a bit too much hopium to think only one team can take us lol. The Rockies were embarrassed by us and then proceeded to take the next 2 easily, there’s plenty more examples but don’t feel like wallowing.
They are definitely not playing like a team who just went all in. They’re playing pretty much like they’ve done all season. Uninspired.
They’re following Rendon’s lead and are just there to collect a paycheck at this point
Colorado won game 1 of that series, we won game 2 and scored 25 runs, then Colorado took game 3. You are correct that Colorado won the series, 2-1.
My bad, thanks for the correct info.
Atlanta taught us on the field where we stand in relation to teams that might actually win the World Series.
According to FanGraphs, Braves chance of winning WS is 24.8%, and that was before today’s game. I am sure it is now better than 25%. Yankee’s odds are 1%, still much better than that of the Angels.
Which is very misleading. We are clearly a much more talented team than New York when healthy… of course I would bet these odds are current and take injuries/health into account… It speaks to how the Angels organization is viewed that we would be that low …
those odds are irrelevant.
We’ve got a 50/50 chance at winning the World Series, though there’s only a 10% chance of that.
Well, maybe so, but we beat them Monday night and looked darn good doing it. Anything can happen in the playoffs. Remember the last time we were in and what KC did to us and almost everyone else. They caught fire and couldn’t lose
I know we need to make the playoffs first. And I agree with you about how we look in relation to WS champions. But IF we make the playoffs there is a chance to run the table
🙄
Lol. Monday night was ONE GAME. What happened the last TWO GAMES ???
I expect Drury to be in the lineup tomorrow, perhaps at 1B to give Cron a breather.
Rengifo – 2B
Ohtani – DH
Drury – 1B
Moose – 3B
Renfroe – RF
Moniak – CF
Grichuk – LF
Thaiss – C
Neto – SS
I hope Rengifo is out,Cron in, Drury at 2B.
Yeah, that’s the other permutation, particularly since Cron was lifted in today’s game. Who bats leadoff? Neto? Perhaps Grichuk? I’ll go with Grichuk.
Grichuk – LF
Ohtani – DH
Cron – 1B
Moose – 3B
Drury – 2B
Moniak – CF
Renfroe – RF
Thaiss – C
Neto – SS
Drury really extends the lineup. The way this thing looks with Trout & O’Hoppe has me salivating.
Either one. I prefer Neto and Drury can hit in the middle of the lineup.
Good chance that Drury is back tomorrow with play like this.
https://twitter.com/SaltLakeBees/status/1686554378487160832
Was his shoulder strain right or left?
Yup.