Last weekend I attended the Spence vs Crawford fight. It was expected to be an even affair but quickly turned into a one sided beat down. So when Reid Detmers got hammered for 4 runs in the first inning, it felt familiar.
But the Angels had a ton of fight in them. This was far more Rocky movie than Floyd Mayweather bout. The Angels picked themselves up off the mat and went to work.
Luis Rengifo landed the first Angels haymaker, a solo shot to put the team on the board.
RENGIFOOOOOOO
— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) August 5, 2023@Angels | #GoHalos pic.twitter.com/fOzERbOCfc
Then Angels then landed a crushing right hand in the bottom of the fourth to even up the bout. It was a solid team wide effort highlighted by new fan favorite Moooooose jacking a three run bomb to tie the game.
Overall, Reid Detmers played the role of punching bag. In gym terms, he was the sparring partner who took a beating but didn’t give up.
It was 7-5 Mariners when Jacob Webb took over for Detmers with two outs in the 4th. The line for Detmers, 7 earned over 4.2 with a ton of pitches thrown. Brutal, especially on a night when long reliever Jaime Barria was not available.
Webb managed to work off the ropes and keep the deficit at two. Mickey Moniak followed that up with a crushing left hook, um home run, to tie the game at 7-7.
HE IS A MONIAK
— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) August 5, 2023@Angels | #GoHalos pic.twitter.com/B2ODnC5WKl
You’d think Phil Nevin would’ve learned not to send Webb out there for a second inning by now. Nope. Webb walked the first two in the sixth which led to Dominic Leone making his Angels debut. Leone did he best Webb impression and walked the bases loaded.
Leone slipped, dipped, and rolled with the punches. Flyout, strikeout, groundout and the threat was over. The Angels did not score, but they’d dealt a powerful blow.
Luis Castillo gutted it out and went six innings giving up all seven of the Angels runs at the time. Matt Moore pitched a scoreless top of the 7th thanks to a Brandon Drury gem.
Newcomer Reynaldo Lopez took a straight 1-2 to the face in the form of back to back hits to surrender the lead in the 8th. The Angels were again on the ropes down 8-7.
To make it really feel like a movie, the Angels won a challenge. Lopez was charged with a hit batsman that was overturned on appeal. Seattle then challenged it was catcher’s interference. And the Angels won that one as well. Unreal.
Aaron Loup did Aaron Loup things and put the Halos in a deeper hole. Bloodied, battered, and down 9-7 the Angels were down to their last gasp in the 9th.
Back to back walks brought baseball’s leading man, Shohei Ohtani, to the plate as the winning run. He was unable to make contact and sent to the corner after striking out. CJ Cron followed with a K of his own.
Alas, this Rocky movie was to have the same ending as the original. Only in baseball going the distance is a given. 9-7 Mariners.
There is a live boxing going on in Cleveland amongst baseball players right now.
Thor is a nice guy, trying to play a role as peace keeper. It is still going on.
Nice tight hook from Ramirez
And nice line drive RBI base hit from Red Baron!
Jesus… anderson just collapsed on that right hook.
following in the footsteps of weak-ass white sox players starting fights and taking a BIG L
What is your motive on saying the followings, Sammy? That you are not a homer? It’s not going to give you more clicks.
https://twitter.com/SamBlum3/status/1687977265790111744
Just adding to the Anti-Angels rage.
Starting Lineup:
Rengifo SS
Ohtani DH
Cron 1B
Moose 3B
Drury 2B
Moniak CF
Renfroe RF
Grichuk LF
Wallach C
No R/L alternating today. Let’s get that first win of August today. Go Halos!
Yes they can!
Speedy recovery to you, Taylor Ward! I will not make any nose job joke.
https://twitter.com/RhettBollinger/status/1687965585647575040
Damn. Rough going. Wish him well
As much as we would love to see O’Hoppe ASAP, this is the correct process as long term Angels regular starting catcher. I predict now that he will be one of two additional call ups for September.
https://twitter.com/RhettBollinger/status/1687965963537543169
Every Texas win, every Houston win, every skank win, every Toronto win makes me gloomier
Toronto wins because of Red Sux TOOTBLAN DELUXE in the ninth. Why wouldn’t runners on the second and third tag with a huge fly out less than 2 outs?
Kenny Rosenberg is in Anaheim, probably as long reliever. Of course, he could be a starter if Tyler Anderson has an ouchy.
https://twitter.com/SamBlum3/status/1687929253671964672
Wow, I guess Minasian did not like the run Webb gave up yesterday.
https://twitter.com/LAAngelsPR/status/1687949865719119872
No time for sentimentality when it’s Do Or Die Time.
Or the 11 Runs hes given up in his last 13 games?
It’s about time. But I doubt Rosenberg will do much better.
Whats wrong with Devo. He still has hammy ouchie? I thought hes had a couple of rehab assignments.
Definitely unfortunate that Quesadilla’s arm exploded. We could certainly use him now.
I was a caught off guard by Bachman now being out until September when all previous reports, albeit vague, always indicated August. It seems that him & Joyce might be done for the year. That blows, too.
I’m almost finished reading Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and this passage in particular had me thinking about gitcho:
Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits — a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and master ate like a chimp in a zoo-cage.
Sounds like his writing!
I remember that challenge. The first challenge for some reason took almost 10 minutes, and I was surprised that NY/MLB overturned that call. Then, stupidity of Mariners/Servais to call for interference. They could have asked their batter if he was interfered with, which Thaiss did not. They should have either ejected Servais or have the Mariners lose challenge for the remainder games of the series for ‘frivolous’ challenge.
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1687678229606506496
Moose has 2x higher WAR than albert pujols’ last 6 years combined as an angel. Pujols was not perry’s fault. He got rid of the problem as fast as he could.
Now he’s got to deal with the Rendon problem.
At the end of 2019, it would have made more sense to give Ohtani a 7 year $240M deal than signing Rendon. Imagine where the Angles would be right now if that happened.
Agreed but that’s a bit of hindsight. At that time Ohtani hadnt done anything to warrant that kind of deal and, I believe, was still recovering from TJ surgery.
Second to last place?
I should’ve clarified, moose has done this in the limited time he’s been an angel.
Moose is not a long term solution to any problem. He’s having a resurgence for sure but he’s more likely statistically to regress than to keep up this pace.
This wasn’t to praise moose, but to help remember how had pujols was and his 30 mil anchor for the last 6 years of his angel career.
Yes those were a painful 6 years. But from a marketing standpoint they included #500 and #600 which is what Arte cared about more than anything (ie marketing).
Since marketing is more important than winning to Arturo, there is little chance of consistency winning. The Rendon contract was a head scratcher when it was signed and now it is an albatross, worse than Pujols, who hit a homer every once in a while.
Plus – if your focus is marketing- things like the minor league system, scouting and player development are far less important and undervalued because they don’t have immediate marketing value. Those things do not immediately sell jerseys or put fans in the seats or sell beer or hotdogs. So their intrinsic value is not appreciated by someone with a predominantly marketing focus.
The team became a marketing agency and not an actual baseball team as soon as Arte bought the team.
I would say it became that way around 2010 and particularly in 2012 with the Pujols signing. Prior to that time and in his first 10 years of ownership, Arte kept a decent group of baseball people around including guys like Eddie Bane. The success of his 1st 10 years (I believe) led to his believing he was good at baseball and that he was creating the Yankees of the West. Sadly he fired lots of good scouts and baseball people and turned his focus more to being ‘competitive’ which in marketing speak meant big splash free agents who sold tickets and made games more of an ‘event’.
Truth!
But Pujols could host one hell of a fundraiser at Pelican Hill
How many golf fundraisers does Moose have in his Angel tenure???
I rest my case
I”m going tonight. Hopefully we stop the bleeding. My heart can’t take these losses anymore.
Positive vibes. Have a good time….and come back with a victory.
Ironic that it’s Anderson on the bump in an absolute must win scenario.
His moxie is probably what we need tonight.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Parking Lot Attendants for their hard work. Poor folks that are forgotten about once we get into the stadium, so thank you parking attendants for your kind unselfish deeds. Hey Guys, take October off, we’ll see you in April of ’24.
They’re probably doing the best job of anyone in the organization.
It’s too easy to pile on the simplistic narratives on player performance, the mental acuity of field management, and the strategic malfeasance guiding it all. There’s nothing left to be said on any of those topics that hasn’t been said thousands of times already.
Instead I’m going to focus on the positives starting with the brilliance of the ground crew. These women and men cleanse the defiling results game after game and joyfully prepare the field for “tomorrow”. No matter the outcome from the prior game, they are there relentlessly doing their best to improve the fan experience. They show their respect of the game in every blade of grass carefully manicured, and in every grain of brick dust brushed to perfection. Their outstanding contributions and love of their profession are there for everyone to see before the first pitch.
We salute you, Anaheim Stadium ground crew. You are real American heroes that inspire us all.
Them too.
The only positive that I hope comes from this whole thing is Arte selling the team this off-season. No more head fakes. No more BS statements about unfinished business. Just sell the team.
Can’t happen fast enough.
Team just can’t get it together; pitching sucks they hit, pitching good no hits. Maybe sit in club house and watch videos of Giants, Orioles, Reds, teams not stacked but play good team baseball. If they lose to Mariners again tomorrow they could be done. Can’t play WC catch up with too many teams in front of you.
I think to go down by 4 right away, catch up, immediately go down by 2 again, still have the mental fortitude to catch up again, only to lose in the end is somehow worse than losing by a grand slam in the 9th. Idk. Maybe not. I’m glad we did both back to back so I can spend the night pondering it. At home too
It’s a distinction with little difference. It was probably easy to rationalize dropping the final two to Atlanta, but losing these first two to Seattle in any fashion is devastating.
To continue the analogy, we’re on the ropes and getting pummeled upstairs & downstairs with a flurry of shots.
Speaking of which, hopefully Nate Diaz can pull off the improbable tonight.
The inconsistency with the Angels’ starting pitchers is so frustrating.
Sandoval, Canning, and Detmers, (like Richards, Skaggs, and Heaney before them) all have greatness within them. They just can’t harness it and deliver it on a consistent basis. Whenever they pitch, you just never know what you’re going to get — they could be great, they could be mediocre, or they could be terrible.
I wonder what the secret is. Can the elite pitchers explain how they maintain their greatness over the course of an entire season? For several years, Jered Weaver was able to be very good or great virtually every time he took the mound. Can he explain how he was able to lock on to that greatness for whole seasons at a time?
Same thing for the last decade.
I think when both pitchers are getting lit up, giving up homeruns, it could very well mean that the batch of baseballs are wound more tightly or whatever it is that makes them HR balls.
That means both Detmers and Castillo were victims of the balls and didn’t necessarily pitch badly.
Seems like conspiracy/speculation. It could easily just be a summer evening in Anaheim.
Wonder if trout is open to being flipped when “new ownerz” begin the rebuild.
If they start playoffs tomorrow,
AL: BAL, TBR, TEX, HOU, TRO, MIN
NL: ATL, LAD, SFO, MIL, CIN, PHI
Angels, Cubs, and Padres appeared to have made wrong decision at deadline only 3 days after the deadline.
Winningest team now is KC with 7 game winning streak. If they win all of the remaining games, they will have finished 87 wins and 75 losses. KC may miss the playoffs with that record.
This is baseball. The absolute best to realistically hope for is 7 out of 10.
Five back of both Wild Card and Division on August 5th…not good.
Certainly still doable but we need a 10 out of 12 pretty darn soon!!
Winning is more fun than this but if this pushes Arte out the door so be it.
Please let it be so!
One can wish