Logan O’Hoppe is back and, of course, Nolan Schanuel got called up and batted lead off. He struck out to give the Angels one out and nobody on. The Rays got a run in their half inning due to a combo of a double and some crappy play by Rengifo.
Shohei Ohtani singled and Moustakas doubled to tie the score at 1-1.
Moustakas advanced to third on a wild pitch. It was pointless, though. Logan O’Hoppe grounded out to end the inning.
In the second inning, Osleivis Basabe got an infield hit with one out. You can’t tell if I’m drunk or not when I type that guy’s name. The next batter lined into an unassisted double play by Nolan Schanuel.
I like that he just recorded the outs and headed to the dugout without pimping it. We already had enough Angels hit by pitches this year. Mickey Moniak struck out but Hunter Renfroe singled to get something going for the Angels. Luis Rengifo also singled to put men at first and second with one out. Randal Grichuk lined out to Besabe for the second out. The Rays weren’t able to double up anybody on that one. Nolan Schanuel walked to load up the bases for Shohei Ohtani who proceeded to hit a gran salami. 5-1 Angels. It’s charcuterie tonight instead of LOBsterfest. Brandon Drury grounded out to end the inning.
Nothing really happened in the third inning. For the fourth inning, a two out hit by pitch followed by a single and a double resulted in a score of 5-3 Angels. Rene Pinto then singled to make it 5-4 Angels. Yandy Diaz then lined out to end the Rays half of the fourth. Renfroe=strikeout. Rengifo= strikeout. Grichuk = fly ball out to left.
For the fifth inning: Randy Arozarena walked whereupon Jose Soriano came in to replace Tyler Anderson on the mound. Harold Ramirez doubled and Isaac Paredes struck out to make it a man on second and one out. Luke Raley, the next batter, walked. The Angels were all out to end the fifth, but at least it was not majority strikeouts.
Dominic Leone came in to pitch on behalf of Soriano. Randy Arozarena walked. Then, Harold Ramirez doubled to score Arozarena. 5-5 Tie.
The Rays went three up three down in their at bats in the sixth. The Angels ALSO failed to score although they had opportunities.
Matt Moore came in to pitch. Angels= no score.
Reynaldo Lopez came in to pitch. Yandy Diaz singled and then Lopez uncorked a wild pitch to send him to second. Arozena struck out. and Harold Ramirez then singled to make it 6-6 Angels.
Are the Angels going to win or not? Not a whole lot happened until the ninth inning.
Carlos Estevez came in to replace Matt Moore. He gave up two singles in a row before the Angels turned a triple play to end the Rays half of the inning.
Luis Rengifo walked. Andrew Velazquez replaced him on the base paths and promptly stole second. Grichuk grounded out but Schanuel reached on a fielder’s choice. Shohei Ohtani struck out. Brandon Drury struck out. We are off to extra innings. [Yay] YAY! [/Yay] (sarcasm font).
Carlos Estevez came out for another inning of work in the tenth and threw a wild pitch that put a guy on third with no outs. He then hit Isaac Paredes with a pitch to make it men at first and third with no outs. Luke Raley then hit a ground ball hit to make it 7-6 Rays. Josh Lowe singled to score Isaac Paredes. 8-6
Rays. No problem. The Angels can totally win this. They just brought in Aaron Loup to replace Carlos
Estevez. You know they mean business now! Aaron Pinto singled and Luke Raley scored. 9-6 Rays. Yandy Diaz made an out so all the Angels have to do is score four runs in one inning to win. We totally got this.
Mike Moustakas lined out to left. Logan O’Hoppe grounded out to third. Our very own Maniak lined out to center to end the game.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
2 for one, need a new rule.
Figures, Sandy has lost focus.
WTF, Adams you are the director there.
Can’t they just take Rendon out behind the Big A and put him down Old Yeller style?
My favorite part of this is, “if the Angels fall completely out of the playoff race, there would be no reason to rush him back.”
Made me chuckle. “If.” 😅
Doyers should also consider use of 6 man rotation as another pitcher went on IL in addition to Walker Buehler (TJS x 2) and Dustin May.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/08/tony-gonsolin-placed-on-il-with-elbow-injury-unlikely-to-return-this-year.html
I live in Orange (about five miles from Anaheim Stadium) and the wind tonight is only supposed to be around 10mph. The main issue that the Halos will face will be the defensive deficiencies of Queefy Joe and 🦑.
God damn to lose that game last night. I was actually thinking ok up 5-1 get to 62-63, sweep the doubleheader tomorrow and 1 over is a new season and fantasized winning 7-8 in a row at that point to get back in the race with reinforcements coming back like Ohoppe and trout. But no, in true Angels fashion they don’t even entertain my fantasy for 2 minutes and blow a 5-1 lead and triple play. At home. No team has more disgusting losses than this team. Of course if we were the ones down 5-1 on road we’d lose 10-1
Last sentence is so true. If our opponent hit an early Grand Slam against us they would use that momentum to widen the lead and blow us out …But WE are a different story. Like Eric said last night, we got HR happy and everybody starts thinking long ball and swinging at the first pitch — playing right into the hands of the opposition. This has to be generally known out there that “once the Angels get an early lead they lose all or any plate discipline and swing at anything.” It happens time after time.
This comes back to coaching, gameplan and philosophy. Teams like the Astros and Dodgers get that 5-1 lead and then become even MORE selective. As a result they turn that game into a blow out. There is a reason we lose. The talent is there but we lack good coaching and an intelligent approach at the plate and on the mound.
So, who takes responsiblity for us being so dumb?
The one who is “so dumb it hurts.” Who else.
Is 30-9 a possibility? That’s what we’d have to do to win 90.
I wish we’d have won that game because we’d have jumped ahead of the Skanks.
MFYankees morale is really low now. Geritt Cole’s body language is “I do not want to pitch today; I would rather be doing something else.” At least, some Angels players look like they want to win.
There was a dreaded blue banner of ‘no hitter’ against MFYankees on GameDay, but thankfully for the frustrated fans, Judge just broke the curse with a homer.
Not my favorite, but I am assuming it will be somewhat windy today at Big A, so perhaps his boomerang pitch might be useful today.
https://twitter.com/LAAngelsPR/status/1692949306779611373
Trout is not activated. Renfroe and O’Hoppe are not on the starting lineup for the first game. Hee-fo is prowling about in RF. Squid is out of the dog house. Would Silseth be allowed to pitch more than 5 innings today? Is Nevin going to chase win sometime today?
Doesn’t feel like he’s chasing a win in the opener. Maybe in the nightcap.
Nice to see Herget called up. Let’s hope he listens to his mother and wears his specs.
Well, there are 2 games today, so remember the motto : “Can’t go out there and chase wins every night.”
If you’re a professional pitcher who’s had years and years of coaching and practice, who has had thousands upon thousands of repetitions, how in the world can you not just automatically be able to throw a strike from the mound whenever you want to?
Same reason professional tennis players double fault.
Same reason wide open professional wide receivers drop passes.
Human beings are not machines.
When Robot MLB comes around, Angels will suck then too.
Arturo will get DOS robots, while the Doyers will have the latest IOS.
That is DOS robots with Radio Shack floppy disk reader.
Truth bomb.
It is incompetence from a ridiculously bad baseball Organization. .
Hold up now!
Did you say “lost 14 of 20?????”
That is another way of saying 6-and-14
You know what happens after that …..
🏆 ⚾️
Same thing that has happened since 2016?
It’s etched in stone !!!
“Trying to make a run in the presumed last season with the greatest of all time” wasn’t the wrong decision imo.
“Trading the greatest of all time for a package of several prospects” was also not the wrong decision.
In predictable fashion, the Angels collapsed.
Luckily, I have Clippers’ basketball right around the corner to take their turn punching me in the gut once the Angels finish their turn.
Angels and Clippers?! You’re a glutton for punishment!!
Born in the heart of Los Angeles and I chose the Angels and Clippers over the Lakers and Dodgers.
I’m different lol
Where?
I spent most of my life in LA City (El Sereno), Eagle Rock & Pasadena.
I’m in Florida now but I’ve lived all over la from Santa Monica Westwood and Venice to West Hollywood. Have friends in silver lake to Toluca lake. And I know Pasadena well from numerous Rose Bowl games. I’m from Orange County tho and still love going back to Orange County in
We live in Laguna Niguel now and never want to leave. What a great place to live.
Particularly after spending most of my life in LA and a fair amount of time in Shanghai for business.
South county is great
It’s amazing.
MMA (UFC) has become my favorite sport in recent years. There is year round activity and you don’t get saddled following a bad franchise and all the frustration that goes with it.
In my opinion there are smart business decisions and there are emotionally driven unwise decisions. And then there is the grey area in between.
The decision on Ohtani was in the grey area. While I would have strongly advocated for the trade had I been in the decision making room, I can also see the marketing viewpoint that (when running a sports franchise) the emotions of the fan base are relevant to business decisions. I could see how a reasonable marketing analysis would be that trading such a popular and unique player such as Ohtani would have negatively impacted how the fans view the franchise now and in the future.
Unfortunately, the lack of a Ohtani trade coupled with trading away young talent from an already barren farm could have poor consequences for the future. But that is a risk the franchise took and there were risks no matter what decision was made.
Knowing the schedule and key players injured, a trade was the only reasonable decision. They failed so hard it’s almost comical at this point.
They’ll be lucky to win 70 games next year.
The scary thing is that Ohtani will be replaced by another player who can sell jerseys. Let’s hope its someone who is productive and can stay healthy.
Sad but true. Since Arte would rather rum a marketing agency over an actual baseball team
It would not have been a “massive haul” lol.
Depends on the haul. I’m not so sure that we’re good at that either.
Chase Silseth’s last 4 starts (vs. NYY, @ ATL, vs. SEA, @ HOU)
22.2 IP
4 ER
31 Ks
5 BB
15 hits
.88 WHIP
If Teen Wolf goes out and dominates again today against a good Tampa Bay lineup that would be fun. Something to be excited about for the future.
Let’s play two…said the weather!!
I was at the game last night. Watching Anderson blow the 5-1 lead was painful. Nevin’s need to put the tying run on first by allowing Anderson to pitch to someone in the fifth was awful. It made no sense. Using the entire bullpen with two games today is going to be a problem also.
The Halos should have won last night. But they find ways to lose.
My son told me Anderson was starting, I told him, “Yeah, I know, they’re screwed”.
Oh well. At this point I’m starting to get excited about tanking.
They’ll mess that up too.
I’ve mentioned “pain threshold” numerous times vis-a-vis Tout more than a few times over the past few weeks and purposely so.
At what point does the narrative shift from “pain management” to “soft” whilst the team is barely hanging onto playoff contention?
They said on the broadcast he might start a game tomorrow
I’ll believe it when I see it.
He is soft. I’ve never heard of a calf strain keeping someone out almost the entire season like for him in 2021. A calf strain. Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrigs consecutive games played record, Trout became the Lou Gehrig of consecutive games missed with a ducking calf strain. I don’t think it’ll ever be broken tbh. I’ll watch baseball the rest of my life and can guarantee I’ll never see a player miss 4.5 months for a calf strain. It’s like Wilts 100 point game, 4.5 months with calf strain. Hallowed record.
He’s so soft, I mean he didn’t even make contact with the ball (as usual) and suffered this injury. And of course he never comes back from an injury early, or even on time. Hasn’t played 150 games since 2016; he has played 140 once since 2017 and 120 once since 2019. Now that the season is truly officially over after losing this masterpiece, probably becoming the 1st team in history to lose with GRAND SLAM and triple play in same game while a blowing 4 run lead, he can come back to play in his favorite games: stat padding meaningless September games 15 games out, hitting 9th inning home runs down 10-1. When we were losing 12-0 in Texas I was like damn that hamate bone, this would be the PERFECT spot for Trout to make it 12-1 and then point to bullpen while rounding the bases and throwing that samurai hat on.
“He’s so soft, I mean he didn’t even make contact with the ball (as usual) and suffered this injury.”
Blaming a player for breaking their hamate bone is psychotic. I can feel your frustration and empathize with you. Trout is objectively injury prone at this point and a notorious slow healer.
It seems obvious since there’s nothing to play for, that unlike O’Hoppe, he’s in no hurry to return. He’s watched the same thing happen for his entire career. Just imagine what he’ll be like when Shohei leaves. Might be on of the reasons to consider trying to move him unless the team is really going to get serious. We might all be in the same place considering the circumstances but his lack of passion is still frustrating.
Trout had a calf tear not a calf strain.
https://theathletic.com/2782701/2021/08/21/angels-star-mike-trout-discusses-physical-emotional-challenges-of-calf-injury-i-need-to-get-back/
I will let any physical therapists or medical doctors on the site explain the recovery time for a calf tear as opposed to a strain.I don’t claim to be a medical expert.
A broken hamate bone is common in baseball. I have never tried to hit big league pitching but my guess is that there is a lot of pain in the hand when you have had such an injury and after surgery. My guess is that it would be hard to hit a fastball on the hands until the pain has subsided enough.
Mike Trout has generated 85.2 WAR since arriving in Anaheim in 2011. His career OPS+ is 174.
Ronald Acuna this year is having a better season than trout ever had in his career
Acuna is a great player having a great year (110 runs scored and 55 SBs among other stats). His OPS+ this year is 162 which is below Trout’s career OPS. His WAR is 6.2. Trout has had a WAR of 10.5 twice (2012 and 2016). It will be fun to see if Acuna can match Trout’s 10.5 WAR between now and early October.
I have nothing but good things to say about Acuna. He is a great hitter.
Acuna will finish .334 42 100 with 75 SB. Trout has never hit .330 and never hit .300 with 40 HR same same season, and def never had 70 steals or even 50. Trouts 10 war seasons 2013 and 2016 he was .323 27 97 33 sb and .315 29 100 30 SB. In what world is that as good as acuna this year.
Oh I guess Ohtani 2022 15-4 2.33 era 200ks & .274 34 95 at 9.9 war was worse than trouts .315 29 100!!! And Ohtani 2021 46 100 to go with 9-2 3.22 was worse than trout 2013 27 97 according to war!!!
War and ops+ are overrated trout is main example
You are omitting walks/OBP from your comp, and defense.
Trout has been walked over 100 times in a season 4x, peak OBP was .460. OBP is much more meaningful than BA, as clearly your BA will suffer if you are pitched around.
Defense Acuna is slightly below average, with a negative WAR contribution of -0.3 (BR). Trout’s has varied, but was +2 in his first 10 WAR season.
Trust me I know Obp is the great equalizer for Trout bc not only does it increase your Obp, but it’s less official at bats to divide your total bases by so it increases your SLG% and by extension ops and ops+. Obp was his one true power and that’s decreased hard from 2019 as I’ve said here before. He went from .440-.460 guy to .390 and .369 along with shittier average and swinging at true shit way off plate. He’s not a free swinger like vladdy who can hit anything so swung at anything, and walks get on base more than hits, so vladdy would be .330 .380 Obp vs .295 .440 Obp trout. Also I think many times in truly important situations trout would take a walk as a cop out and not swing at pitch barely off the plate to pass the buck to next guy bc he couldn’t handle the pressure whereas as a guy like vladdy or acuna will expand zone swing at it and drive in those crucial runs.
Btw what explains trout 2013 and 2016 having more war than Ohtani 21-23. No way in hell those 2 seasons or any of his seasons compare to Ohtanis last 3. If Ohtani just stood in RF every game he didn’t pitch to play “defense” his war would be even more through the roof. Acuna is gonna kill Trouts career highs in runs scored, steals, and batting average and pretty much match his career high in HR and RBI in a single season yet won’t reach trouts 10war .323 27 97. War loves trout idk why bc his defense and steals haven’t been there in forever. Also even tho judge had truly historic season last year .311 62 how’s that higher war than 15-4 2.33 200ks oh and .274 34
Also your BA won’t suffer if you’re pitched around, what? Ted Williams career leader in Obp at like .482 was .344 career hitter or Barry bonds hitting .370 .345 with video game .610 Obp. Ohtani this year is pitched around 01-05 Barry bonds lite carrying this team with fragile Trout out and striking out nonstop when playing and Ohtani career high .310 BA. Not getting much to hit doesn’t mean you’ll miss when you do get pitches to hit
Freddie Freeman gonna finish .334-.344 33 110 with 60 DOUBLES!!! That’s insane
Trout has never had as good a season offensively
They could probably get similar production out of KC backup C Freddy Fermin.
He’s having one of the best season’s in MLB history, but greatness requires consistency over multiple years.
NL mvp race is actually closed than people think with betts and freeman. Betts just caught acuna in war. I still give it to acuna rn but it’s not a shoe in. Ohtani is so great his season crushes all 3, betts acuna and freeman, and those 3 are all having amazing seasons.
Closer*
The recovery time for a hamate injury is 4-8 weeks. It has been six. He isn’t behind schedule. (And those are just averages and other people’s injuries, everyone is an individual).
They aren’t hanging onto playoff contention. They just called up a recently drafted rookie and batted him first. They called up a catcher that hadn’t hit MLB pitching in months and batted him fifth. You don’t do those things if you are trying to win games and make a playoff push. You do them to sell tickets and push the narrative that these are the next guys to watch out for in 2024.
BTW they have two big Trout promotionals in September. I’m sure he will be back by then, and the organization clearly wants him healthy then.
I think the callup of the rookie 1B and reinstatement of O’Hoppe had more to do with a desperate team
searching for production as Cron & Wallach were NOT getting it done production wise.
Cron is on the IL, so there’s that.
Maybe, but it’s not like they have a ton of options to hit in those prime places in the lineup considering most everyone on the roster have already proven they can’t handle those roles. Add to it that Nevin is not exactly Mensa for creating lineups.
I love Trouty.
Unfortunately, he’s always been an insanely slow healer. Must have something to do with the fact he’s a baseball player in a linebacker’s body.
From everything Mike has said, his return from the hamate bone surgery is dependent on his pain tolerance threshold with no concern for re-injury.
I guess he couldn’t tolerate the pain well enough to try and come back a little earlier as we torpedo out of the WC race. Pretty shitty way to go out in the likely penultimate season with Ohtani.
Again, I LOVE Mike Trout. I’m sure he feels the urgency to return, however it sure doesn’t feel like it. I really thought he would’ve returned for the Texas road trip. That 2-4 stretch is what ultimately buried us.
Has he been a slow healer? Do you have stats on that? Which of these were ‘insanely slow’ and which indicates that he is ‘soft’? Or unwilling to play through pain?
2017 – Torn Thumb Ligament. Usually 6-8 weeks. Trout back in 39 days.
2018 – Wrist Inflammation. Trout out 19 days.
2019 – Morton’s Neuroma. Would have been season ending surgery, but Trout plays through it for a month, misses the last 19 days of the season. (Wins MVP).
2021 – Calf Tear (May 18). Listed with a 6-8 week recovery time (indicating likely grade 2 tear). Still had pain at end of August, and in September was shut down because of risk of reinjury with team out of contention (stated in interview that he would need a rehab assigment, and then would be back for last few weeks of the season.
2022 – Diagnosed with costovertebral dysfunction at T5 (back injury). Pain management long term – no cure. Rare consdition. Missed 1 month (July 12-Aug 19). Has said it is a non-issue in 2023.
Wrist inflammation lol, grade 2 calf strain 6-8 weeks somehow shuts him down entire season from May 18 omfg, Morton’s Neuroma are they just making shit up now wtf and rare back disease wow he should be sent to Germany or something for all his rare conditions. Only baseball player I heard of that has all this rare shit. And hamate bone so common I remember when Glaus salmon GA all had theirs it’s rite of passage
Guess the injury is doing him a service, making people forget how much he sucked. If played 150 woulda surely got to 200ks to go along with his Mendoza line RISP average and his .250 batting average
Should he have won mvp in 2019? Everyone here is blinded by war so Bregman was 8.9 war to Trouts 7.9. Maybe trout beat him on traditional stats:
.291 45 104 trout
.296 41 112 Bregman. That’s pretty even and Bregman has higher war by a point. And I only give mvp to player on losing team over winning team if it’s clear like Ohtani this year or Ohtani 2021. Yeah Bregman shoulda won mvp
It was a home game, Ohtani hit a grand slam, the Angels had a late triple play, and they still lost. I think I’ll just go watch a Vernon Wells highlight reel and listen to Build Me Up Buttercup.
Might as well play some Karen Carpenter, drink some vino and slit your wrists.
Mightve been better for the last thing to suggest to play Human Frogger on the 5 freeway
You need to post more frequently – especially if you know where to find the “Vernon Wells highlight reel”
Vernon Wells … Mr “Too Blessed to be Stressed” … he was so blessed that he found time to nap on the field of play. My favorite still shot of Vernon hard at work, er uh, hard at being blessed:
He is merely mentally picturing his next at bat, where the pitcher throws him a meatball down the middle of the plate, and he is ready for it, swings, and hits a majestic infield pop fly!
We are wasting triple plays!