Unclutch Angels lose to the Phillies 2-1

Who came up with midweek day games? This sucks and I hate it. I mean, I guess games are cheap that way, and with TV/streaming revenue being the most important, I guess MLB doesn’t care? Whatever.

Can Sandy man pitch well today? Well, he went 5 innings, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits, striking out 10 and walking 2. Oh and he was up against Wheeler. Yeah, I say that he did well. Especially since Wheeler also couldn’t last more than 5 innings himself.

10K!

Still, he left the game as the losing pitcher of record, being down 2-1. The Philly bullpen had to blow harder than the Angels’ to get a series win. And as such, winning this series was possible, somehow. Because just like earthquakes, wins can come out of nowhere.

It didn’t. Because the bats couldn’t do much at all. Thus the Angels waste a great overall pitching performance of 18K because the batters could not score more than 1 run.

Highlighted Recap

The Phillies scored first in the 2nd on a single.

2-0 Philly

But the Angels responded with a home run by Ehire Adrianza, his first since 2021.

2-1 Philly

That was it for the starters, it ended up being a bullpen game as both SP lasted only 5. Angels pitching also flinched first, but Rengifo saved it.

Whew

But it did not matter if the team couldn’t score. And indeed they could not. Double digit hits and only 1 run scored. That is not how to win a game.

Angels lose. Again. Sigh.

Upcoming

No game tomorrow. Why you hate Thursday games, MLB?! Boo!

55 Comments
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Omahalo22
Member
7 months ago

Halos breaking hearts annually. It’s fun watching a team with no playoff aspirations. No stress. They exist. That’s it.

Last edited 7 months ago by Omahalo22
Twebur
Legend
7 months ago

Looks like the possibility of rain all 3 days this weekend.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

I know no one actually has the balls to come out and say it. But I’ll go ahead and congratulate all the real men of baseball who looked to be wishing really hard that Rendon would get hurt, Trout would get hurt, Washington would lose games, all the prospects drafted under Arte would suck etc etc and the team would generally blow.

Sure, no one has the actual sap to say exactly that, but it’s the aggregate value of the content put out by the level headed fellows who will not be fooled again and will also make sure that they remind everyone else that they are not being fooled.

The juju has spoken. You got this CtPG Guy! Let’s GOOOOO!

What do you have? Five months of futile limp dicked grumbling while feeling “right” as no one else cares ahead of you? Cool.

Apparently we are slightly worse than the Phillies. This is not news. We’ll probably see the kids, trade some veterans if any have value etc. Of course we’ll have to play those vets till July in order to get anything for em in trade. So there’s a bonus. Sad donkey can bray about that for the next eight weeks.

Thank god the start to the season wasn’t better than it has been. It would really suck to enjoy the team while Arte owns it. That self made billionaire asshole probably thinks he’s better than you. What a dick.

Welp, the gauntlet’s almost over and we’re gonna be about 10 games under .500. We’ll see what happens from here.

smithy610
Super Member
7 months ago

The Angels are breaking records one after another:

Brent Maguire

·
4h
Entering today, teams that struck out 18+ batters and allowed two or fewer runs in a nine-inning game were 53-1 (since 1901).

The Angels have made that record 53-2 with an 18-strikeout, two-run performance in a losing effort today and join the 2015 Mets.

Fansince1971
Legend
7 months ago
Reply to  smithy610

That’s an unbelievable statistic.

Fansince1971
Legend
7 months ago

Rengifo is not a free agent until 2026. He should be traded. He could net at least something decent. Ward as well. Let’s start the rebuild!

Roy Hobbs
Super Member
7 months ago
Reply to  Fansince1971

Just so I’m clear, we’re talking about being bad for 3-5 years.

Fansince1971
Legend
7 months ago
Reply to  Roy Hobbs

We are headed there anyway. Better to have something to build in. Otherwise this sad story could repeat itself for decades. Better to be like the Orioles. Suck for 4-5 years and then emerge as a very solid young team.

Mia
Legend
Mia
7 months ago
Reply to  Roy Hobbs

We’ve been bad for 10+ years. At least in a rebuild we know we are working towaards winning and not stuck in the purgatory we currently find ourselves in.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Roy Hobbs

I’m starting to suspect that this team will wander in the desert to all the Real Men of Baseball who root for the team leave their bones in the sand.

Twebur
Legend
7 months ago

“The coyote of the desert always likes to eat the heart of the young. And the blood runs down to the children for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

https://youtu.be/Dh95taIdCo0?si=7TeTa9Ihqs1s4Tr9&t=30

Pineapple12
Super Member
7 months ago
Reply to  Fansince1971

I’d want 3 top 100 prospects for 👑 Luis.

Preferably tho, we’d extend him because he’s my favorite non-Trout Angel 😇.

Fansince1971
Legend
7 months ago
Reply to  Pineapple12

No way you get 3 top prospects for Rengifo. Lucky to get 2 medium ones. Rengifo is a decent player not a great one. Good teams have multiple Rengifo-type players.

When a team rebuilds, your favorite players get traded for the long term good of the team.. It’s part of the process.

Pineapple12
Super Member
7 months ago
Reply to  Fansince1971

I was being mostly sarcastic there, F71.

Trading Rengifo and capitalizing on his value makes sense. My personal preference is to keep him. Whatever happens will happen. Not gonna sweat it too much because of my love for the player.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Pineapple12

Drugs. You are on em.

Pineapple12
Super Member
7 months ago

I wish

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Fansince1971

Rengifo, Ward, maybe even a starter and a couple pen arms. Drury if he gets hot. Thaiss if catching needs get deep around the MLB. Even a CF like Pillar if he proves out a little.

We won’t be trading anybody that nets us a top 50 prospect, but we could get trades for some guys out of the middle 30 from a couple/few contending teams if we’re “lucky” this July and I’m all for it.

Added bonus, we may get into the top 7 in the draft…. so we won’t have to complain about that anymore.

Buuuuttt…. oh snarf snaarf snival snarf…. Arte will just starve all these prospects to death anyway. Snival snarf snarf.

JackFrost
Super Member
7 months ago
Reply to  Fansince1971

Something decent? Is he himself not decent? What is the point of trading him to fill one hole while creating a new hole with his departure, that also needs to be filled? Do we not have needs on offense as well as pitching ?

If the needs were primarily or overwhelmingly on the pitching side you could argue for this, but we need both ! I say keep Rengifo — his positional flexibility is quite valuable, and he may be the only clutch hitter we have on the roster !!

rosstrade
Trusted Member
7 months ago

Wow, you know that it’s tough when Sandy has a solid bounceback game and the team still loses…..

Eric_in_Portland
Legend
7 months ago

my first spin at Tankathon 2025 put the Angels in the #2 spot. That might be ok. Too bad it’s not official and too bad it’s not for this 2024 draft. I see two guys I’d dearly want in the 2024 draft and they’ll be gone by the time Cincy picks at #2.

CAoldskoll
Trusted Member
7 months ago

Pitching good, no hitting. Hit and pitch, no relief. Angels just find ways to keep losing. Tickets are gonna be really cheap for those hardcore still wanting to go to games.

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend
7 months ago

We played the kids and lost. No sense beating down on the kids when they don’t perform.

However Tucker and Pillar should reading major league box scores, not finding their names in a major league box score.

DMAGZ13
Trusted Member
7 months ago

Pitching Pitching Pitching Pitching Pitching Pitching Pitching Pitching Pitching Pitching Pitching Pitching

They’re all pretty gutless. I’m ok with the offense. Defense can be taught with drills and passion.

Next year:
OF Adell , Moniak , Ward, Teodosio
IF Rengifo , Neto, Schanuel FA 2nd
C O’Hoppe, Thaiss or better FA
DH Trout
Bench IF/OF random guys

Roy Hobbs
Super Member
7 months ago
Reply to  DMAGZ13

That’s another 60-70 win season.

DowningDude
Legend
7 months ago

Phillies travel cross country for a game Friday night. Blame geography for today’s afternoon game

JackFrost
Super Member
7 months ago
Reply to  DowningDude

I think all our Wednesday home games have been of the daytime variety DD. And guess what ? We have lost all of them..

SO, I think we need to have a word with the MLB schedule makers. For one thing the homefield advantage is greatly diminished for these mid-week day games…

Twebur
Legend
7 months ago
Reply to  JackFrost

Can you imagine the horror? Extra wide roomie leather seats, tons of legroom, great food, no waiting for anything, plane parks right next your car in a remote hanger, on and off plane without waiting, luggage handed to you.
Average smuck, add 3 or 4 hours to the experience.

Getaway day games pretty much all the time for everyone. If I remember, players wanted it and bargained for it. Attendance down in most of those games.
It does seem like we always lose those midweek day games.

Eric_in_Portland
Legend
7 months ago

current pace: 57-105

Twebur
Legend
7 months ago

Losing with dignity. I’ll take “almost” winning over embarrassment anytime with this team.

Free Ward from running the bases

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend
7 months ago

Still too many wins. Extreme futility is necessary to burn it all down

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

I think this may have been the longest stretch with the lowest winning % of the year for us. Not like we’re gonna go over .500 the rest of the games, but it won’t be THIS hard.

smithy610
Super Member
7 months ago

Silver lining is, they played much better in this series than the Twins’. Pitched better, hit better, better fundamentals, better defense, etc. Could easily have been a series win, or a sweep. I’ll take this kind of series loss to a top-tier team than the lousy sweep at the hands of the Twins, where everyone sort of phoned it in.

2GA2Join
Super Member
7 months ago
Reply to  smithy610

Weren’t we like 2 hits away from sweeping them? A good team, too.

Fansince1971
Legend
7 months ago
Reply to  smithy610

That was more about the Twinkies playing well. Phils overall played very meh in this series. Harper pretty much sucked and Ward did nothing. Minnesota looked like Workd beaters.

smithy610
Super Member
7 months ago
Reply to  Fansince1971

Sure, Twinkies played well, but also, HORRIBLE defense on the field. Not knowing who should catch easy, lazy fly balls. Missed foul balls that could have been caught. Booted balls in the infield. The Twins hit well, but were also gifted extra outs.

BannedInLA
Super Member
7 months ago

So, uuhhhhh, I guess we’ll miss that Shohei guy afterall, huh? I hope most of these youngsters turn into front line players by the end of the season, because if not, we’ll have zero building blocks.

BannedInLA
Super Member
7 months ago
Reply to  BannedInLA

Sadly, we all know that a broken MNT is not a building block.

On that note, make him the full-time DH. Please.

halofansince1978
Super Member
7 months ago
Reply to  BannedInLA

Put me down for a full time MNT DH vote.

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend
7 months ago
Reply to  BannedInLA

He is getting hurt moving his legs. At this rate he’ll be Stephen Hawking (when he was living) by the time he’s 40.

Last edited 7 months ago by Senator_John_Blutarsky
smithy610
Super Member
7 months ago

Well, this is what we all asked for. Play the kids.

Neto and Schanuel delivered. Adell did not. In fact, he had his worst game (so far) this year. Sometimes, it will be Neto who will have the big AB and then fail. Maybe it’ll be Logan on Friday. Or Moniak.

Now we’ll see if the “play the kids” crowd can really stomach it when the kids play and they do play like kids.

Fansince1971
Legend
7 months ago
Reply to  smithy610

The main point of playing the kids is not to win. It’s to determine what the team actually has for long term planning purposes. This team wasn’t going to do anything this year. So why not see if these kids actually are MLB ready and, if so, of what quality. P

It’s really a moot point since Arte wasn’t going to spend more money and, of course, the aging veterans are injured once again.

Anyone who doesn’t see this team is in desperate need of a complete tear down and rebuild is not seeing the reality. I’d put Sandy, Ward and Rengifo on the trade market when the time comes and see if that might generate some decent prospects.

smithy610
Super Member
7 months ago
Reply to  Fansince1971

The main point of playing the kids is not to win. 

I know that. I don’t expect first and second year full-timers to win the division, let alone the WS (yes, I exaggerate).

My point is there will be a lot of games where (insert young player here) will come up short in big moments. Today is one of those games. And there are 131 games to go. So 131 games to go to see Adell, Moniak, Logan, Schnauel, Neto, Reid, whoever they call up from the minors during the season, either come up big or short. With no dependable revenue stream (Ohtani or Trout), might as well embrace this from top to bottom, all the way to the bitter end.

clover_black
Super Member
7 months ago
Reply to  smithy610

The “kids” have literally been playing all year.

Pineapple12
Super Member
7 months ago

Amidst going 0/10 WRisp and Jo Adell’s 4 Ks, I actually enjoyed that game 🤷🏼‍♂️.

Most likely because 👑 Luis showed out once again haha. I would be crushed if we traded him, but man, should net a significant return.

smithy610
Super Member
7 months ago

Tay tay’s deep fly ball was one batter too late

max
Trusted Member
max
7 months ago
Reply to  smithy610

And the disrespect continues from the Doyer/Laker media as Channel 7 Sandoval called ‘Tyler’ Ward’s warning track pop up short. JFC these are players in your fucking media reporting area and you can’t get an MLB veteran’s name correct b/c he’s not a fookin’ Landgrabber/Trolley (toilet?) side-stepper? Do better

Roy Hobbs
Super Member
7 months ago

Honestly they deserve to lose until they learn to execute situationally. Tie the game and then worry about getting the winning hit.

BannedInLA
Super Member
7 months ago
Reply to  Roy Hobbs

Particularly when NONE of these guys are established all-stars that have earned a green light in these situations.

smithy610
Super Member
7 months ago
Reply to  Roy Hobbs

until they learn to execute situationally

That’s the growing pains with the kids. There will be more of that for the next 131 games. Adell will look good in some of those ABs, and then he will look like he did today in other ABs.

They won’t learn until in those exact game situations. I was hoping that Wash actually let Moniak hit against that lefty. He won’t suddenly learn to hit lefties in batting practice. I liked that Wash left Schanuel there to face the lefty. Either he wanted it to be a teachable moment, or he had no one left on the bench so he let Nolan play (assuming Drury’s migraine is a killer).

Last edited 7 months ago by smithy610
WallyChuckChili
Legend
7 months ago

We are wasting Adrianza!