Why Get Outs Postgame

May 8, 2025

8 Comments

The Angels offense got off to a great start, putting up 4 runs in the first two innings. Taylor Ward has been in the slump of all slumps, but he started the scoring with this two run blast in the first inning.

Taylor Ward two-run homer! pic.twitter.com/pdaeVqGRSS
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 9, 2025

Jo Adell has been in a rough stretch as well, but he blasted this ball in the second inning to extend the lead.

Jo Adell got ALL of this one! pic.twitter.com/Av86StNMKc
— MLB (@MLB) May 9, 2025

Normally a 4 run lead would allow a pitcher to settle down and get into a groove. Not so with Jose Soriano tonight. He was simply unable to get many swings and misses and proceeded to give up hit after hit tonight. All told he allowed 8 hits to go along with 4 walks in only 5 innings. That’s an ugle 2.4 WHIP that isn’t going to win many ballgames.

Yet somehow Soriano walked the tightrope and left with a 4 to 3 lead. Enter the blowpen. 4 runs in the top of the 6th put Toronto on top 7-4. Our Halos loaded the bases in the bottom half of the frame but swung for the fences and netted a single run on Logan O’Hoppe’s sacrifice fly before Moncada struck out to end the threat.

Not to be outdone by Toronto’s blowpen, the Angels promptly gave that run back in the top of the 8th to allow Toronto to regain a 3 run edge.

Angels pitchers combined to allow 18 hits and 7 walks, nearly three runners per innings. That is atrocious.

Overall it is a series win but when you blow a 4-0 lead it feels like a really bad loss. Up next, Baltimore is in town for a three game set.

8 Comments

Newest

Oldest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Legend

Eric_in_Portland

19 days ago

P12 asked, as we started the top of the 6th, “how the heck do we get 12 outs?” which summed up the problem well.

We’re approaching the 49 game mark, 1/4 of the season. I’d love to see us win the Baltimore series, then beat the Mariners and get to 18-22. That would progress from last year

Legend

gitchogritchoffmypettis

19 days ago

We lost. So now all the pucker jobs can come out of the woodwork and comment on the post game Huzzah!

Meh. Far from the worst loss we have seen or will see this year. Is…. could it be…. is Adell trying to hit? Turn the page. This team’s got to get it together or we won’t make the play offs. Moron Wash. Stupid Perry. Evil Arte. No grit. Blah blah wah wah. At least America won the Pope Derby.

Maybe another 4 weeks till we see trades? Kids come up? Something new to watch with the critical eyes of men who have played zero games and watched thousands?

Trusted Member

CAoldskoll

19 days ago

Sorryano such an erratic pitcher. Not the ace people were hoping for this year. Bummer

Super Member

BannedInLA

19 days ago

Reply to CAoldskoll

True but, he’s still a solid 3-5 starter which is still a great result considering he was a project.

Legend

JackFrost

19 days ago

Reply to CAoldskoll

The thing about him is that he has solid # 2 starter stuff… It could be Ace stuff if he fixes the mental part of his game and learns how to really pitch, not just throw. But I still have hopes for him. But it seems that just about every game he has one inning where he loses focus, and it ends up costing him. If he learns how to maintain his focus for 6-7 innings straight he’ll be a 20 game winner.

Tonight it was the 3rd inning. I mean, he had a 4-0 lead. He should have been confidently attacking people. He tends to nibble when he doesn’t have to. It is frustrating to watch as a fan. He has a deadly 98 mph power sinker and a wicked, breaking Knuckle Curve to boot. Nobody should be able to hit him… but he still walks guys to lead off innings etc… Don’t give up on him. What is happening is correctable — it is not about lack of talent or stuff, but about approach, I think.

Last edited 19 days ago by JackFrost

Super Member

TrojanBoiler

19 days ago

Reply to JackFrost

It was also the first inning but he locked down and got out of it because like you said, he has great stuff.

Legend

JackFrost

19 days ago

Reply to TrojanBoiler

Yep. He did an amazing job of pitching his way out of that jam in the 1st; I mean, bases loaded and NO OUTS and he gave up nothing !! Wow. Not often you see that… Of course in that situation it was not walks that hurt him… Just good, solid hits by the Jays.

Something I have noticed in BOTH Soriano and Silent C is that they can have one or two smooth innings and seem to be in control, and then they come out for the third inning and BAM they walk the leadoff guy on five pitches. And the funny thing is that the guy they walk is usually the number 8 or 9 hitter and has an average of .132 or something … Makes you want to pull your hair out.

Overall, we are in the bottom 10 teams in terms of most walks surrendered. We have to be more aggressive early in counts, especially guys like Soriano and Silent C have have good fastballs. Just don’t put it in the middle of the plate. Outer quadrant or inner quadrant is just fine…usually you’ll get a foul ball and be up in the count with the batter at 0-1.

Really, this stuff mostly comes down to coaching and culture. Cheap Arte being who he is, it is not surprising that our young players aren’t coached and developed to do things the right way.

The other thing is that they usually don’t seem to be pitching to context in that inning; by that I mean that our pitchers don’t seem to understand who is hitting where in the inning. When you have a guy hitting .129 hitting with no outs, and he if followed by somebody who is hitting .355, and is really hot with 2 hits in the game already then you want to attack that .129 hitter and make him earn his way on. You don’t walk him and now you’ve got trouble and can’t afford to pitch carefully to the hot hitter. This stuff should be obvious, but time after time you see Angel pitchers not doing it… They seem to ignore or miss this straightforward in-game strategy. Silent C did this several times on Sunday for instance.

Last edited 19 days ago by JackFrost