LA Angels Tuesday News Crash: The Wild

Just to be clear, are folks quite confident that it’s not the pitcher talent level dictating game outcomes, but just the timing and sequencing of said pitcher appearances?

I mean, just as an example, the death blow in last night’s game was the three-run Pomeranz HR.

When Suzuki took Jack K out of the game, he immediately went to the only reliever in his pen who hadn’t surrendered a hit in over a week, and had two scoreless innings in KC and vs Toronto. Then he pulled Sandlin after he faced the minimum three batters and couldn’t get anyone out.

Then he went to the reliever who hadn’t surrendered a home run in over six years to a left-handed batter to face LHB Murakami. The MLB HR leader promptly crushed it and cashed all the runners in.

Now I’m not saying Suzuki is inherently a genius or a fool, but in each case there, he made the most rational decision available to him in selecting the next man up. He went to the guy on a hot streak first, then to the guy who shuts down lefties next. He did what all the data said he should.

You could say Kochanowicz should have pitched longer, but he’s pitched 88-97 pitches in each game thus far, so maybe had one or two batters left. That’s a judgment call for a field manager who badly needs his patchwork rotation to stay healthy.

But one thing is abundantly clear: these are very volatile relievers, and situational pitching isn’t improving that – it barely matters the order in which they appear.