Facing a struggling Kansas City team, the Angels lost their third consecutive series and put themselves 3 games under .500. There is plenty of blame to go around for this recent run of losses, but there have also been some solid performances by the Halos.
Let’s take a look at both.
The offense is still more miss than hit.
The number one problem with the Angels offense is strikeouts. The 9 K’s on Friday were a shade below their season average of 10 per game. Another 14 on Saturday night was simply inexcusable.
The real kicker is the Royals were not sending out aces, they had the bottom of their rotation throwing. No disrespect to Cole Ragans but he had a total of 9 strikeouts in his previous 3 starts combined. Yet he racked up 11 against the Angels on Saturday night. Noah Cameron recorded both his season high in K’s (6) and longest outing of the season (6.1) on Friday night.
Walbert Urena is not a finished product.
Urena has made huge strides in the last year or so but he is still a young pitcher learning to master command of his pitches. 5 walks on Saturday night proved he will still be erratic at times. The raw stuff is there. He has a great mentor in Mike Maddux. But he is going to have games where his command is simply off.
There are ample reasons to compare Urena to Jose Soriano when you look at their velocity, spin rates, pitch mixes and command issues at similar points in their careers. It took a few years for Soriano to develop into his current form. There’s no guarantee Urena ever becomes a front of the line pitcher but even if he does, there will be nights like this along the way. But with the team rebuilding and looking to the future, now is a good time to see what the kid has.
Baseball is a crazy game.
The two pitchers the Angels bats should have handled well dominated them. When facing one of the best in all of baseball, the Angels put runs on the board. This game is fully of oddities like that and that randomness is one of the reasons fans love the sport.
Add in some challenges on Saturday night that did not go the Angels way but put the game out of reach, and you have a crazy series. The Angels still need to put themselves in better position to win and not give away 23 outs in the first two games, but there will be crazy innings like the 4th inning yesterday.
Vaughn Grissom was a standout performer.
The book is still out on Grissom. His talent is evident but there are still some doubts. He did his best to silence them this weekend. The rare good performer last night, Grissom went 3 for 4 and was the only Angels starter not to strike out. On Friday he went 2 for 4 and again did not K.
Perry Minasian took two low cost gambles on Grissom and Oswald Peraza and so far he is looking good on both of them.
Kurt Suzuki continues to hamstring the team.
Sam Bachman came in and pitched one inning of decent ball today. That is all that can reasonably be expected of him. However, Suzuki left him in to start a second inning and it predictably went horribly. A leadoff home run was not enough to get Bachman pulled. Nor was the subsequent walk. Finally when Bachman, who clearly did not have his best stuff at any point in the inning, gave up a single to put 2 men on with nobody out and brought Bobby Witt Jr. to the plate as the tying run.
It took a rain delay to force Suzuki’s hand and give the Angels a chance to overcome their manager to secure a win.
Yes, the Angels bullpen was used heavily on Saturday night but none of Drew Pomeranz, Ryan Zeferjahn, or Shaun Anderson pitched in that game. None are ideal choices but all are better on a day’s rest than Bachman is going a second inning.
Mismanaging the bullpen allowed KC to bring Bobby Witt Jr. to the plate as the tying run with no outs in the bottom of the 7th inning. The complete lack of awareness of the pitching staff and game situations is a common thread with Suzuki.
He was also caught off guard on Friday night and left Yoan Moncada in to face a left handed reliever. Rather than pinch hit for him he left in Moncada who is 5 for his last 41 against lefties and predictably allowed a rally to die.
Zach Neto and Mike Trout are the keys to the offense.
Today the two stars shone. Mike Trout got the scoring started with a 2 run blast in the top of the first inning and Neto had 3 hits in his first 4 at bats. With that level of production at the top of the lineup, the Angels took an early lead.
When these two do well, the rest of the team tends to follow.
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