Angels Stumped By Former Farm Hand, Lose 3-2

Tonight, some guy you've likely never heard of, and probably won't hear much from again, shamed the Angels offense and out-dueled mega-free-agent-acquisition CJ Wilson. Now any baseball fan will tell you that their favorite team can never seem to score on a random AAAA pitcher making his first major-league start. Angels fans say it a lot, and I've heard it from fans of many other teams. Maybe it's genuinely true. Maybe there is a market inefficiency out there waiting to be exploited. No more "aces" or "innings eaters," no more five-year, $75 million contracts for top-flight free-agent pitchers, just an army of disposable, one-time use AAAA pitchers. Tonight, it didn't make any difference at all.

Let the record show that the guy's name was Miguel Gonzalez, and he was once a mediocre reliever in the Angels' system. Now he's apparently a badass. Gonzalez breezed through seven innings on 100 pitches, getting nicked only for one run on Mark Trumbo's 21st bomb of the year. Wilson battled an inconsistent strike zone for seven innings of his own, but unlike Gonzalez, he made his mistake pitch with two runners on base. Aside from another Mike Trout solo homer with two outs in the eighth, that was pretty much the ballgame.

The Orioles were due to cool off, and they've been nice enough to roll over for the Angels three times in the last two weeks. Just not tonight. At least there will be two more chances to feast on their pitching before the All-Star Break.