Weaver Talked Out of Winning in Loss to Rays

Jered Weaver entered the seventh inning having only thrown 74 pitches. Behind 1-0, Weaver was pitching well. He had allowed four hits up to that point. After getting the first out of the inning he walked his first batter. Desmond Jennings then stole 2B.

What does this cause? A visit to the pitching mound by Mike Butcher.

Put it into perspective. Imagine that you are good at your job and your immediate supervisor visits you on a tense workday of an otherwise high-performing workweek. Do we need to add that your supervisor had your job pback in the eighties and was terrible at it? Regardless, the hack pitching coach gave Weaver some instructions prior to the appearance of the next batter.

That batter hit a two-run home run on Weaver's first pitch.

Is it too much a stretch to incriminate Mike Butcher in any of this? Hard to tell. But Weaver, ever impassioned, was mouthing hard and heavy when the FSN-West camera zoomed in on him post-homer.

The Rays might have won and the Angels might not really have had a prayer, but when you take the attitude that it is okay for the Angels to lose games because it means the team gets better draft picks, look at the cracking of the very foundation of this team and then look in the mirror and call yourself a fan. You cannot do it.

Chris Iannetta hit a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh and then two men got on and it appeared Weaver had a slim chance to at least get off the "Loss" hook. But the team tonight left men on base like a single girl in Newport separates her recyclables from her trash. It wasn't happening.

When will it ever be happening again, though, looms as the larger question.