Angels bats go to sleep and never wake up in 5-0 shutout loss to White Sox

Angels 0  White Sox 5

Well, that was pretty bad. The Angels' offense must have used up all of their baseball energy in last night's game against the White Sox, leaving them running on fumes today as well as leaving Matt Shoemaker twisting in the wind. This Halos team is a coin flip; a double-dealing beast that stomp teams one night, and then fold into the fetal position and take a beating the next. If you get excitement from the inherent unknown of the average sporting event, the fact that anything could happen in any given moment, then you probably think this squad is a real clambake. Me, personally...I like consistency. So yeah, these guys are making me bald(er) from pulling my (remaining) hair out.

The offense is the story of the game, or rather, the lack thereof. It's a story we've already told too many times in this short season, one of wasted opportunities and Angels batters making a starting pitcher also-ran look like an All Star. They were absolutely lifeless in this game, getting dominated by former Angels castoff Mat Latos, who must have had some revenge on his mind similar to Hector Santiago last night. Latos is having a bounce back year and looked as such this evening, at one point taking a no hitter into the fifth inning. He would only give up two hits in his his 6.1 IP, and the Chicago bullpen would come in and only give up one. It was pure ugliness that i'd soon rather forget about.

What's even worse is Matt Shoemaker, who took the mound for the Halos tonight, had himself a nice game but the Angels couldn't muster a couple runs to pick him up. It was the second start in a row where Shoemaker has looked good; not quite as dominant and mouth-watering as his last start in Oakland, but it was still a solid outing. He would go 6.1 IP, giving up 6 H and 2 ER, both of which were off of solo homers. He can hold his head high, as he did his job nicely.

The Angels lineup, however, should hang their head in shame. Again, there were THREE HITS, against a White Sox team that can barely get 300 people into their stadium and going up against a pitcher who has a cat named Cat Latos. Unacceptable. The bright spots, other than Shoemaker looking good, was one of the three Angels hits came via an Andrelton Simmons double. Simmons now has a career-high 12 game hitting streak, and is batting a respectable .278. So that's it...Shoemaker and Simmons and a bunch of D.O.A. garbage in between.

When this lineup disappears, they just don't go quietly. They seemingly scrub every semblance of their talent and joy for playing the game right off the face of the planet, leaving only abandoned, grizzled husks in their place to look at pitches and feign swinging. Tomorrow, they could erupt for a couple touchdowns worth of runs, and it wouldn't surprise me. The only thing this team seems committed to at this point is being inert or unpredictable, or both at the same time.

Someone wake me up, and bring me into the real world, where Mike Trout is batting over .220, where Albert Pujols can be counted upon in the middle of the lineup, and where the Angels give us the same competitive product on the field night in, night out. Whatever this team is right now...two faced and erratic...is slowly driving me insane.