Angels of the abyss: Cardinals hand Halos their fifth loss in a row

Angels 2  Cardinals  5

The name of the game tonight was WIN. Win the baseball game against the Cardinals, who really aren't THAT good, and that way the Halos don't lose five in a row, and I don't slowly begin to lose my sanity watching this team. Just a measly win, nothing too special or high-scoring or braggadocious. Maybe a nice 3-2 win or even 2-1, don't care.

I just went into tonight's game as a man who'd been in the desert for 48 hours, with now water...all i'm asking for is a one second sip from the garden hose, nothing more. There would be no sips of water from the victory garden hose tonight, though. Predictably, they left me dying of thirst, roaming that barren baseball desert.

Matt Shoemaker was the Angels starter of record, and if he were on some better offensive teams, him giving up four runs(all in one inning) wouldn't be raising any eyebrows. But this is the 2016 Angels, and one bad inning or a couple bad pitches and you're buried. Shoemaker's start really did boil down to one inning; it was the second inning, and RBI singles from Matt Adams and Kolten Wong, followed by sac flies from both Aledmys Diaz and Matt Carpenter,  turned the game into an 4-0 Cardinals romp and a short night for the recently-called up Shoemaker.

Shoemaker got out of that second inning, throwing two more sides without allowing any more damage, but was yanked in the fifth when the Cardinals began to threaten again. 4 IP, 7 H, 4 ER and only 1 K from The Cobbler and off to the bullpen went Mike Scioscia...again. Mike Morin got a little action, and stayed on his recent hot streak that's seen him retire 31 out of his last 35 batters; meanwhile, the Angels also got their first extra base hit in seems like forever, in the form of a two-run C.J. Cron moonshot to the center field camera well. That made things 4-2 Cardinals...manageable, but still probably too far out of reach for these lifeless Halos.

To pile on the task at hand for those mortified Angels bats, the Cards were given another run in the seventh. Greg Mahle got his reps in that inning, but an RBI double from Stephen Piscotty would end up marring his night and setting the home team inside a 3-run quagmire.

During all of this action, St. Louis' Jaime Garcia was dealing on the Angels, eventually going 7.0 innings, giving up just four hits in that time, with 2 R (the two runs from Cron's blast weren't even earned, due to a Matt Carpenter error) and 8 strikeouts. He came into the game as a good looking rotation piece for the Cards and he lived up to that analysis tonight in Anaheim. Of course, the Angels kind of make everyone look great lately, so who knows if we should be praising Garcia or damning the Angels; does it even matter, at this point, with five losses in a row?!

It just took one bad inning from Shoemaker tonight and the Angels' chances at saving a little face evaporated like Mike Scioscia's flop sweat when he cranks the A/C in his Chrysler on his way home from the stadium. One bad inning and the Angels' lose another series, wallowing in that suffocating, last place wooden coffin they've built for themselves. Five losses in a row, folks.

"Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, dying time's here."