Week 6 Halo Recap: The Good, the bad, and the meh

Part of me was thinking I was going to be writing a depressing weekly recap again - for the second time in a row, but a  week that started out bad (by sliding into a 6 game skid), ended great (with a sweep of the first place Mariners).  It was also a busy week for the front office, who made a flurry of moves (12 total) over the past 5 or 6 days.

The Angels needed something to happen, and although they are not out of the gray for the season, some very encouraging things DID happen over the past  6 days.  Apparently a trip to the Emerald City is exactly what they need to grease the wheels.

There is fight in this team.  After a 6 game losing streak, we saw late inning scoring, multiple comebacks and struggling hitters finally working it out.  Our pitching remains a bit of a problem, so hopefully we can figure that out and keep our offense up.  It's going to be tough heading into the 4 game Dodger series this week.

THE GOOD

Angel newbies Gregorio Petit and Jefry Marte were both called up on Friday, and both played a part in helping the Halos sweep the Mariners.  They went a combined 4 for 9 with two doubles (both of Marte's hits were extra baggers), and Petit flashed some leather in Sunday's game..

Yunel Escobar continues to hit the ball well and hit .381 last week.

Kole Calhoun tore it up with a .407 OBP last week and 7 RBIs (team leading). He led the team (along with Cron) in Ks, but you can pretty much ignore that with those numbers.

Mike Trout had a .407 OBP, hit a homerun, and stole a base.  Not bad in a week's work.

Our middle infielders Cliff Pennington and Johnny Giavotella put up good numbers as well, and they both hit over .300.  Johnny G raised his season average from .197 to .242 last just over the past 6 days.

C.J Cron batted .280 with 2HR and 6RBI.  Those stats are also good enough to overlook his 5Ks that he racked up.  He even stole a base!

Albert Pujols won the game for the Angels on Saturday with his 3 run blasts in the top of the 9th.  He had 2HR last week and hit .240.

Perennial hitless wonder Ji-Man Choi was (finally) DFA'd on May 11th.  Considering that offensive dead weight, Taylor Featherston, stayed around all season in 2015, this is a great move.

Joe Smith finally had a good week and went 2 for 2 in save opportunities as well as pitching 4 scoreless innings and  posting at .75WHIP and .077BAA.

Jhoulys Chacin made a fantastic halo debut when he gave up only 2ER (on a 2 run homerrun) and pitched 7 innings with zero walks.  He had the first quality start the Angels have seen in what seems like months.

Hector Santiago finally showed his quality stuff again when he closed out the Mariners series with yet ANOTHER victory over Felix Hernandez (Angels are 3-0 the last 3 times Santiago faced Hernandez) .  He did it by pitching 8 innings for only the second time in his career and giving up only 2 hits and zero runs, even carrying a no hitter into the 6th inning.

Sweep!  We can't leave this section without mentioning how the Angels swept the first place Mariners right out of the top of the standing (The Rangers sit there now).  Pretty sure few would have predicted that series outcome after the Angels were coming off a 6 game losing streak.

THE BAD

Injuries socked the Angels again, when Andrelton Simmons was put on the DL Monday for a thumb injury that will put him out for 2-3 months.

Brendan Ryan has been pretty worthless at the plate since Billy Eppler traded what I can hope is a bag of video games tokens and a new clubhouse dartboard to fill the void left by the Simmons injury.  He's had 7 AB and is hitless so far.

Hector Santiago was a mess in his first start of the week, last only 4.1 innings with a noticeable decrease in pitch velocity.

The Angels were swept by the Cardinals, marking back to back sweep at home, and sending them to the bottom of the standings.

I love Carlos Perez, but his hitting has been horrible in 2015.  Mabey it's time to do a switcharoo with he and Bandy for a bit and see what the Jett can do.  Perez was 1 for 10 last week and is hitting a meager .155 on the season.

The Angels pitching staff had 4 straight games were starters lasted 5.0 innings or less and gave up 18 runs in those 4 starts.

Our bullpen didn't fare much better with Fernando Salas, Greg Mahle, Mike Morin, A.J. Achter, and Javy Guerra combining for 10.2IP and 13 runs allowed.  Ouch.  Achter and Guerra were DFA'd on Thursday and Friday.

Jered Weaver was pretty much a disaster and gave up 8ER in 4IP with 79 pitches thrown.  Somehow he managed to strike out 5 on his way down to the cellar.

THE MEH

Finally, the Angels offense showed up against the Cardinals in game 3 with 10 runs scored.  Unfortunately, Weaver dug a deep hole and the bullpen brought shovels.

Fernando Salas saved a game and blew a save over the weekend.  He (and Morin) nearly lost us the game on Saturday, but the Angels fought back with 3 runs in the 9th to win the game.