Angels go down quietly to A’s 4-1, but Trout & Pujols didn’t play so this game doesn’t count

Angels 1 Rangers 4

The Angels lost today, ruining their bid for winning their fifth series in a row, and quietly sending them their second loss in a row. It was a little bit of a step back for the club, after getting some wind in their sails these past couple weeks, but then again, they didn’t even have Mike Trout or Albert Pujols in the lineup, so does this even count? I’ll wait for an official ruling on that.

We had a couple debuts in this game, though, which added some interest. On the Angels side, we got to see the Halos debut of Alex Meyer. Meyer was sent to the Angels along with Ricky Nolasco, in exchange for Hector Santiago, and while Nolasco was the ready-to-roll name of that trade, it was Meyer who added the most intrigue for GM Billy Eppler.

Meyer is coming off an injury, so it was expected that he would be on a 70-75 pitch count, and that’s exactly what we saw, as Meyer was taken out at the 68 pitch mark.

The good: he was consistently in the upper 90s, velocity-wise, and when he got his curveball over, it was quite effective. He wound up with 5 Ks and just one hit, and one run. The bad: those 68 pitches only got him through 3.1 innings, in which he also gave up 4 BBs. Still, there is something there that can be worked with and I’m ready to see this guy pitch some more.

The other debut in this game was Oakland A’s pitcher Jharel Cotton, who was making his first career MLB start...hey, that’s what September is for, right? Cotton held the Angels in check, and not only got his first career win, but he became just the 20th pitcher in MLB history to pitch 6+ innings while giving up less than two runs, less than three hits and under three walks.

So there’s that...an impressive debut from a young, up-and-coming Athletics pitcher. Stop me if you’ve heard that one before.

On top of the one run given up by Alex Meyer, the bullpen also contributed to the damage as Jose Alvarez, Jhoulys Chacin and Brett Oberholtzer all gave up a run apiece in their time on the bump.

So with a total whimper, in a quiet little getaway day game, the Angels went down 4-1 to the A’s, and now they head back to Anaheim for a series against the division-leading Rangers. It would have been nice to have a little steam built up going into that rumble, but it wasn’t meant to be, and the 2016 season just keeps rollin’ on.