Jacob DeGrom makes the Angels look like a bunch of groms in 3-0 shutout loss

Angels 0 Mets 3

Baseball is such an unpredictable sport. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose; sometimes you win four in a row and your fans are once again excited to tune in to the games, sometimes you start a road trip with a streak-killing shutout loss to the Mets. You just never know which of those outcomes the Angels are going to serve up on any given night, which is it’s own special kind of maddening frustration; but hey...that’s baseball.

The Angels had yet to venture east of Texas so far this season, but yesterday they set out to begin a 10-game road trip that would have them going to New York, and then south, down the Atlantic shoreline. While their first stop would be the Big Apple, they’d be heading to Citi Field, not Yankee Stadium, and if they were to keep all of the goodwill and good vibes flowing, they would have to deal with the Mets and starting pitcher Jacob DeGrom.

It did not go so well, to put it nicely.

The good news:

As far as pinning the blame of tonight’s loss on a player, Angels fans can rest easy knowing that it was not the starting pitcher, Ricky Nolasco. Nolasco did admirably, going 6.0 IP/ 4 H/ 2 R/ 1 ER/ 3 BB/ 4 K...and ZERO HOMERS! That’s a solid start, one that I would be completely fine with if Nolasco were to repeat it every night for the remainder of the season. One solitary, stinking earned run, and NO DINGERS?! Sign me up ( I do feel bad for Ricky, though, because he’s going to get fined by Mike Scioscia for not giving up a contractually-obligated homer).

Mike Trout probably drew people to Citi Field who weren’t even fans of the Mets or Angels, they just came to see the game’s best player, live and in the flesh. They thought they might like to go to the show, and Trout did his best to make them feel a little space cadet glow, as he went 2-3 with one walk (an IBB, he now leads MLB in that category). That’s not even a good line for Trout, but considering the pitching the Halos faced off against tonight (more on that in a bit), 2-3 with a couple singles and a walk might as well be a four-hit game.

Andrelton Simmons had a double. Yay for Simba getting some xtra bases.

The bad news:

Jacob DeGrom was so not chill tonight. This dude is a horrible host, limiting his guests to just four hits in the 7.0 innings he tossed. DeGrom was toying with the Angels for most of his outing, racking up NINE strikeouts and ultimately keeping them off the scoreboard altogether. He had the Halos’ number.

With DeGrom dominating, those two runs allowed by Nolasco (and then the one run allowed by Jose Alvarez) may as well have been eight runs. The Mets didn’t even really flash anything remotely like an intimidating offense; they put up three runs total, one was unearned. Big whoop. Of course, two of the runs they gave up occurred WITH TWO OUTS ON THE BOARD. Thanks, guys. Thanks for that.

The result:

Angels got shutout, 3-0. Welp...

A pretty good start went toe-to-toe with a very strong start, mixed with a bit of typical Angels ineptitude, and a contractually obligated home run. They have the ability to take this Mets team to the mattresses, though, so it’s not something I’m going to lose any sleep over. It just sucks that we can’t be going about the rest of our Friday night with the energy and excitement of a Halos road win running through our veins.

Tomorrow, they’ll be back at it and let’s hope the Mets can trot out someone who WONT pitch like DeGrom did tonight.