No Buttercup in the 7th, but there was a big Buttercup in the 9th, Angels fall to Twins 4-2

Angels 4 Twins 2

The Twins strolled into tonight’s game in a neck and neck race with the Indians for King of the AL Central Hill, so the Angels must have known this wasn’t going to be like some of the more pushover-prone Minnesota teams of yesteryear. This Twins have sprouted a robust offense in 2017, so Alex Meyer, fresh from the DL and back on the bump for the Halos, was going to have his work cut out for him.

Minnesota aint Atlanta, and they weren’t going to be gifting runs like it was Christmas in June. This was going to be a legit fight, the threat of the Twins’ lumber was compounded by the fact that the Twinkies were sending young gun Adalberto Mejia to the mound (their #8 prospect, as we learned from Jessica’s series preview), who as of late has been pitching pretty darn good.

Tonight, Mejia was pretty darn good, but the good news is Alex Meyer was pretty darn good, too! In fact, both starting pitchers had nearly identical stat lines:

Mejia- 6.0 IP/ 5 H/ 1 R/ 1 ER/ 2 BB/ 5 K/ 1 HR

Meyer- 6.0 IP/ 5 H/ 1 R/ 1 ER/ 2 BB/ 4 K/ 1 HR

So both guys were really stifling the lineups they were facing, which put a damper on one of the big stories of the evening: Albert Pujols. The Machine was still sitting at #599, so many people were at the Big A tonight to see some history being made, and who could blame them? Unfortunately, Pujols would get a hit tonight, but not HR #600.

The one run Meyer gave up, off of a Miguel Sano solo shot in the second inning, was all the scoring we had seen from either team in this game until the bottom of the sixth, when Kole Calhoun donned his Red Baron persona once again, and reminded us why we love him so, so much.

Kole Calhoun not only busted out one of his trademark, flying-through-the-RF-air-with-reckless-abandon diving catches, but he also hit TWO solo home runs in two consecutive at-bats. The first was in the sixth, when he took Mejia yard and tied the game up 1-1. Then, in the bottom of the eighth, the game still knotted up, he hit his second solo blizzy of the night, this time off of Twins reliever Taylor Rogers. The Angels had a 2-1 lead, heading into the ninth.

What could go wrong?

Short answer: Jefry Marte.

In the top of the ninth, with Jose Alvarez on the mound, it first seemed like things were going in the Angels’ favor, the W was already in the air. Alvarez got a groundout on the very first pitch, in fact. One pitch, one out. Then, the Halos started to crack. Jorge Polanco hit a pop fly to first base, a play that most replacement level MLB players could make without too much effort at all, and Jefry Marte beefed it, letting it drop in front of him and Polanco was safe at first.

That was really just one in a series of questionable or downright bad plays on the ball by Marte tonight, and he really saved the worst for last. Eventually, Alvarez would give up a double and then a single, which scored Polanco, all because of Jefry Marte’s inability to catch a pop fly. Bud Norris would come in at that point, with the Angels down 3-2, and he’d walk in a run to make it 4-2.

The Angels went down in order in the bottom of the ninth, and that sealed the raw Twinkie deal. Kole Calhoun could only do so much tonight, but we can also get a silver lining or two out of Alex Meyer’s evening, too.

Oh, and there was no “Buttercup” in the seventh inning. You know, when I put it like that, this loss wasn’t so bad! Look and listen for yourself! NO “BUTTERCUP”!

Of course, it’s one thing to get rid of “Buttercup” in the seventh, but what does it even matter when they just Buttercup us on the field, in the friggin’ ninth inning?! One Buttercup at a time, I guess. One Buttercup at a time.