Angels cannot overcome nightmare first inning

Mariners 8, Angels 5

It was over before it started. A quick glance at the final doesn’t reveal the depths of despair the Angels were in after the first inning, but really, this was never a game.

Felix Pena got his 7th start of the year, and it was quite possibly his last. There was no movement on any of his pitches, no deception, and by the time the dust had settled on the 30+ minute top of the first, the Angels were already down a touchdown. It went something like this:

Single (SB)-Single-Double-Single-Walk-K-Walk-Single-WP-Double-Bye!

As in, bye! Felix Pena was gone.

Other, very interesting stuff happened. The bullpen of Johnson-Bedrosian-Alvarez-Parker-Anderson-Robles came together like The Avengers and threw 8.2 innings of 1-run ball, and it is a good thing the Angels have an off-day tomorrow, because everyone worked today.

The Angels ended up with 5, courtesy of a Justin Upton 2-run homer and an Andrelton Simmons near-3-run-homer.

Denard Span. What can you do?

Edwin Diaz slammed the door shut. That makes it 12 wins for Marco Gonzales and 39 saves for Diaz, as the Angels fall to 9 back of the wild card.

Luis Valbuena got an at-bat for some strange reason, but make no mistake—this loss is on Pena.

This team is very, very close. We basically won a 5-1 bullpen game after the first. There is still magic in Anaheim this year.