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It’s never the best way to lose by watching your relief pitchers give great relief to the opposition. It’s also pretty crappy to watch your team lose by a pair of runs after suffering a triple play when they had the bases loaded. That on was the 11th time the franchise has hit into a triple play, so don’t you now feel special for seeing it?
And the lesson learned last night was that it’s not how you start, but how you finish that counts. And the only counting being done at the finish last night were the runs that the LAA bullpen that replaced the LAA bullpen (it was a Mike Scioscia ‘bullpenning’ game if you call Taylor Cole a natural reliever) was surrendering to the Rangers, who came from behind 6-3 to win 8-6.
There was plenty of offense. Kole Calhoun was 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored and 1 RBI. That included his 17th HR. All but 1 of those homers have happened since returning from his stay in Salt Lake City. And he makes for a sexy 1st batter of a game.
Slog through a Weekend’s-Worth-Of-HaloLinks:
A Little Bit Of Mike Trout News
The Angels have only had two 30 HR/30 SB seasons. Bobby Bonds in 1977 and Mike Trout in 2012. But Trout missed a 30/30 in 2013 when he came up 3 HR’s short. And he missed another in 2016 when he came up 1 HR short. And he could miss it again this season being 9 SB’s short and time running out............
A Little Bit Of Angels News
The Ian Kinsler payoff made it to the 25-man last night. Ty Buttrey got his call-up and pitched a clean (enough) frame.............
We are getting some pretty decent offensive production out of the catcher position this season............
So with Buttrey, the Angels have some pretty unfortunate roster accomplishments in 2018.....32 pitchers are a new franchise record.....13 of those pitchers made their MLB debut this season trying to fill in with the LAA patchwork pitching staff.....55 total players ties the record set only last year.....
Did you see that clean 2nd frame by Jose Alvarez last night? After taking over for a Taylor Cole having a melt-down? Yeah, I can’t complain about Alvarez...........
And thank you, Houston. Patrick Sandoval is coming. He has yet to allow a run scored since coming over to the Angels..........
Everywhere In Baseball
You read this study on the leadoff hitter revolution, you will find a chart that reveals what a lot of us were barking about years ago. It’s the kind of thing that Sosh apologists pretend never happened. We had the greatest of leadoff hitters as proven in 2012, and we never went back to that...........
Ok. So the Halos are not going anywhere this year. We are left to simply enjoy the game. And, in this mode, we have some serious baseball to which we should pay attention.............
If you subscribe to the belief that the Home Run Derby can ruin a hitter for the second half of a season, you are automatically then a believer that the Derby is what fixed Bryce Harper and improved him for the second half we are seeing now.............
Yep. It’s true. Strikeouts are up and hits are down, and soon the twain shall meet. But if average attendance is down by 1500 per game, how much of it is strike outs - at a time when fan-friendly home runs are zooming - and how much of that average can be laid at the feet of the Marlins (down more than 5200 per game from just 2 seasons ago), the Mets (down 2500), the Padres (5100), etc.?...........
Jose Urena sure is sad that is shag-assed move resulted in such public backlash. So sorry. Shoot. It was an accident, after all...........MLB doesn’t agree, they smacked Urena with a 6-game suspension, meaning that, as a starting pitcher, Urena will have to sit out one start. Dayum. That’s huge. Bug backbone, there, MLB..........Not everyone is quite in line with the idea that official wisdom.............Not everyone is quite in line with Keith Hernandez’ free-association admission that beaning a batter is a good thing (That would be the Keith Hernandez who took his infrequent shots during the soft-throwing era)............Some are quite disappointed...........By the way, Ronald Acuna ended up avoiding serious injury...........
Oh, and Yasiel Puig was suspended for 2 games for his dust-up with the Giants the other night.............
Somehow the Mets figured out how to score runs. And they did it against the Phillies. That’s pretty newsworthy right there. But that’s not the news. The news is that THEY SCORED 24 RUNS IN ONE SINGLE GAME. 10 runs in one inning!! It was so bad they used a position player to relieve another position player. When I am done doing this I am going to go figure out if I can find the single game and single inning records for the Angels, just because I am a masochist...........
I can’t figure out why it is that this FanGraphs study on strike zones and batter height fails to reinforce my conviction that Jose Altuve’s success is entirely attributable to forcing pitchers into a postage stamp sized K zone that is the meatiest part of the plate............
A woman loses her husband, who was her sports soul mate. This is a tough one...........
Adrian Beltre sure sounds like he is ready to park it on the porch...........
I know how you feel, Aaron Judge. I, too, am waiting for a major star to return to the field of play..........
Why don’t we get to have such a nice thing as Chris Sale? Why just the bad guys??...........
You are merely renting Machado, Doyers. Better take advantage of it while you can............
Joe Girardi and Jon Heyman are sabre experts? Who knew??..........
Humidors are coming to every ballpark near you, and every ballpark not so near to you. And soon. Because as sure as FanGraphs has figured out that they work, MLB will figure it out, too. And then, for the tin foil hats among us, MLB then has the power to turn the humidor knobs and adjust offense on demand, no?...........
Keep up with LLWS here. Because it’s going on NOW!..........
R.I.P. Aretha Franklin. August 11th is turning into one brutal anniversary............
The Duffle Bag
Really? We need Instant Replay to figure this one out??.............Nice catch, ump!..............Gotta try and use that base thingy next time, Bauer. Then it would be pretty groovy...........Manny’s Steakhouse owns Joe West............(h/t UniWatch) And you kids think you are so cool in inventing 3D batting helmet logos and such things..........I gift you all the Social Media time and powers that life had apportioned to me, Marcus Stroman............
