Halo offense pulls out roller coaster of a 10-7 victory

It certainly seemed as though the Angels would never win again going into this evening’s thriller. After six consecutive losses, it can often feel like there is no point even bothering to turn it on. I already had the title for tonight’s game thread long before the first pitch was thrown:

Angels lose game again

For a while there, it seemed like a given with the way Jon Gray was dealing. Through the first three innings, the Halos would be kept off the basepaths entirely. Meanwhile, Odrisamer Despaigne was consistently, effortlessly, and determinedly running into trouble in every single inning. Walk after walk was issued (4 in 4 innings total for the right-hander) and a Tony Wolters home run and bases loaded no-out GIDP for Nolan Arenado would put the Rockies up 2-0.

The bottom of the 4th inning had arrived, and the Angels had not held a lead since the infamous Justin Anderson blown save in the 7th inning in Arlington on August 19, 2018. I began to set down and prepare myself to write the postgame.

But then Calhoun lined one into right field to break up the no-hitter and stole second, David Fletcher bunted beautifully down the line for a single, Trout ruined the shutout with an RBI single and then Ohtani stepped up with no outs and proceeded to end the streak.

Then Trout followed that up two innings later with a 111 MPH solo shot of his own, Arenado grounded out for an RBI, and then the game ended. That’s 10-7. Period.

I don’t care what anyone says; there was no top of the 8th! Justin Anderson absolutely did not walk the next batter on four pitches, Williams Jerez did not come in and walk two more batters before finally recording a single out, and there is zero chance that Jim Johnson quickly served up a meatball to DJ LeMahieu to put the Angels down 7-5 on a grand slam down the line. The Angels just wouldn’t do that to me because that would give me a lot of stress.

I mean, Odrisamer Despaigne, man/myth/legend, was starting for us. Of course the team is trying, right?

Regardless of how immaterial a top half of the 8th might have been, the bottom half definitely happened. The good guys would send 10 batters to the plate to utterly crush very good relievers Adam Ottavino and Seung-Hwan Oh and score 5 more runs to put the game away for good. Eric Young Jr. would come up big here, dumping a single between the middle infield and Blackmon.

Same time tomorrow? The Rockies will be using a lefty this time, so you’re not going to want to miss having zero Shohei Ohtani and the subsequent lack of run support.