Angels out smashed by the A’s, drop 3rd straight game

Angels: Not enough
Athletics: Way too much

Perhaps there is a pattern here... In recent weeks, the Angels had won 3 in a row, lost 3 in a row, won 4 in a row, and now had lost 3 in a row. This is how you flirt with being an average team. They win just enough but then go on losing streaks. This is your 2019 Angels team.

I had been optimistic for the Angels offense going into this one, considering they knocked in 5 runs off Chris Bassitt last month. But the Angels couldn’t muster much off Bassitt today and have now scored only 4 runs over their past 3 games.

Perhaps we can blame this partially on home plate umpire Jordan Baker? Nah. But he did make some pretty terrible calls.

Andrew Heaney made it through 6 innings and he struck out 8, but those numbers are pretty deceiving. He also gave up 5 runs. Somewhere Tyler Skaggs is saying WTF after being pulled last night while Heaney stays in after giving up a single, double, and homer in sequence in the 5th innings. Fortunately he didn’t give up any more runs but a pattern has developed over his last 5 games. Check out these runs allowed: 5, 1, 5, 1, 5. I guess we can look forward to his next start!

The Angels were present. Barely. They scored a run in the 4th thanks to a Shohei Ohtani solo bomb. Way back when the score was a manageable 5-1 in the 6th inning, the Angels made things interesting for a hot second when they sent 6 batters to the plate (hold your applause), and score another run.

This game was really already out of reach, but the 8th inning made things disastrous. The inning started with Cam Bedrosian giving up a triple, fly out, walk, and fly out, but then 2 out-itis and some back luck game into play. Matt Chapman scored on a single, Mark Canha scored on a Tommy La All Star (he did have a 3 hit game!) error and Robbie Grossman literally knocked Cam Bedrosian out of the game (hope he’s okay!). The A’s sent 11 batters to the plate and Matt Chapman had a double and triple in the inning. Chapman fell a single shy of the cycle.

Shohei Ohtani wasn’t finished and whoever was still watching the game was treated to another Shohei smash in the 8th.

Crazy stat of the game:

A’s = 11 hits
Angels = 9 hits

That’s what happens when a team can drive in runs. The A’s were 5 for 15 with runners in scoring position and left only 3 stranded. The Angels were 2 or 11 with runners in scoring position and left 8 on base.