The Halos opened their second half with an unfortunate 6-5 loss to the Yankees, despite entering the bottom of the 8th inning with a 5-2 lead.
Games like this one show us exactly why wins and losses are a poor way to judge pitchers. CJ Wilson tossed a gem for the Halos, letting just seven Yankees reach base throughout seven strong innings. When he left, Wilson had allowed only a pair of runs and gave the Angels a great chance to win.
The top of the order helped build the lead for Wilson. Mike Trout did Mike Trout things, Albert Pujols came up with two big hits, and Mark Trumbo seriously damaged a baseball. I think Trumbo’s home run ball ended up flying over the Bermuda Triangle; it was instantly gone.
The team as a whole wasn’t perfect, but five runs should have been more than enough. Scott Downs, who entered the game with a 0.30 ERA, came on for the 8th inning, and it was just about over for the Yankees. Derek Jeter led off the inning with a double into the gap in right center field and Curtis Granderson followed him with a walk.
Downs got ahead against the next batter, Mark Teixeira, then tossed him a breaking ball in the 1-2 count. Fortunately for Teixeira, Downs left the ball up, and the Yankees’ first baseman planted it in the seats in left field, tying the game at five.
The next two outs came in order, but then Downs walked Nick Swisher and Mike Scioscia had seen enough, deciding to put the game in the hands of Kevin Jepsen, which is almost always a bad decision.
Dewayne Wise pinch ran for Swisher, and promptly took second on Jepsen to put himself in scoring position. After the steal, the Halos intentionally walked Raul Ibanez (who, by the way, continues to look like Voldemort) to bring up Russell Martin, who boasted just a .555 OPS against righthanders entering tonight’s action. Ibanez’s OPS against righties, .796, was good enough to somewhat justify the intentional walk.
The typical righthander that gets Martin out, however, is good and Kevin Jepsen is not. Martin promptly singled to give the New York the lead, 6-5.
Rafael Soriano picked up the save, with only a small hiccup coming when he allowed a one-out single to Howie Kendrick. The Angels failed to come back and open up the second half of the season on a positive note.
Hudson Belinsky can be followed on Twitter at @hudsonbelinsky.
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Tough series, but at the end of the day losing 2-1 @NYY isn’t the end of the world. Downs had his first hiccup of the season so it felt like the Angels should have come out 2-1 but oh well. Offense is looking good; can’t wait for Ianetta to come back and give some more OBP at the bottom of the lineup to set up some more RBI opportunities for Trout. Aybar is looking like a better option at the 2-slot (Hunter had a hot stretch, but realistically he grounds out too many times and isn’t as versatile as a locked in Aybar). Their pitching struggles don’t figure to continue once Haren gets healthy, and their offense has averaged over 5 runs per game with Trout in the lineup. It’s amazing how many runs the Yanks score off homeruns, kudos to that. They’re never out of a ballgame.
“Tough series, but at the end of the day losing 2-1 @NYY isn’t the end of the world.”
Nice spin…yes, on the surface, you can dismiss the 2-1 series loss because you were playing the team with the best record in baseball on the road, but let’s look a little deeper. You didn’t face CC Sabathia and had your two best pitchers on the bump in the series. And you were just one A-Rod choke-job away from getting swept. Sorry, but if we’re to believe the Angels have rallied from their April morass and are now among the elite teams of baseball, they don’t lose 2 of 3 and eke out 1 ugly win in a series like this.
You’ve got 4 at Detroit and 3 at home versus Texas coming up to brush this slow start off. I’m not convinced the Angels can hang.
“Downs had his first hiccup of the season so it felt like the Angels should have come out 2-1 but oh well.”
More spin. If the highest paid player in MLB gets one clutch hit, you probably get swept. End of story.
Good for you, troll. Of course you’re not convinced…LOL.
“Good for you, troll.”
When you resort to calling someone a “troll,” you might as well be saying, “Sorry, I got nothing else and concede the argument.”