Another Bad Inning

The game on Sunday against Seattle came down to a single inning in which the Angels gave up 7 runs…flash forward to Tuesday and that game against the Rays came down to a single inning in which the Angels gave up 7 runs. What’s up with that? Just when it seems the Angels are turning a corner, as their offense is hitting and pitching is keeping the team in games, the starters give up a couple of innings like in the past 2 games. Now the team is back at the .500 mark and as they’ve already been declared sellers I have a feeling the front office has given up hope.

Goodbye Kinsler

If it wasn’t any indication that the team got rid of their #1 catcher, they traded off Ian Kinsler before the deadline. I suppose this isn’t too bad since I like seeing David Fletcher out on the field but as a final admission that defense doesn’t win games when those good defenders can’t hit has finally took hold in the front office. I liked what they did during the off season – I though a good defense with decent hitting would definitely help a young starting rotation. But then the rotation couldn’t do anything because it was injured the whole season and the offense, outside a couple notable starts, forgot that they were supposed to play like major leaguers. When you’re starting rotation all need s Tommy John surgery and the majority of batters seems to be struggling to get above a .200 batting average it makes me wonder what happened that made so many players have the worst season of their career.

Anyway, I’m sad to see Kinsler go. He was a good player who was having a down season but I still enjoyed watching him play. I expect he’ll go on to have a great time in the playoffs with Boston and most likely will come back to be a thorn in the Angels’ side whenever he plays us.

As for the game Tuesday, the 7 run 4th was the worst inning Skaggs has had in a long time. He was pitching so well, over multiple games and I think he gave up more runs in the game on Tuesday than he has for the past month. The team tried to come back with Trout and Calhoun hitting home runs and Calhoun and Pujols smacking 3 hits apiece, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit. With how well Calhoun’s been playing lately I wonder which of the trainers was unable to notice that he was injured earlier in the season. He dug himself into such a hole while he was hurt that now that he’s healthy, he’s still struggling to make his season stats decent.

I give my Player of the Game award to Calhoun since he went 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs, but Trout also had a notable game. With his 30th home run, he became only the 2nd player in history (the other is Willie Mays) to hit 30 home runs and steal 20 bases in 3 different season before their year-26 season.

Regardless of how the Angels play at least you can see history being made when they go out there. It’s either Pujols passing someone on some career list or Trout doing something only a couple other people have done…ever. I just hope that since the front office decided they’re sellers and basically giving up on the season that they start assessing how they can make next season better and how to keep people from the disabled list.

Sports | Angels – Another Bad Inning