Catcher Pitching to Catcher

Well, that game certainly did not go as planned. After a nice 4 game winning streak the Angels got smacked by the Athletics on Saturday 7–0. They were held to 5 hits and went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and it was a far cry from the comeback they staged on Friday.

Skaggs Should Stayed on the DL

Coming back from the DL and his worst start of the season I expected Tyler Skaggs to be a little rusty but not this bad. It looked like he should stayed on the DL for a bit longer, but then nearly all the Angels pitchers are on the DL so who’d pitch…oh, a catcher! Yup, after the poor performance of Skaggs, giving up 7 runs in 3 1/3 innings, and watching the tired bullpen fight through 4 2/3 of shutout ball, Mike Scioscia called on Francisco Arcia to finish off the game in the 9th. And he pitched well.

It was the 1st time since Chili Davis threw off the mound back in 1993 that a non-pitcher (Shohei is a pitcher) threw for the Angels. With this opportunity to show his stuff, Francisco put together a one hit shutout inning. And I’m thinking perhaps he should start instead of Deck McGauire from now on.

In all seriousness, it’s a sad point in the season when a team has to bring out position players to pitch. For the Angels it meant the game was over, but it also meant that they’ve been using up their relievers all season. With so many injuries to the pitching staff, I’m surprised it took this long to finally trot out a fielder to pitch. I’ll have to look up the statistics but I can reasonably say that I believe the Angels have to be in the top 3 in pitcher appearances. They’ve only got one complete game and most of their starters tend to go 5 or 6 innings, or on a good day they might get through 7 innings.

With the offense completely shut down and Skaggs destroying his ERA again (he was throwing a 2.62 ERA through the first 19 starts this season, now he’s at 3.78 after giving up 17 runs in his past 6 2/3 innings), I’m thinking I’ll give my Player of the Game to the bullpen again. These guys – Hansel Robles, Williams Jerez, Noe Ramirez, and now Francisco Arcia really did their job in this game and they certainly deserve the award after all the games they’ve been forced into and runners they’ve had to hold.

Sports – Angels – Catcher Pitching to Catcher