Did last night’s game look familiar to you? It should, because it ended the exact same way as the series opener against the Mariners. Mike Carp gave the Mariners the lead with 2 RBI hits both nights, Monday being a homerun and last night being a double. What makes this pill hard to swallow is the fact that Carp got those base hits off of lefties coming out of the bullpen, lefties Scioscia put in to play it by the numbers. What makes that pill even harder to swallow is the fact that both defeats at the hands of Carp cost the Angels 1.5 games in the standings. Last night’s game should have been won; the Angels should be 2.5 back of the Rangers. Instead we get a choke job out of the bullpen and more ground to cover while the days slowly whittle away. At the end of the month we’ll be looking back at games like this that should have been won, hopefully we’ll be looking back with glee as the Angels manage to sneak into the playoffs instead of bitterness and frustration as the Angels miss a playoff berth.
Game Notes
- Last night’s game ended in bitter defeat as Scott Downs gave up a 2 out 2 run double to Mike Carp in the bottom of the eighth inning, just 4 out away from picking up a game on Texas. With every late inning lead the Angels lose because of the shoddy bullpen Tony Reagins should be closer and closer to losing his job. He’s done nothing to solidify this bullpen even though they’ve blown 22 saves this entire year. I bolded that to make sure you read it correctly, TWENTY TWO SAVES blown by this bullpen. That’s the Angels missing the playoffs this year, yet Reagins sits idly by and allows the Rangers to add 3 quality relievers while he sits by and lets Rodney and Takahashi keep pitching in tight games. If the Angels miss the playoffs this year it won’t be because of the players, it’s going to be because of Reagins. I can take a bad season, which is what the Angels had last year, but this year Tony Reagins is holding his team back. Have you ever heard of that, a GM holding his own team back? If the Angels miss October baseball this year I don’t want to see Reagins face in this organization anymore, or I’ll be a very unhappy fan.
- Dan Haren got his mojo back with last night’s start, going 7.2 innings while giving up only 2 runs and K’ing 7 batters. He ended up with the loss though, even though Downs blew the save, which furthers my frustration with the Win-Loss stat. It’s an arbitrary stat that does more to tell you how good the pitchers team behind him is then the actual pitcher himself. That’s why a pitcher like Felix Hernandez can have 11 losses on his record while a pitcher like Ivan Nova can have 14 wins while putting up an era of 3.96. Don’t get me wrong; Nova’s a good pitcher, but to put that in perspective for you take a look at Jered Weaver’s stats. A 2.28 ERA gets him only 15 wins, while he would surely have 20+ with the Yankees already. I know it delves a lot deeper than ERA, but that’s a rant better saved for another day.
Halo A-Hole
This entire Angels bullpen. I’m getting tired of seeing them blow close game after close game. How’s a team supposed to succeed in the playoffs, let alone get there, if their bullpen can’t hold onto a 1 run game?