Unknown pitcher just breaking into the big leagues? Check
Offensive just put up a huge game the night before? Check
Dan Haren on the mound? Check
Seems like all the factors were in place for the Angels to lose the game in rather frustrating fashion. Dan Haren never gets run support from this offense and the Angels can’t hit nobody pitchers let alone follow up a big night with something at least half decent, so it really shouldn’t be a shocker that the Angels lost this one tonight. Maybe the loss really wasn’t that debilitating or I’ve become completely numb from all these disappointing games.
Game Notes
- Out of all the games the Angels have played against the Twins tonight easily showed off the worst of this Twins defense, at least in the outfield. There were far too many balls that Komatsu and Plouffe idly let fall in for base hits that the Angels did not capitalize on, in fact there were far too many opportunities the Angels did not cash in on in general. With the offense sputtering like always it was no surprise to see Haren get left hanging on the mound, though he was not nearly as sharp as he usually tends to be. Haren couldn’t even go 4 innings without giving up 5 runs on 8 hits, it was obvious from the beginning he was not his usual self. Maybe a little bit of offense could have changed that, but then again what are the chances of Haren getting some offense?
- Well it looks like the Angels got themselves a nice little long relief man in David Pauley, at least much better than Takahashi. Pauley pitched rather loosely tonight, though he got through his appearance with no runs given up, although he did give up 4 hits and 2 walks he managed to strike out 3. I don’t really think he’ll be up here for a significant amount of time, but if he manages to improve on tonight, even slightly, then he’ll have plenty of use before his time in the ‘pen is up.
- Four. Four is the number of hits the Angels had today. Notice that number is significantly less than the 12 the Twins had, which raises the question…what the expletive happened out there today. If you really put some positive thinking to it it was probably nothing more than an off day, though there are too many constants in this game that prove it to be otherwise. It looks like this team is going to struggle to put together a strong winning streak, probably won’t get anything good going for a few more weeks.
*Other notable offensive performances: NONE, NONE AT ALL