I don’t thoughts telling you, I now hate the Angels. Different shitty baseball groups have the grace and good manners to politely recede into the background because the common season grinds by way of August. When is the final time you considered the Diamondbacks? There are all the conventional ways in which dangerous groups suck and lose, that are instructive early within the season for understanding the lay of the land and setting expectations, however which require zero shut consideration come Tomato Time. A given dangerous workforce’s specific badness normally turns into a burden for that workforce’s poor perverted followers to quietly bear as summer season drags to an finish. When somebody places a Tigers or Pirates or Nationals replace into our firm Slack, it’s understood as a senseless compulsion or as a goof, and in both case nobody is actually anticipated to earnestly interact with it.
However these rattling Angels merely is not going to stop forcing their approach into view. Each third day it’s some new spectacle of ugly self-immolation, in order that an increasing number of we have now to have interaction with them as an ongoing tragedy, just like the alarming decline of a kid star. I for one am sick of it! There is sufficient to be bummed about on the earth with out the rattling Los Angeles Angels turning the again half of the season into some form of humanitarian disaster.
Monday night time’s loss was maybe their saddest but. I don’t wish to be speaking about this! The Angels entered the ninth inning tied at two with the visiting Mariners. Outfielder Sam Haggerty, whose sudden growth right into a pesky contact hitter par excellence has made him into one thing of a Seattle folks hero, punched a one-out single up the center off of Angels reliever Aaron Loup. This introduced Carlos Santana to the plate. Loup’s first pitch to Santana, an 84-mph cutter, was low and inside and bounced away from catcher Max Stassi. Haggerty, who’s fast sufficient on the bases to have been used 19 instances as a pinch-runner in 107 MLB video games, didn’t take off from first. This seems to not have mattered an excessive amount of to Stassi, who plucked the ball from the grass, wheeled hurriedly, and fired a liner into shallow right-center. Haggerty moseyed into second base. To punctuate the ominous sense of escalating chaos, Angels outfielder Magneuris Sierra needlessly chucked the ball to 3rd baseman Jose Rojas, the second time in roughly 5 seconds that an Angel uncorked a protracted, dangerous throw to beat a runner who was standing nonetheless.
Two pitchers later, maybe emboldened by the palpable aura of panic gripping the house aspect, Haggerty efficiently swiped third on a Loup changeup. Loup then threw consecutive cutters far off the plate inside, and put Santana on first, the place he was changed by pinch-runner Dylan Moore. Extraordinarily fucking insanely cool rookie Julio Rodriguez got here to the plate and laid off a pair of onerous inside pitches to get to a 2–0 depend. Loup’s third pitch of the at-bat was a grooved sinker, and Rodriguez hit an absolute missile of a liner straight at Luis Rengifo, stationed simply to the proper of second base. It was all Rengifo may do to knock the ball down, the place it squirted again onto the infield grass, eliminating any likelihood of a traditional double-play. Rengifo, to his credit score, stored his cool and fired to Stassi, placing Haggerty, who’d foolishly sprinted away from third when Rengifo dropped the liner, into the deepest of shit.
I’m certain there are every kind of nuances to orchestrating a correct rundown in numerous circumstances—there may be in all probability a option to do it in order that Haggerty is neutralized and Moore is deterred from chugging round second and gaining an additional station—however the primary factor is {that a} rundown overwhelmingly benefits the protection, and wiping out the lead runner is a mighty tremendous comfort for failing to transform Rodriguez’s liner into its anticipated end result. To make this work and preserve a run off the board, a minimum of one Angels participant aside from Stassi and Rojas wanted to course of {that a} rundown was underway and make a decent effort to take part. Sadly for the Angels, that didn’t occur.
Loup, the subsequent closest participant to house plate, stumbled and fell over. Jared Walsh, frozen in confusion, stayed rooted at first base because the motion flipped to the alternative finish of the diamond. Rengifo and shortstop Andrew Velazquez each made an effort to remain within the play, however by working side-by-side towards third base. As a consequence of all this disorganization, when Stassi made his inevitable throw to Rojas, there was not anybody in an Angels uniform anyplace near house, the one spot the Angels wanted most desperately to guard.
Naturally you at the moment are pondering, “Oh wow, they gave up the go-ahead run on a busted rundown within the ninth, these idiots.” My good friend, settle in, for we have now not lined even a 3rd of the “these idiots” a part of this sport. Two pitches later, with runners on first and third, Ty France tapped a tailored double-play grounder towards Velazquez. Velazquez, for causes identified solely to him, declined the inning-ending double-play and fired house, however a minimum of his throw was in time and on track, comfortably beating Moore to the plate. Stassi, whose job title is “catcher” and who’s paid to crouch behind house plate and catch the ball 100-plus instances a sport, merely did not catch the ball. Moore scored on the play, the ball rocketed all the way in which to the backstop, and Rodriguez and France moved as much as third and second, respectively.
We’re not carried out! Two pitches later, Jesse Winker smacked a tough grounder straight at Rojas, enjoying properly in on the infield grass for expressly the aim of taking away run-scoring alternatives. Right here ultimately was an occasion the place the anticipated end result of the play was a throw house to nab the lead runner. Did Rojas make the play? He didn’t. In his haste to rotate for a throw house, Rojas forgot to select up the ball, in order that by the point he lastly secured it the one remaining play was to first base. Rodriguez got here in to attain and put the Mariners up three runs. Right here’s the entire nightmare sequence, beginning with the failed rundown:
I’ve not but even talked about the worst a part of this. Shohei Ohtani, whose nigh-weekly historic feats have been wasted by the Angels for the higher a part of 5 years now, began on the mound Monday night time, struck out eight Mariners in six innings of two-run ball, and added an infield single within the eighth earlier than being stranded on third base. Aren’t you cheerful to have discovered this? Now, along with bewilderment and disgust on the workforce’s defensive ineptitude, you’re additionally feeling unhappy. Nice! Thanks for enriching our lives on this approach, Angels, you assholes.
