<$BlogRSDURL$>
Proceeds from the ads below will be donated to the Bob Wuesthoff scholarship fund.

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Angels In Free-Fall: Red Sox 11, Angels 6

As I mentioned the other day, the Angels' last stint when they lost seven in a row was in the lost year of 2001, when they did it twice; but neither of those were consecutive series. (They were split over three teams, one of which was a short two-game set.) The last time they lost seven straight as every game of consecutive series was the 1993 team, losing consecutive road sweeps to the Red Sox and Yankees in the midst of a horrific 11-game skid that saw them fall from three games out of the division lead to nine games back; they finished 71-91, 23 games out of the division behind the Chisox.

This year isn't quite that bad, and in fact, there's a bit of a silver lining hiding in that horrible year: on this day in 1993, the Angels were 15-10 with a half game lead in the division. Nonetheless, this year's Angels are proving to have the classic symptoms of a team that's waiting far too long to get their act together. Scott Kazmir, given a four-run first-inning lead, proceeded to gave half of it away in the fourth on the strength of a two-run Victor Martinez homer. He surrendered the lead for good in the fifth, with Victor Martinez tying the game on a bases-loaded double, and between Brian Stokes and the random Matt Palmer, the Angels ended up on the wrong side of an 11-6 score. Kazmir walked enough people to fill a small conference room (five), and of those, only two scored, more luck than anything else.

Of course, the problem I have with all this is that I don't really have any good ideas about how to fix it; and I very much doubt that Mike Scioscia or Tony Reagins do, either. The Kazmir trade, of which I've always been very skeptical, is looking increasingly painful despite Sean Rodriguez' .200/.260/.289 line in the Show this year. Brandon Wood struck out in this game three times, and you just wonder how much longer the organization can stomach his three-pitch whiffs, one of which he seems to include in every single game.

But if the team were functioning acceptably otherwise, this wouldn't be a big problem. However, Kendry Morales went 0-for-5, Torii Hunter 1-for-5; and then all the pitchers in this game save for Fernando Rodney finished it with ERAs north of 6.00. I've been waiting for an explosion from Mike Scioscia, but so far it hasn't happened.

And it's not just the losing, it's the humiliation. The Angels have been outscored by the Red Sox by margins of four or more in three games of the series. This has to stop. If only it could.

ESPN boxAngels recap

Labels: , , ,


Comments:
This team has a lot of holes in it at the moment. In years past, it always seemed like the offense would disappear for a few games but the pitching kept the team in the game. This year I'm not sure if the pitching is going to be there at all.

I though the Kazmir deal was stupid from the moment it was announced. The deal is only going to look worse when Torres finally hits the majors and starts contributing.

The scary thing about this team is that if they decide to raise the white flag in July, I'm not sure how many trading chips we have. Matsui? Rodney? Rivera? After that it's bloated contracts or guys who don't produce.
 

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.



Newer›  ‹Older
This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?
Google

WWW 6-4-2