Postgame Thoughts: 7/2 & 7/3
A collection of postgame thoughts from Wednesday and Thursday’s games, as the Angels split them to finish off a 2-1 series win vs. Atlanta.
Wednesday (7/2)
Christian Moore’s injury put a real damper on things, as a guy who provided clutch hit after clutch hit at the bottom of the Angels order is now going to miss at least a few weeks. The game only got worse from there, as Montgomery pulled Kikuchi in favor of Ryan Zeferjahn. What followed was an abject disaster: 3-run HR, single, walk, walk, grand slam, single, and a pitching change. In the tiniest of silver linings, Hunter Strickland picked up the rest of the pen by throwing the last 2.1 innings.
As you probably saw, I was very upset on Twitter about Montgomery making the pitching change in the 6th inning. In the moment, I was most upset about him not leaving Kikuchi in following two singles (one of which was an infield single). You could point to some hard hit balls allowed by Kikuchi and the fact that he was at 100 pitches. My counter is he struck out Murphy (the next batter due up) twice and has routinely thrown 100+ pitches in starts (8 times in 18 starts). I think a case could be made either way there. Which is why, a day later, my frustration is more aimed at who Montgomery chose to use once he decided to go to the bullpen. Ryan Zeferjahn entered Wednesday’s game with a 4.78 ERA and 4.87 FIP for the season. When you look at his monthly splits (see below), you can see how far he has fallen since his absurd March/April. Zeferjahn should not be trusted in leverage spots anymore. You could argue (and I would) that he should go to AAA to work on things but, at the very the least, he needs to be used in lower leverage spots.
Jorge Soler hit what would typically be a meaningless HR in the 9th inning while down 6 runs. But besides the score, the HR was anything but meaningless, as it was Soler’s 200th HR of his career. He had been stuck at 199 homers since May 30th and you figure that, on some level, it was weighing on him. Hopefully we see a resurgence from Soler, now that his injuries and that milestone are behind him.
Thursday (7/3)
The Angels got production from the top of their lineup tonight, with the top three hitters (Neto/Schanuel/Trout) scoring all five runs tonight. Those five runs were all driven in by four of the top five in the lineup— Neto (HR), Schanuel (2-run HR), Ward (RBI triple), and Adell (RBI single).
José Soriano was masterful tonight, delivering 7 scoreless innings. He used his sinker and knuckle curve a combined 84% of the time tonight, while running a 62% whiff% on the curve (8 whiffs/13 swings). With a 5-run cushion, it set the Angels up perfectly to use two middle-leverage relievers in Sam Bachman and Brock Burke. With a late flight tonight, followed by a game on Friday and two day games Saturday and Sunday, it’s nice to know that the high-leverage relievers got some rest from pitching.
Chad Stevens was called up to take Christian Moore’s place, with Moore being placed on the 10-day IL. It was a well-deserved promotion for Stevens, who ranked in the 90th percentile or greater in many key offensive statistics at AAA. It was nice to see Montgomery immediately put Stevens in the lineup. Interestingly, he was at 2B with Rengifo at 3B— even though Stevens played more 3B than 2B in the minors and Rengifo has better defensive metrics at 2B. Stevens looked solid tonight and likely would’ve had at least one hit (maybe more) if Austin Riley didn’t play spectacular defense at third base.
