Saturday, July 7, 2012

TNT Connect, But Angels Fall Short (40/81)

Angels All Stars Mark Trumbo and Mike Trout (TNT) each blasted solo home runs, but it wasn't enough to overcome one mistake pitch by starter CJ Wilson as the Angels fell 3-2 against the Baltimore Orioles.


The Angels struggled to find their offense last night, but managed to do everything else right. Wilson threw only one mistake pitch to Oriole's first baseman, Steve Pearce, who turned it into a 3-run home run, but in a game where your offense isn't getting a lot of hits, one mistake can be costly.

You may or may not disagree with me, but for the Angels, their biggest problem right now is without a doubt situational hitting, more specifically hitting with runners in scoring position.

Over the past 8 games, the Angels are 13 for 69 (.188 average) with runners in scoring position. You stretch that out a few more games into June and that number only gets worse. The Angels aren't having trouble hitting home runs (even Peter Bourjos has a couple); they're having trouble hitting the ball when runners are on base. Granted, the numbers above don't take into account the Angel's trademarked small-ball like sacrifice flies, sacrifice bunts, and Trout scoring from first base, but the numbers are alarming.

If the Angels don't start hitting the ball in key situations, their luck is going to run out, their home runs are going to start decreasing, and they will start piling up loses because no team can sustain the Angels current winning percentage without being able to hit the ball in the clutch. We haven't heard from the guy in awhile because the offense had been so good for most of May and June, but its time to see what batting coach, Jim Eppard can do to turn this pattern around.

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