Alternate title: Angels in the Infield
Subtitle for this post: It’s a LONG one! *
If you didn’t see it — even if you listened to it, like I did — you should watch it: in the top of the ninth Monday night at home against the Mariners, the Angels did things I wouldn’t have thought possible.
Here is MLB’s summary of the events in the ninth inning, piece by piece, with my comments:
Sam Haggerty is a good player. I’d love to have him on the Wolverines. He’s a solid outfielder (2.5) and can play 2b (6.1). He has the highest 2022 OPS (.874) of anyone who batted for the Mariners Monday (including France, Haniger, J- Rod….). Baseball Reference has him at 1.3 WAR in 111 plate appearances coming into tonight’s game. Anyone who earns 1 WAR per 100 PA is having a very good season.
And he’s a good base stealer, with 8 SB coming into the game, and only 1 caught stealing. So when Angels catcher Max Stassi had a pitch bounce away from him with Haggerty on first, Stassi did not hesitate. He grabbed the ball and immediately fired it toward second — but Haggerty was still at first! The throw sailed over and behind the second baseman who was sort of moving to cover second, and rolled into center field, allowing Haggerty to take second — on the error, not as a stolen base.
Haggerty is so good, he breeds panic in catchers even when he’s standing still.
On the very next pitch, Haggerty did steal a base. If people are going to suspect him of it even when he’s not doing it, he might as well go ahead and steal things.
Santana’s walk happened with the Angels scoreboard showing a 3 – 2 count. The count had been posted as 2 -2, but Las Diaz, the home plate umpire, corrected it to 3-1 before the pitch. The scoreboard operator (and the Angels broadcasters) didn’t notice the correction, so they were mystified when Santana sauntered down to first.
Some outlets (including the M’s game wrap at MLB) report this as a “3-ball walk” but the Angels announcers confirmed it really was a 3 – 1 count before the final pitch.
The M’s sent Dylan Moore to run for Santana. It might seem obvious, but some things that seemed obvious were NOT done this inning…
The MLB description of Rodriguez’ outcome does NOT do anything like justice to this play. I hope you do better for your Rockies games, Ryan!
Here’s what really happened: Rodriguez drilled the ball at well over 100 MPH right at Luis Rengifo’s head, playing just to the right of the second base bag. Rengifo ducked and got his glove up but didn’t have time to get it turned the right direction, so the ball clanked off his glove on the outside and fell at his feet. Rengifo grabbed it and made a good strong throw to Stassi, who caught it, trapping Haggerty in a run down. At this point Rick Rizzs clearly expected Haggerty to be tagged out. Stassi ran Haggerty back toward third, throwing the ball to Jose Rojas a little earlier than was ideal because for some reason Rojas was down the line about a quarter of the way from the bag and shortstop Andrew Velazquez hadn’t arrived yet to cover third.
Rojas began to chase Haggerty back toward home, but neither the pitcher nor the first baseman was at home yet –the pitcher slipped on the grass beside the mound, and the first baseman didn’t leave first until Dylan Moore did. So Rojas turned to see where Moore was. Moore was dashing toward third. Rojas hesitated because Velazquez was also dashing toward third. By the time Rojas threw to third, it was too late. Moore was safe there, and Haggerty was safe at home without a play.
MLB never mentions any defender other than Rengifo. It doesn’t mention that Rengifo failed to catch a very tough line drive, nor does it clarify that he didn’t just stand there with it watching M’s run around the bases. He made a good throw, Stassi made a fair attempt at a rundown, and Rojas did the right thing NOT to throw toward an uncovered home plate. The M’s were running faster than the Angels could think or react.
Of the players I’ve mentioned so far, only J-Rod and Raleigh are in the EFL. And they are both 0 for 1 on the inning, J-Rod’s rocket being ruled a fielders choice.
France also did not get a base hit, but he’s not in the EFL so it doesn’t matter. Velazquez made a good play. He threw to the catcher in plenty of time. But Stassi lost the ball on the tag, not realizing it until he reached into the glove to prepare to throw to a base. Moore did not deliberately try to knock the ball out of the glove, but he did run hard into it, and the ball flipped out and rolled away, for Stassi’s second error of the inning.
Winker’s ground ball got to Rojas in time for him to throw J-Rod out at home, but he was moving to his left when he fielded it. When he tried to turn his body to throw home, his feet slipped out from under him and he stumbled. By the time he recovered his only play was to first base.
The rally began with a clean single by Haggerty, and the scoring ended with a clean single by JP Crawford. Who is not a Wolverine like he should be if the Wolverine owner wasn’t such a doofball.
Kangaroo Paul Sewald took the mound in the bottom of the ninth. He only faced one EFL batter, Pear Jo Adell, who pinch hit with 2 out and nobody on.
I gave Adell permission to hit a home run off Sewald. The M’s were up by 4, and were unlikely to lose with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th. An Adell homer would be an encouragement to the Pears and a discouragement to the Balk, who are playing the Pears this week. And it would tag Sewald with an earned run, slowing his Kangaroos just a little bit.
Instead, Sewald struck Adell out on a pitch that hit Adell in the hand while he was swinging at it. He was in evident pain after that. I haven’t heard whether he will need to spend time on the IL.
So the Kangaroos got another scoreless inning out of Sewald, while the Pears took on another plate appearance and another out made while sustaining a potentially disabling injury. It seems so unfair.
Alas, poor Pears!
Also alas for poor Phil. Phil Nevin, I mean, the Angels interim manager, who could only stand and watch his team turn to pumpkins. Someone will blame him for that. And they might be right.
Rick Rizzs said it was perhaps the worst half-inning of defense he’d seen in his four decades of broadcasting.
Alas for the poor Angels fans: those in thrall to corporate power (per Craig Calcaterra) and those in solidarity with the suffering (like Jesus would be). The dismayed gentlemen (and the boy) in the photo above are Angels fans who have been through a decade of dashed hopes with Mike Trout on their team. May this be the nadir, followed by a resurrection, coming right after the first Mariners World Series Ring in 2023 or 2024.
Other Notes:
- Despite Jo Adell’s painful 0 for 1, the Pears had a good day: 26 PA, .273, .385, .409, with four shutout innings from Freddy Peralta. That offensive line was good enough to raise Pesahstin’s weekly rc/g from sub-replacement 2.3 to replacement-equivalent 2.8. With a 2.64 team ERA for the week, and a team defense rating of 32.5, that left the Pears scoring 11.2 runs this week and allowing 11.8, slicing a nice chunk out of the Balk’s wins this week. Thank you, Pears!
- The Balk got no pitching yesterday. They have ample innings, so their 2.76 team ERA stayed steady. But their batters batted like their opponents shared that 2.76 ERA, going only .225, .262, .250 on 42 plate appearances. That dropped the Balk’s rc/g from 3.8 to 3.3 for the week. Added to the Pears’ efforts, these Balkan woes sliced an entire half game off DC’s lead, before taking into account anything the Wolverines or their Driven opponents did yesterday.
- The Drive had a massive day of pitching: 26.7 ip, allowing only 4 earned runs. Key to Kaline’s surge was the doubleheader between the Tigers and Guardians, in which Aaron Civale tossed 6 ip, 1 er, and Andres Gimenez went 4 for 8 with a double and two homers. Alex Cobb and Glen Otto also went 6 innings, 1 earned run each, while Jose Urquidy went 7.7 ip while also allowing only 1 earned run. The rest of the offense didn’t do much to move the team’s needle, but all that great pitching had devastating effect: it knocked the Wolverines back by 0.7 games in the standings.
- Fortunately, the Wolverines’ own performance also had an effect on their standings. Their pitchers went 18.3 ip with only 5 earned runs — no match for the Drive, but still pretty darn good considering how shaky OD pitching has been (and even shakier by learning yesterday that Walker Buehler is out for the season, his Wolverine career probably over). OD’s weekly ERA dropped from 5.32 to 3.33! Wolverine hitting was also going GREAT (7 for 20 with a double, a homer and 4 walks: .350, .467, .550) until the San Diego – Miami game in which the three participating Wolverines went a combined 0 for 12. Wolverine pitching clawed back 0.9 games of the damage Kaline did to their standings, but the batting collapse in Miami cost them dearly, leaving the W’s two tenths of a game further behind the Balk.
- Coming into Monday’s games, the Cascades were having an outstanding .835 raw winning percentage week, perfectly timed for facing father-in-law’s high-flying Seraphim — who had thus far parried the blow with their own .885 week. Alas for Cascades fans: the Bells mostly returned to form Monday. Three relievers performed adequately (4.3 ip, 2 er), but the hitters didn’t quite reach that level of performance (.242, .242, .303 in 33 plate appearances). This dropped the ‘Cades to a .724 raw winning percentage, boosting Salem 0.6 games in the standings, 0.4 games ahead of the Woeverines.
- The Seraphim went for the kill — something I had never attributed to angelic beings. Strong starts by Johnny Cueto (8 ip, 1 er) and Shohei Ohtani (6 ip, 2 er), with some relief help, led to a 1.63 ERA over 16.3 IP, dropping the weekly team ERA to a measly 1.84. So ungenerous, like tipping a modern waitress 50 cents. It was enough to put Salem another 0.1 games ahead of Old Detroit and only 0.4 games behind the Balk.
- Seraphim hitters combined to go .348, .375, .522 over 48 plate appearances, led by Jeff McNeil’s 4 for 4 with two doubles. That was a lot like what the S’s were already doing, so it didn’t move the dial much, leaving the Seraphim in second place, 0.5 games behind the Balk, having gained 1.1 games in a single day.
- The Rosebuds started Monday 22 games back. DC’s play, combined with the Pears’ good day, boosted the ‘Buds to merely 21.8 games out. Julio Urias twirled 5 shutout innings, and Rosebud batters went .267, 324, .333. The pitching slashed the Portland weekly ERA an entire run (to 2.31), and boosted the ‘Buds 0.7 games in the standings. The hitting trimmed the team’s offense for the week to 4.1 rc/g, resulting in a minor slice that did not show up in the first digit right of the decimal.
- Whereas the Seraphim siezed the moment with both hands (pitching and offense) when the two teams ahead of them had slight off-days, the Kangaroos grabbed it with pitching, but let the hitting side clank to the ground, Rengifo-style. Starting the day in 4th place, 2.5 games out, six Kangaroo relievers combined for 6.7 IP and ZERO earned runs. This slashed 1.29 off the team’s Week 20 ERA (4.56 to 3.17) and boosted them 0.4 games in the standings. Meanwhile, Kangaroo “batters” were going a subreplacement .186, .222, .279, slicing their rc/g from 4.7 to 3.9, and tacking 0.3 games back on to their deficit in the pennant race, leaving them at 2.4 games out.
- The Pittsburgh Pirates did not play Monday, so the Dragons were free to control their own fate. Like the Kangaroos, their pitchers seized the moment (10.3 ip, 3 er, 2.61 ERA), but the batters most definitely did not (.143, .231, .171 in 39 PAs). Starting the day 6.7 games out of first, the pitchers moved them to 6.0 out. But the hitters had only a slight downward effect on the weekly offense, because the Dragons were already batting at below-replacement levels! (2.5 rc/g going in, 2.4 coming out) — so Haviland is still only 6 games out of first.
- For our final matchup — Tornados v. Alleghenys — we have a team on the rise from the depths of the standings (the A’s) and a team on a slow glide away from the fringes of the pennant race (the T’s). The Alleghenys did not look like a team on the rise Monday evening. They batted .231, .323, .308 on 31 PA, and pitched only 1.3 innings at an ERA of 6.75. Nevertheless, based only on their own performance, the Alleghenys gained 0.4 games on the Balk …
- … because their opponents this week — the Tornados — had been having an even worse week than the A’s. That changed Monday. The T’s T’d off at the plate: .286, .375, .429 on 32 PA, Ronald Acuna leading the way with three doubles in 5 AB, and Joey Bart playing Robin to Acuna’s Batman, going 3 for 4 with a double. And Tornado twirlers almost matched their offensive teammates, Luis Castillo and Joe Musgrove combining to complete 12 ip with 5 earned runs (plus a scoreless inning in relief by Tanner Scott). The Tornados gained 1.1 games on the Balk, and in the process left the Alleghenys 0.3 games further back.
Of the 10 teams pursuing the Balk, only 3 lost ground: Bellingham and Old Detroit lost about 0.2 games, and the Alleghenys lost 0.3. Everyone else gained from as little as 0.1 games (Canberra) to 1.1 (Salem, Flint Hill, and Kaline).
* Credit to the late great Ernie Harwell, second only to Vin Scully among baseball play-by-play announcers. You should read “It’s a LONG one!” and automatically hear it in Ernie’s voice.