Aston’s Angels Report [Game 72 @NYM- Loss]

                             AAR: Aston’s Angels Report                                     June 18, 2011
                             Game 72: Pelfrey Slows Down Angels                       Vol. 1, Issue 74
                                                                Loss 6-1 Record: 34-38

Looking to guarantee another series win, and possibly start a winning streak, the Angels sent out one of their top pitchers, Dan Haren, to hold down the Mets and inch closer towards a .500 record. Haren was out pitched by the Mets’ Mike Pelfrey, who pitched a complete game and nearly pitched a shutout, with little resistance. Once again, Haren received little run support, but he continued his recent sub-par performances, throwing a lot of high hittable pitches, and his lackluster defense didn’t help much either.
　
The Mets changed up their lineup somewhat, using Daniel Murphy at 3B, Justin Turner was the 2B, and rookie Lucas Duda played 1B, so Tejada was out of the lineup in this one. The Angels changed up things in their lineup, using Bobby Abreu in left, moving Vernon Wells over to center, giving Bourjos a day off. Russell Branyan played 1B, and Hank Conger was the catcher, but he changes certainly didn’t seem to work.
　
Mike Pelfrey set the Angels down in order in each of the first three innings, using mostly fastballs and curveballs, and the occasional changeup to get easy outs, including three strikeouts. Haren matched him in the bottom of the 1^st with a 1-2-3 inning, but faced some adversity in the 2^nd and had to throw more pitches than he should have, thanks to some shaky defense. Daniel Murphy hit a pop fly into shallow center, and Aybar seemed ran under it, for the two handed-catch attempt, but the ball popped in and out of his glove, which was of course ruled a hit, on another ridiculously biased call by an official scorer. So an out turned into a double for the leadoff man, and CF Angel Pagan hit a grounder to 2^nd to move him to 3^rd with one out. Jason Bay hit a grounder to Aybar, and he made another error- a mental error, as he had a slight brain-fart and threw to 3^rd when he saw the runner off the base a little, and the throw was too late. Instead of just looking to 3^rd and throwing to 1^st for the out (and with two bad plays, the inning should be over), now there were two men with one out. Haren struck out Duda with a perfect two-seam fastball over the inside corner for a called strikeout, and induced a groundout to the SS by Paulino to finally end the inning. No damage was done, but it still seemed like a foreshadowing.

In the bottom of the 3^rd, Haren started to leave some pitches up in the zone and the Mets got on the scoreboard. Reyes saw a badly located belt-high high fastball on a 2-2 count and lined it up the middle for a one out single, then stole 2^nd base and went to 3^rd on a groundout by Turner. Haren threw another poor pitch to Beltran, on a full count, throwing a high curveball, which was lined into center for an RBI single. Murphy hit another high fastball hard but it was snagged by Branyan at 1B, to save Haren from more damage, and end the inning.
　
Maicer Izturis got his second chance to lead off an inning, in the 4^th, and lined a single up the middle, for the Angels first hit. He was immediately erased when SS Erick Aybar grounded into a double play, to the 1B Duda who threw to Reyes and caught the return throw back at 1^st. RF Torii Hunter whacked a 3-2 hanging curveball into the left field corner for a double, but Abreu hit a fly out to left to end the inning. This was the only inning the Angels got two hits, so you can see how the rest of the game went…
　
The game started to get out of hand, in the bottom of the 4^th. Pagan led off hitting a line drive up the middle, where Aybar made a leaping attempt, but the ball went in and out of his glove again, for another leadoff hit that probably shouldn’t have been. He stole 2^nd on the first pitch to LF Jason Bay, as the Mets looked eager to run on Haren every time they had a chance. Haren threw a good 1-2 slider off the outside corner, but Bay hit it off the end of the bat into center, to score Pagan and make it 2-0. Bay stole 2^nd with Duda hitting, then he hit a grounder towards Branyan at 1^st, two steps to his right, but the ball went off his glove, into the outfield for an error, and another run making it 3-0. Haren got another grounder from Paulino, which was turned into a double play, then Pelfrey made the final out. Haren made better pitches, but his defense failed him again, and even though the leadoff single wasn’t ruled an error, Aybar will tell you it was, because he knows he should have held on to it. Those runs were scored as earned runs, but so far, they were all really unearned runs, in my view.
　
The Angels went down in order again in the 5^th, and this was the last time they batted with a small deficit. Reyes led off the bottom half, walking on a 3-2 inside slider, which is never good. He stole 2^nd, as the Mets were either running on Haren or because Conger was catching instead of Mathis, and every throw to 2^nd bounced on the way. Turner saw another high fastball and deposited a line drive single into right, to score another run. Then Haren made an even worse pitch to Beltran hanging a high slider, on 2-1 (after the 1-1 pitch was exactly the same pitch, taken for a ball), and Beltran launched it 460 feet into right field, for a 2-run homerun and a 6-0 Mets lead. That was the end of the night for Haren, who pitched his shortest outing of the game, and this time gave his team little to no chance to win. Manager Mike Scioscia made a double switch, bringing in Mark Trumbo to play 1^st and hit in the 9^th spot, and Hisanori Takahashi to pitch. He continued his dominant pitching over the last 10 games or so, striking out Murphy and Pagan, and Duda to fly out (after a two out single by Bay).
　
The Angels earned their lone run, ruining Pelfrey’s bid for a shut out at least, in the top of the 6^th. After Conger flew out, Mark Trumbo had his first at bat of the game, and clobbered a 1-1 outside slider into deep right center field, for a solo homerun- the lone offensive highlight of the game for the Halos, unfortunately. Izturis swung at the first pitch curveball and weakly grounded out to the pitcher, then Aybar did the same, jameed by a 0-2 inside fastball, to end the inning.
　
The Angels bullpen pitched pretty well, but by that time the game was practically over, so it means little other than for the stat sheets. Takahashi threw a 1-2-3 inning in the 6^th, then Bobby Cassevah came in faced to the minimum, thanks to two double plays erasing walked batters in the 7^th and 8^th. The Angels only managed two more hits in the game, one coming in the 7^th, when Abreu hit a line drive single into right, the next two grounded out to end the inning. In the 8^th, Trumbo got his second hit of the game in his short stint as a defensive replacement half-way through, reaching out for an outside fastball, punching a single into right. The Angels did get one base runner on in the 9^th, only because Turner at 2B lost the ball while transferring the ball to his throwing hand to get the out, resulting in an error. Wells popped up the first pitch he saw, for the last out, as Pelfrey completed the game on his 123^rd pitch.
　
Pelfrey only allowed 5 hits, the lone run, with no walks and 5 strikeouts, in a dominating outing. On the other side, Haren had his worst outing, by the numbers, but two of those runs allowed could have been ruled as unearned runs, so it wasn’t really as bad as it looks on paper. He left a lot of pitches high in the zone, and I think Haren still has some issues with his back, after missing a start a few weeks ago with back pain. Pitching coaches will tell you that you must bend your back to keep the ball low as a pitcher, and from the results it looks like he may not be bending his back as much because he typically has impeccable control, rarely ever missing high except the occasional ball that slips out of his hand. Of course it didn’t help that Aybar made three mistakes in the field behind him, all of which weren’t considered errors, and Branyan made an error on an easy groundball that directly resulted in one of the runs scoring. Hats off to the Mets and Mike Pelfrey who gave the Angels little chance in this one, and now the series’ tie breaking game is next.