As if the Angels Bullpen wanted to say “see – we aren’t quite perfect all the time”, they proceeded to blow things in a big way Tuesday night at the Big A.
Rasmus started out the game with a masterful 4 inning appearance in which he amassed a mere 43 pitches over just 13 batters. Then came Jason Grilled Cheese and his meltdown.
Grilli walked his first batter (Kendrys Morales) then hit the next (Logan Morrison). He ended up lasting .1 innings with 2 hits, 1 walk, 1 HPB and 4 earned runs. Ouch. But no big deal right? The Angels were down 2-4 at this point which just takes one Halo magic inning to put them back in it. So Mike Morin came in and finished off the inning with no more damage caused. Then came Fernando Salas in the fifth.
Just 18 pitches later and Salas was responsible for 5 earned runs which was more earned runs that he gave up the entire month of August and September combined. That will certainly wreck your ERA!
Joe Thatcher came in to finish that inning, giving up one more run and turning the score into a 2-10 debacle. Yoslan Herrera pitched okay though briefly then Michael Roth gave up 3 more runs over 3 innings to close out the game.
That totals 13 earned runs but the usually stellar Angels bullpen. Though I do have my reservations about Herrera, Roth and Thatcher and I don’t think any of them should be on the post season roster. Salas was a definitely surprise since he has been so solid this season with the exception of a few rough outings in May. He went from 16 to 21 earned runs for the season at pretty much the blink of an eye.
I don’t see the bullpen having much of a problem in the post season – the Mariners were just on fire last night and sometimes there is nothing you can do but watch the offensive freight train – a scenario that opposing pitchers face against the Angels all too often.
