About 12 hrs immediately after the Angels missing once more, bushy-bearded reliever Archie Bradley bounded into the clubhouse Sunday early morning, bursting into music:
“We want a winnn nowadays!”
They say April showers carry May bouquets. But in this circumstance, a 14-8 file for the Angels in April experienced turned into 13-13 this thirty day period heading into Sunday afternoon — most notably, a 3-8 stretch following Saturday night’s discouraging reduction to Toronto.
“How a lot of have we shed?” Bradley asked in the clubhouse to no person in individual. “Four in a row?”
4 in a row, in truth. It became 5 Sunday with a raucous slugfest of an 11-10 reduction to the Blue Jays, Angel Stadium alternating involving property operate cheers and exasperated sighs at a moment’s discover.
It would seem tricky to shed a game in which Shohei Ohtani smacked two homers, Taylor Ward homered and experienced a few RBIs, and Max Stassi homered between 4 hits and drove in a few. However an Angels staff that entered sixth in the American League in Period imploded at every single level versus Toronto, continuing a irritating pattern for supervisor Joe Maddon — his relievers not gratifying his religion in them in superior-leverage circumstances.
“A bunch of guys that have been truly very good collectively, all of a sudden, it’s tough,” Maddon reported. “And I do not have any solution for that.”
In the 3rd inning, still left-handed starter Patrick Sandoval snatched a toss with his throwing hand, shaking his head a little as he trudged back again to the mound. He took out his frustration with a number of swift kicks to the rosin bag.
He had two outs in that inning just before the Blue Jays’ Alejandro Kirk knocked a single to generate in George Springer. Kick. He experienced two outs in advance of going for walks a few hitters in a row on 3-and-2 counts. Kick. He had two outs and Raimel Tapia down 1-and-2 in the depend before Tapia singled to convey house two operates. Abruptly, Toronto led 6-2. Kick.
“Walks are heading to get rid of me, and they did right now,” Sandoval mentioned immediately after the video game.
The moment was a microcosm of Sunday’s roller coaster. All the Angels needed for a acquire, inning right after inning, was for a person in a pink-and-white jersey to stage on the mound and maintain down the Blue Jays.
But Sandoval, the Angels’ very best starter by the season’s very first two months, exited with a reduced gaze and an elevated Period. Oliver Ortega, filling in following a good 2 1/3 innings of very long-relief function by Jaime Barria, was nicked and nagged to death in the seventh and loaded the bases.
With a 9-6 guide and a single out, Maddon turned to Ryan Tepera, a 34-12 months-outdated offseason pickup who had been “subject to the foundation on balls” at occasions this season, as Maddon put it afterward. But Tepera was his only selection, the supervisor considered. The only reliever left he could have confidence in with inducing a double participate in.
“He was the male,” Maddon reported. “In spite of possessing some issues, he can continue to toss a ground ball.”
He did. But a lot as well late.
He walked Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on four pitches, bringing property a operate. Tapia slapped a single, driving in yet another run. Tepera then walked Teoscar Hernandez, tying the score at 9 and environment off a raucous boo from the crowd.
Tepera at last induced a double-play grounder from George Springer to get out of the inning, but the harm was accomplished. Stassi place the Angels up with a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh, but Bo Bichette’s homer off Tepera and Gurriel’s RBI double off José
Quijada in the eighth put the Blue Jays forward for good.
Just after the video game, Tepera was exasperated.
“To be sincere, gentleman, it’s unacceptable,” he claimed after a very long sigh. “Just deficiency of command, and walking men, that just can’t come about. We’re just not acquiring the occupation finished appropriate now. A little something has to alter.”
It will have to improve quickly, as the Angels will check out the New York Yankees — who at 33-15 have the American League’s ideal document — for a three-sport series commencing Tuesday.
The Angels’ clubhouse was energetic before the recreation, players sporting tailor made T-shirts of a squid variation of shortstop Andrew Velazquez, for every his nickname. It fell to a hush after the ultimate pitch, gamers relegating on their own to their lockers. Bradley no more time sung.
But before long, as teammates adjusted into what they experienced unofficially dubbed “Squid fits” — clothing built to imitate Velazquez’s manner feeling — the temper lightened. Mike Trout cracked jokes about Velazquez’s parachute pants and Tyler Wade’s puffy jacket. Brandon Marsh, Jared Walsh and Anthony Rendon chuckled.
It was time to “lick their wounds,” as Maddon stated, fly to New York and determine it out.
“This team’s a ton distinctive than other groups I have been on,” Sandoval mentioned. “I know we’re going to pull this all over.”
This tale originally appeared in Los Angeles Occasions.