Signs From Yesterday that “the Hand” is Moving Closer to the Proverbial “Panic Button”

With a 4-1 loss to the Mariners last night the sluggish Angels fell yet another game behind in the AL West standings and the AL Wild Card race. The Angels didn’t look good for most of the series, even in their walk-off win on Friday.

Is it time to hit the panic button? Not yet. There are over forty games left and the Halos are only two games out from what looks to be shaping up as a five team wild card race.

However, time is running out. And there were moments yesterday that suggest the proverbial hand has moved a few inches closer to the proverbial panic button. Let us review the tell-tale signs.

Jered Weaver lost to the Mariners…at home

In his career going into yesterday’s game, Jered Weaver was 12 and 4 against the M’s. He was 7 and 0 at home against them. Make that 7-1 now. This year Jered Weaver was 8 and 0 at home with a 0.92 ERA. In his nine games at home, he’s allowed only 3 home runs. Yesterday he allowed two.

Vernon Wells had our only RBI

After hitting a home run in Saturday’s lost, Wells got another start in place of Kendrys Morales. In the 2nd he hit a long fly-out to right field which allowed Kendrick to tag from third and score the Angels only run. When Wells is the sole contributor to the scoreboard. Things have gone awry.

It should also be noted that Kendrys Morales in his career versus Jason Vargas is batting .417 with 2 home runs in 12 at-bats. Why he sat is anybody’s guess.

Mike Trout didn’t get on-base

After putting up five RBI in the series opener against the Marinerss, Trout went 1 for 8 the rest of the series. He’s now batting .250 in August. He’s struck out 15 times and walked only five this month.

Trout, Pujols and Trumbo went 1 for 12

Mark Trumbo has been in a serious offensive funk in August. He’s putting up a .162/.244/.324 line this month. We all knew Trumbo would at some point regress from his excellent start in 2012. And he has for the most part been slowly regressing a bit since June with his batting average having dipped and his strikeout rate has increased. His current slump has Trumbo regressing beyond his mean and well past it into terrible territory.

Albert Pujols‘ August hasn’t been much better with a .233/.277/.581 line as of Saturday. He has one hit in the past week (!). He went 0 for 12 in the series against Seattle. This is all happening in month that has traditionally been one of Pujols’ hottest. In his career, Pujols has put up .337./420./657 line.

Ernesto Frieri gave up a run…again.

On the recent 10-game road trip the Angels bullpen gave up 32 runs in 27.1 innings, including 11 home runs. Against the Mariners, things changed slightly with almost 8 innings of run-free work before Frieri’s ninth inning yesterday. In August, Frieri has given up 4 earned runs in as many innings. He’s given up 8 earned runs in 12 innings of work since the beginning of July. Not exactly the kind of stats you want from your closer.