Halo Highlights: Angels Get Blanton’d, Lose 11-4

So, yeah. Joe Blanton is at least supposed to be a serviceable starting pitcher. Up to this point, he has been flat out atrocious. His final line for the night is as follows: 4.2 IP, 12 hits, seven ER. On the bright side, at least he didn’t walk anybody.

What are you doing after the game Joe? I’ve got the classifieds if you need reading material. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Royals scored early on an RBI double off of the bat of Billy Butler in the first inning. They then proceeded to score often. Butler struck again in the third with a two-run single that brought home Jarrod Dyson and Alcides Escobar. In the fourth, Dyson doubled home Lorenzo Cain, giving the Royals a 4-1 lead. In the fifth inning, they were at it again. Cain singled home Butler with one out to make it 5-1. Then, with two outs, Salvador Perez delivered the knockout blow to Blanton by doubling home Cain and Eric Hosmer. Blanton was removed and Michael Roth was brought in. It is never a good sign when AA mop up guy is brought in to replace you.

Roth got the Angels out of the fifth, but then ran into trouble of his own in the sixth. Once again, Butler got it started for the Royals, doubling home Escobar and Alex Gordon. He then came home on Lorenzo Cain’s RBI single. A seventh inning double from Escobar would be where the Royals scoring ended. But even though they struck out 12 times as a team, they also racked up 19 hits to go along with the 11 runs they pushed across the plate.

The Angels bats weren’t completely dormant though. They just weren’t up to the task of keeping up with the Royals tonight. Chris Iannetta had an RBI single in the third inning, back when the game was still within reach. The next time the Angels would force the issue offensively, was in the sixth innning when Albert Pujols doubled home Mike Trout. By this time however, the Royals had already scored 10 runs. And it still didn’t matter much when Pujols scored on a Mark Trumbo groundout later in the inning.

A J.B. Shuck RBI double in the seventh closed the book on the scoring, but this game was over long before that. Blanton’s line on the season is now 0-7 with a 6.46 ERA. Don’t worry though everybody, he’s only under contract for 16 more months. Yay. The Angels send Jason Vargas to the mound tomorrow at 7:05 PM PST. He’ll be facing off with Jeremy Guthrie who has yet to be saddled with a loss this season. Light up the fail-o tonight. Someone get that winning streak on the phone. Tell it we’re sorry, we made a mistake, and we miss it.