Halo Highlights: Bullpen Folds, Angels Fall, 5-4

Another Angels game, another bullpen meltdown. Attention: Los Angeles Angels organization, Bill Murray called. He says he suing for plagiarizing Groundhog’s Day.

Scioscia pulled me for this crap? Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports

74. That is the number of pitches that Jerome Williams had thrown when Mike Scioscia removed him in the seventh inning in favor Scott Downs. 74. Jerome had only given up two runs (one earned) up to that point. According to Brooks Baseball, Jerome never threw more than 16 pitches, averaged 12 per inning through the first six innings and only threw ONE PITCH IN THE SEVENTH INNING!. Head. Desk.

The only real mistake that Williams made all night, was the pitch that Alex Rios tattooed in the fourth inning which gave the Chicago White Sox the first lead of the game. But that deficit was quickly erased when Albert Pujols drove home Mike Trout with a two-run big fly in the bottom half of the inning, giving the Angels a 2-1 advantage. That lead was erased in the fifth inning however when Erick Aybar blew an easy play on a ground ball hit straight at him allowing Connor Gillaspie to score. The Angels retook the lead in the sixth inning when Howie Kendrick hit a ringing double to left field, bringing home bringing home Josh Hamilton and Mark Trumbo. This was the status quo until the eighth inning, when the seemingly impossible happened.

After Scioscia had inexplicably pulled the cruising Jerome Williams in the seventh, Scott Downs faced one batter and then was removed in favor of Dane De La Rosa. De La Rosa got out of the inning after Aybar flubbed another play (He now has six errors in the 19 games he’s played in). Scioscia over-managed in this inning, but he should’ve over-managed the eighth inning. A wild pitch from De La Rosa allowed Alejandro De Aza to score, then and Adam Dunn single tied the game up at four. This forced Scioscia out of the dug out to call in Michael Kohn to snuff the rally and get the Angels to the ninth inning. What did Kohn do, you ask. He got the first batter out. Then, he proceeded to walk the next three in order. The last of which was a walk to Jeff Keppinger who HAD NOT WALKED A SINGLE TIME ALL SEASON UP TO THAT POINT! Mercifully, Scioscia finally pulled Kohn in favor of Robert Coello, who threw his split-finger/knuckleball/magic pitch to close out the inning. A Mark Trumbo double was wasted in the eighth inning, and then the Angels went quietly in the ninth. forcing their record on the season to 15-26.

This is an accurate depiction of me during that abortion of an eighth inning:

The Angels try to reverse their fortunes tonight when they send C.J. Wilson to the mound against Chris Sale at 7:05 PM PST. Wait, Chris Sale is pitching? That’s just great.