Streak Snapped as Angels get Blownout by Cardinals

This game may have been the least amount of fun I’ve had listening to an Angels game all season. Sure, there have been bad games, but something about this game just made me want to take a hammer to my finger tips. And it seemed to start out so well too. Jerome Williams had an easy 1-2-3 inning in the first to get things underway, but that was the last time that things were easy, or pretty, for the Angels this evening.

The second inning is where everything went horribly horribly wrong for Williams. It all started with a walk to Allen Craig, and that was followed up by a Yadier Molina single. Instead of tightening things up on the mound, Williams then walked Matt Adams to load the bases. Mike Butcher came out to pay the Angels starter a visit, and apparently told Williams to keep doing what he was doing. After David Freese brought home a run with an RBI groundout, Daniel Descalso doubled home the rest of the ducks on the pond to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.

After striking out Peter Kozma to put Williams one out away from getting out of a bad dream-type of inning, but it quickly turned into a full-blown nightmare. Matt Carpenter singled home a run to make it 4-0, then Jon Jay hit a home run that almost got robbed by Mike Trout, but popped out of his glove and over the wall in center, running the score to 6-0. Walks to Allen Craig and Carlos Beltran ended Jerome’s night, but the book wasn’t closed until after reliever Garrett Richards gave up an RBI single to Yadier Molina. 1.2 innings, seven runs, two strike outs, four walks and four hits. That was Jerome’s line tonight. Definitely not his night.

The Angels answered back in the bottom half of the inning when Hank Conger (who also threw out two more runners attempting to steal on him) blasted his fifth home run of the season to right field. Driving home Alberto Callaspo in the process, and making the score 7-2.

But that was all the Angels would muster against starter Shelby Miller. Matt Carpenter added two more RBI’s on a ground-rule double and his eighth home run of the season. Jon Jay collected another RBI in the fifth inning, and Matt Adams drove in Shane Robinson in the eighth inning to make the sore 12-2. The Cardinals scored in five innings tonight, getting runners on base with regularity (13 hits, seven walks). On the bright side, I saved a bunch of money on my car insurance, and I finally beat the Candy Crush level that has been trolling me for weeks.

The Angels will turn the page on this one and try to start a new streak tomorrow when they send Joe Blanton (who has looked quite good lately) up against Adam Wainwright who has allowed more than three runs only once this season. OK, maybe they are going to start a new streak on Friday. Light up the fail-o, at least nobody got hurt. Physically, nobody got hurt physically.