LA Angels: Halos take a step back in May

The LA Angels were 12-18 in the month of May.

The LA Angels were a worse baseball team in May. Sure, they won the same amount of games as they did in April, but they played six more.

May was a unique period for Angels fans. They started off with the whole Albert Pujols DFA’d situation, and then lost Mike Trout to an injury.

The Angels simply played very poorly in May. They hit .232/.297/.396. The Angels weren’t world-beaters in April, but they at least were stringing together better at-bats than that. They hit .262/.316/.428 in the month of April.

They hit the same amount of home runs in six less games in April. They weren’t making contact, striking out 3.8% more in May (24.9% K%) than they were in April.

The pitching didn’t really improve either. They did have an ERA that was a bit better, but that’s not saying much. The Angels gave up 5.19 earned runs per nine innings in April. They still gave up almost 5 earned runs per nine innings (4.95) in May.

They also had a higher amount of walks per nine in May (4.60), and struck out less batters per nine innings in May (9.63).

The Angels struggled defensively in both months. The only thing they really improved on in May was in stealing bases. They stole 17 bases in May, opposed to just six in April.

The biggest bright spot for the Angels in May was arguably the biggest bright spot for the Angels in April, and that was Shohei Ohtani.

Ohtani seems to shine every time he takes the field, whether that’s at the plate, on the mound, or in the field.

Ohtani hit seven home runs and drove in 21 RBI just in the month of May. He improved his on-base percentage as well, getting on 33.9% of the time in May.

Pitchers are scared to pitch to him. Ohtani walked 10 more times in May (13) than he did in April.

On the mound, he improved upon his already strong April.

In April, he had an ERA of 3.29, and his ERA in May was 2.38. His WHIP was 1.147 in May, as opposed to his 1.390 WHIP in April.

The Angels lost their MVP candidate in Trout to his calf injury, but found another MVP candidate on their team who has absolutely been the MVP of this season so far.

The Angels struggled, but Shohei was must-see TV.

They started June by tying up a two-game series against not just a very good Giants team, but a great one. The Angels will need to take June one series at a time, and step up for hopefully just another few weeks without Trout if they want to claw back into playoff discussion.