Fansided

3 Angels failures leading to a disastrous series loss against the Astros

By Zachary Rotman |
Los Angeles Angels v Houston Astros
Los Angeles Angels v Houston Astros / Carmen Mandato/GettyImages
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The Los Angeles Angels have played some incredibly frustrating baseball over the last week. They followed up an impressive sweep against the Red Sox by being swept at home by the Marlins.

The Halos did what they had to do in Chicago by taking two of three against the White Sox, but then faced the real tough test. Knowing how crucial this four-game series was for the Angels, they fell flat on their faces.

The Angels did squeak away with one win but lost three of four overall. They've now gone 2-5 against the defending champs this season as their struggles against quality competition continues. The Angels failures in these three key areas is why they failed to even secure a split against an Astros team that doesn't feel quite as formidible as other Houston teams from years past.

1) The LA Angels failed to come up with the clutch hit

In their four games against the Astros, the Angels managed to score just 12 runs. It's very hard to win games when you average three runs per game. To make matters worse, half of these runs came in one game. The cherry on top is the Angels lost that game.

They scored two runs in three of the four games, and a huge reason why is their lack of timely hitting.

In the opener, the Angels had 11 hits and drew four walks yet they only scored two runs in a game started by a Ronel Blanco, a pitcher making his first MLB start. They Angels had two hits in 12 at-bats with RISP and left 13 men stranded.

Friday night was the exact same story. The Angels had nine hits, drew three walks, and were hit by a pitch. They once again had two hits in 12 at-bats with RISP and left eight men stranded.

Even in the third game when the Angels did score six runs, they had two hits in ten at-bats with runners in scoring position. They had a chance to tie or take the lead late with a big hit or two and just couldn't come through.

In those three losses, the Angels had six hits in 34 at-bats with runners in scoring position. That's a .176 batting average. Unless you find a way to hit a whole bunch of solo or two-run homers (they didn't) it's very hard to win if you can't hit in the clutch.

2) The LA Angels got subpar starting pitching in the games they lost

The Angels had their pitching set up where you had in my opinion, their three most trustworthy pitchers going in Shohei Ohtani, Patrick Sandoval, and Griffin Canning. They had this good fortune while also missing one of Houston's best arms in Hunter Brown.

Unfortunately, the series opened with Reid Detmers on the mound and he had another 2023 Detmers type of start. He looked solid at first allowing one run in four innings of work, but a three-run fifth did him and the Angels in.

It's hard to win games when your starting pitching allows four runs in five innings of work. He didn't get help from Gio Urshela, but Detmers once again showed his inability to pitch to hitters for a third time as Houston reached base in three of their five at-bats seeing him for the third time and he again showed the inability to limit the damage. Houston tied the game at two, but Detmers couldn't hold them there.

Shohei Ohtani was matched up against Framber Valdez for the second time this season and was once again outpitched by Houston's southpaw. Ohtani allowed five runs on nine hits in six innings of work. He walked just one batter, but never seemed to be in command. He struck out only six, and gave up two more home runs.

Patrick Sandoval is another Angels pitcher who was victimized by some poor defense, and he wasn't the one to give up the Alex Bregman Grand Slam, but six runs in 3.1 innings of work is obviously putrid. He allowed eight hits and walked three.

Overall, these three starting pitchers allowed 15 runs in 14.1 innings of work. You'll rarely win when your starting pitchers give up more runs than innings pitched.

In the game the Angels did win, Griffin Canning allowed just one run in six innings of work. This allowed Phil Nevin to use their good relievers as they weren't behind, and they were able to grind out a win. You always need good starting pitching to win baseball games consistently.

3) The LA Angels superstars underperformed in the biggest series of the season

This series against the Astros was an opportunity for the Angels to show that they're a team that we could see contending for a playoff spot. The Astros aren't quite as formidible as they once were but are still the Astros. In order to get into the playoffs these are the kinds of series you at least have to manage a split in, and they came up short.

It's unfair to place 100% of the blame on Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, but both of them underwhelmed.

Mike Trout had his worst series of the season as he recorded just one hit in 15 at-bats. Trout did draw three walks and drive in a run, but he struggled mightily with men on base and in scoring position, and looked overmatched all weekend.

Shohei Ohtani wasn't nearly as bad as Trout, but he wasn't quite Ohtani either. He had a pretty brutal start on the mound giving up two home runs and five runs overall in six innings of work. He was outpitched for the second time this season by Framber Valdez.

A four-hit game saved his average, but those hits came in a game they still wound up losing. In the other three games, Ohtani had two hits in 13 at-bats. Granted, one of those hits plated the winning run, but Ohtani still had a plethora of opportunities in the first two games and fell short.

Trout should shoulder a large majority of the blame with his struggles throughout the entire series, but Ohtani wasn't exactly great either, especially in the first two games.

The Angels have more depth around Trout and Ohtani than they've had in years but don't get it twisted, these two have to be superstars for this team to have any shot. Trout especially, has not been that. We saw that this weekend.

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