3 factors that made August of 2023 the worst month in Angels franchise history

2) The LA Angels didn't do anything well in the month of August

The Angels were a team carried much of this season by their offense. They were among the league leaders in home runs, and thanks to Shohei Ohtani, they've spent much of the year in the top-ten in runs scored. This past month was a whole other story.

The Angels slashed .222/.279/.378 with just 29 home runs and 105 runs scored. They were tied for 28th in batting, 24th in home runs, and 25th in runs scored. The team ranked 29th in the majors with a 75 WRC+ and -0.6 fWAR for their position players. Only the Rockies were worse in both categories.

Only three players on the Angels had a WRC+ over 100, and one of them was Nolan Schanuel who played just 10 games. Shohei Ohtani and Luis Rengifo were predictably those two hitters, as they had great months individually. Everybody else had miserable months and that's why the team managed to score more than four runs just eight times.

The pitching wasn't any better. In fact, it was worse. Angels pitchers had a 6.14 team ERA this month, by far the worst in baseball. They allowed their opponents to reach double figures six times in their 27 games in the month. They allowed at least seven runs a whopping 13 times this month. It's very hard to win when you allow seven runs or more every other game.

Angels starting pitchers had a 5.70 ERA in August which was good for 28th in baseball. Their bullpen had a 6.69 ERA, good for 29th in baseball over the month. Just about everyone struggled.

The only pitchers with an ERA below 4.00 for August included Shohei Ohtani who pitched just 11.1 innings in the month due to injuries. It also included Griffin Canning who missed time due to injury himself and made just one start (three appearances). It included Victor Mederos who had one inning of work. It included Reynaldo Lopez and Jose Soriano, two relievers who were barely below 4.00 (3.60 and 3.86 respectively). Lastly, it included Patrick Sandoval who had some good starts, but also allowed a bunch of unearned runs.

To sum up, the Angels couldn't hit and they couldn't pitch. It's very hard to win baseball games when you do neither.