Recap: Angels 4, Rockies 3
Turning point: Ian Stewart, who has been very good defensively at third base since taking over the starting job, let the Angels back into the game in the eighth inning with two poor plays. With the Rockies leading 3-2, Jeff Mathis walked to lead off the inning and Erick Aybar laid down a sacrifice bunt. Stewart fielded the ball and thought for a moment about trying to get the out at a second base, hesitating just long enough that when he decided to go to first, it was too late. The next batter, Chone Figgins, bunted back to the pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez, who went to third base where Mathis would have been out if Stewart’s foot had been on the bag. Bobby Abreu then singled to score two runs and give the Angels a 4-3 lead.
At the plate: Troy Tulowitzki really didn’t like one pitch from Angels starting pitcher Sean O’Sullivan. In his second at bat against O’Sullivan, Tulowitzki had to duck to avoid a pitch thrown over his head. The next pitch was deposited in the left field seats. In his next at bat, Tulowitzki saw only two pitches before crushing a home run off the left field foul pole. Tulowitzki extended his hitting streak to eight games and has hit in 15 of his past 16 games, raising his batting average from .221 to .266.
On the mound: Ubaldo Jimenez was solid for seven innings but fell victim to bad defense in the eighth inning. Jimenez, who allowed seven hits and a walk in seven full innings of work, lost for the first time since May 27 . . . Brian Fuentes hit the first Rockie he faced, his former catcher Chris Iannetta, but retired the next three batters to earn his first save against his former team.
People talk about Stewart’s defense over Atkins but I think Atkins actually has a higher fielding %.
The preference for Stewart is based on his quickness and range. I’d like to know what Iannetta was calling out on that play. Jimenez had made a nice similar play earlier, but in that case, it was very risky. I suspect Jimenez went on his own but am curious.
Anyway, tough loss. OTOH, you know the Angels must have quite a bit of resiliency to stay in the race despite all the horrible things that have happened with their bullpen and starting pitching, and with essentially losing Vlad to injuries this year.
It’s easy to overreact to the little things when you lose a tough one like this, but the bottom line is the Angels had to play a near perfect game to win tonight. And they did. Credit to them.
They made every defensive play they needed to make — a lot of them spectacular. The Stewart plays were unfortunate, but I feel his glove is clearly superior to that of Atkins. He didn’t show a lot of awareness on those plays, but I’ll only be disappointed if he shows he didn’t learn from it.
This is a game where you miss Manny Corpas. If he’s healthy, he likely takes the ball in that 8th inning. I’d like to see Tracy trust the 8th to Peralta a couple times to see how it goes.
Quite frankly, they didn’t excute in a number of different areas and still had a good shot at winning. as the last poster said, credit the angles, they took advantage of some mistakes. 0-9 or 0-8 with RISP isn’t very good.
They broke Tracy’s #1 rule – don’t beat yourselves. It will be interesting to see how they respond tonight.
I agree, tonight’s game will be interesting. Tough LH on the mound for the Angels so expect to see Spilly and Atkins in the line-up. I think Spilly may make some noise tonight. Let’s hope anyhow. Atkins is just killing his future income potential. I believe he was offered a 3 or 4 year contract by the Rockies and turned it down hoping to cash in on free agency. I have always like the way he played and hope he turns it around soon. Stewart is just a better player than him, in every way except for batting average.
Does anyone else feel like Tracy might be trying to stretch the starters too far and should not have sent Ubaldo back out for the 8th inning? And why did Atkins pinch hit for Fowler in the 9th?
Hard to say on Tracy and the pitchers. I think tactically, it was fine having Jimenez starting the 8th because he was at just 100 pitches and still appeared to be throwing well.
Strategically, it’s murkier for me. They’ve had some offdays so Jimenez has had an extra day of rest before the two starts. It’s also hard to see him as tired when he’s still bringing it at 95 in the late innings.
But I do think Tracy will need to be a little more careful. I assume that to this pt in his pro career, Jimenez is accustomed to the usual low pitch counts (100 being a lot), so the extra work could tire him.
His June pitch counts, starting w/his 6/2 start:
112
113
127
117 (w/5 days rest)
116 (w/5 days rest)
Jimenez will also get 5 days before his next start.
I also thought it was an odd decision to pinch hit Atkins for Fowler. Fowler is supposedly stronger from the right side so I’m not sure how much they gained there, even supposing Atkins has recovered his skills.
“And why did Atkins pinch hit for Fowler in the 9th?”
My guess–Tracy felt that a rookie facing Fuentes for the first time would be easy pickings and elected to go with Atkin’s experience and familiarity with his former teammate. However, when a guy doesn’t even take the bat off his shoulder, I’d suspect the manager will have second thoughts on calling his number again.
Doc- I had that same “why Atkins” question in my head, but I’ll buy that line of thinking about him being familiar with Fuentes.
One thing that did impress me was Peralta, he came into a situation more messy than a soup sandwich (as my buddy would say) and he kept the game in reach (to say the least).
I have a feeling we’ll be focused tonight. Even if we lose tonight, as long as we don’t beat ourselves, I’ll not worry.
Go Rockies!
First thing is Barmes had a horrible night. 0-5 with 3 times coming up and a runner at 3rd with less than 2 outs, didn’t come through once. Then in the ninth a runner at 2nd and struck out. So bad night for him and that really hurt the Rox chances. Second, Tracy never should’ve brought Ubaldo out for the 8th. Even the announcers said in the 7th that this should be Ubaldo’s last inning. Then of course Stewart’s consecutive bad plays on the bunts really hurt. Barmes is now back to earth though!
I like seeing our starting pitchers stretched. The 100 pitch count rule is completely arbitrary and puts effective pitchers on the bench for no good reason. Let them pitch as long as they’re effective. The only problem for Ubaldo in the 8th was the walk – the rest was avoidable.
I cast my all-star ballots today. For one I created an index using statistics from offense (OPS) and defense (range factor and fielding %) for position players who have played at least 75% of games/inngings/ABs. My top three at each position (and the highest ranked Rockies player) are:
1b Pujols,Gonzalez,Fielder (Helton – 4)
2b Utley,Sanchez,Barmes
ss Tulo,Ramirez,Guzman
3b Wright,Sandoval,Blake (Stewart – 7)
c McCann,Hanigan,Ruiz (Ianetta – 4)
of Beltran,Ibanez,Upton (Hawpe – 7)
NL voters are doing a decent job with the exceptions of Tulo and Upton.
The 100 pitch count rule is completely arbitrary and puts effective pitchers on the bench for no good reason.
It was likely chosen mostly for reasons arbitrary from a baseball standpoint (100 is a big round number) but it doesn’t follow that its effect is arbitrary. If pitchers are conditioned through widespread minor league and major league practice to go 100 pitches, it seems reasonable that changing to an average of 115 is going to be difficult, though this will vary by pitcher.
Marquis has not been throwing that many pitches, but he did throw 125 last start in an effort to get him a CG in a 6-run game. Given that statistically he has dropped off significantly in the 2nd halves over the course of his career, reducing Marquis’s workload when possible might be a good idea.
Finally, another reason for conservative pitch counts has to do the number of times through the order. The current limit of 100-105 tends to correlate with 3 times through the order (27 batters). The guys at the “Book” blog have found statistical support for bringing in fresh relievers in favor of leaving starters in for a 4th time through the order; and that makes some intuitive sense as well. That assumes your 7th and 8th inning relievers aren’t horrible, of course. But if the Rockies are interested in the playoffs, they’re going to need non-horrible 7th and 8th inning relievers.
WillM–do you make any park adjustments for OPS? Do you consider that OPS underrates players with high OBP’s?
It seems like a pretty fair ballot, though there’s no way I’d put Tulo above Hanley. As for voters, I’m sure a lot of them voted before Tulo’s hot streak had a chance to impact his stats fully.
As always Mike, enjoy your posts. I am only suggesting we should expect managers to “manage” their starters, keeping in mind all of the factors you mention. I am particularly impressed by Tracy leaning on his starters a bit more now while the bullpen is going through some transition. Ideally, if/when that situation improves, he will be able to lean a bit more in the other direction!
I wonder if it was specifically Atkins’ intent not to swing at any pitches. I think he remembered all those games sitting out at 3b watching Fuentes walk 1-2 batters each time out and figured to play his odds. Last night seemed to be another one of those nights when Fuentes had a lot of traffic on the bases, so part of me can’t really fault him for that.
Atkins was up there as a pinch “hitter”, not a pinch “walker”. As much as I have really enjoyed him over the years, it is tough to watch to wash out. Here’s hoping he turns it around.
Matt, he had one baserunner. Don’t know that you can say that is a lot. Also if he has watched Fuentes a lot he would know that Fuentes doesn’t bow to pressure and can bounce back from an adverse moment quicker than most. I don’t really find it excuasaqble to say he went up there intent on not swinging. If that’s the case the manager has to be questioned for even sending him up there to begin with.
Cowboy, I take it you and Atkins won’t be going out for drinks after the game on this roadtrip. You’ve been pretty hard on him lately. In this instance I agree with you. Tracy sent him up there to drive the tying run in, not to put the potential winning run on 1st (and to set up the double play at the same time). This is the matchup we wanted, the best chance to get it done with Barmes up next. Say what you will about their respective performances this year; Atkins is the guy you want swinging the bat against Fuentes. An he stood there like a statue. (As they used to say about ripped boxer Joe Bugner: “built like a Roman statue, but with fewer moves.”)
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