Offensively, the Los Angeles Angels have seen some signs of hope in September. Left fielder Taylor Ward joined the 30-100 club, and fellow outfielder Jo Adell was recently named AL Player of the Week. A couple of rookies have come up and made minor contributions, and DH Mike Trout may even get that landmark 400th home run before the season ends.
The pitching, however, has been bad. As in hide-your-eyes bad. This isn’t exactly a new development, but some of the pitching numbers have been eye-popping.
It doesn’t take much digging to verify this unfortunate trend. The Halos started September going 2-2 agains the Houston Astros and Kansas City Royals in the first four games of the month, so the assumption was that the Angels would continue to muddle along as a normal sub-.500 team.
Wrong. A pair of ghastly losses to the Athletics featured a ten-run explosion followed by a game in which the Angels gave up 17, and a 12-run debacle followed against the Minnesota Twins.
The Seattle Mariners got in on the action during the final game of their four game set against the Angels by scoring 11 runs, and the Milwaukee Brewers added back-to-back, nine-run offensive bursts in the series that followed.
That’s four games in which the Angels have given up over ten runs, with a couple of nine-run near misses. The Halos head to Denver for a three-game set against the Colorado Rockies, so this trend isn’t likely to end soon.
Individually, the biggest casualty has been starter Jose Soriano. He was on track to post an ERA under four, but he’s given up 14 runs in his last three starts, and he's now at 4.26.
This tracks in a way that aligns with Soriano’s increased innings count. Last year he threw 113 innings with an ERA of 3.42, but he’s already up to 169 innings this year. This is what happens to young pitchers when they make this kind of jump, but thankfully Soriano’s next start isn’t listed on the schedule.
Instead, “Undecided” will shoulder a lot of the upcoming workload, and he might be a considerable improvement over the guys the Angels have been running out to the mound.
The Halos currently don’t have any starters with an ERA under four, and the bullpen hasn’t been able to hold down the fort, either. Right now closer Kenley Jansen is close to the only reliable pitching option, but he's skipping the Rockies series for medical reasons related to his heart condition, and of course the Angels have to be tied or ahead to get to him.
Fixing the pitching will be priority one going into the offseason, but the Angels will have a lot of company there as they try to figure out their staff going forward.