Pitching not to blame for nasty Nationals loss

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The Los Angeles Angels suffered one of their most disappointing losses of the season, losing to the lowly Washington Nationals 6-4 at home. The Angels are now 5-5 this season.

On the mound to start the game was Jose Suarez, who was coming off of a rough start in Seattle. Suarez performed well against bad teams last season so it was a good chance for him to bounce back. The box score suggests he didn’t, and he certainly wasn’t at his best, but I think he was better than his end line dictates.

Jose Suarez allowed four runs (sort of all earned) on ten hits, walking one and striking out just two over four innings. The line, obviously, is not good. I still think he was particularly unlucky in this one.

The Angels had 10 of the 11 hardest hit balls in that game. They were all hit at 99.2 mph or faster. Of these ten, six of them came out. The Nationals didn’t hit a single home run, and of their 14 total hits, 12 of them were singles. They had two one-twos all night, one off Suarez and one off the relief Tucker Davidson.

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Thus, Jose Suarez allowed nine singles in four innings of work. Of those singles, four of them were hit at less than 90 mph. Washington’s double hit was clocked at 81 mph off the bat. The Angels gave up a ton of light hitting yesterday as their hard-hit balls just didn’t drop. It’s frustrating, but it’s baseball. What was in their control was their horrible defense, and I think that and the fact that they didn’t have a hit after the third inning was to blame for the loss.

Brandon Drury had played just 33 complete games at first base in the big leagues in his entire career prior to this season. He looked inexperienced at the job last night. In the fifth inning, with runners in the corners and one out, he opted to attempt to turn a 3-6-3 double play with a fast runner into CJ Abrams at home plate who had hit a ball slow instead of home. home with. . That gave Washington a 5-4 lead.

Later in the game in the seventh inning, the Angels nearly got two when Washington had runners at first and second with one out, but the runner was safe early and Dominic Smith, who had started at second base, got scored because Brandon Drury just froze after the runner was first called a safe. Drury cost the Angels two points and the team lost by two. That’s not all yet.

Luis Rengifo had the worst play of the night, making what I thought were two errors, fumbling the ball at second base after fielding it and then throwing it, allowing the runners to advance to second and third. The inning should have been over, but instead Washington hit a two-run single to the next batter and tied the game at four.

Was José Suarez at his best? Absolutely not. Was he at fault for the four runs he allowed? Absolutely not. Was Tucker Davidson responsible for the runs he authorized? No. The Angels win this game if they do something right defensively. They shot themselves in the foot and suffered a nasty defeat at the hands of a bad team.

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