ANGELS POSTCAST: DEJA VU as Halos lose in EXTRAS to Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 for second straight day

ANGELS POSTCAST: DEJA VU as Halos lose in EXTRAS to Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 for second straight day

This is the Angels Post Cast, your instant game reaction for the Los Angeles Angels, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Hello, Halo Nation. Hello Halo hopefuls and welcome back to the latest edition of the Locked On Angels post coming at you live as always after every single Angels game right here live on the Locked on Angels YouTube channel and after the fact both on the channel and wherever the heck you get the Locked on Angels audio podcast feed. If you don’t know who I am, what’s going on everybody? My name is Gavin Carlson, former credential journalist in the LA area. Spent four years covering UCLA sports with the Daily Bruin. And now in year two with the Lockdown Podcast Network, where it’s your team every day. I’m deflated, guys. Our team is the Angels, and they’ve got me absolutely deflated. Part of me is boiling, fuming, but part of me just doesn’t know what else to do other than sigh and shrug my shoulders. And just talk about sucking the life out of everything, right? Because this team had another great opportunity coming into this series and they’ve dropped the first two here in Toronto. Back-to-back games go into extras. Back-to-back games result in a 43 defeat in extras. This time he just added an extra inning of foolishness. Yesterday’s game finished in 10. Today’s finishes in 11. Larry’s in here saying that he is deflated with me. Man, I agree. Obviously, h the the Angels just have no no situational awareness offensively and defensively in extra innings. And we will talk later in this show about this team overall in close games because you know I’m a broken record and I’m honestly a broken record in saying that I’m a broken record when it comes to me saying just get these games to coin flips and I like our chances. Well, guess what? The coin flips are not going our way right now, but in a different way. And we’ll talk about that later because it is a really interesting and important conversation when you talk about this team playing in so many close games. This team being close to, you know, getting wins, getting above 500, but not getting over the hump. And it’s because of little things like tonight and or today and yesterday. Um, but we’ll have a deeper conversation about this team in the clutch. Are we a clutch team? Are we not a clutch team? Are we good in one score games? Are we not good in one score games? We’ll get to that. But first and foremost, shout out to everybody in here. Again, appreciated you all coming through yesterday despite it being the holiday and glad you’re all joining me again today after another unfortunately another loss. But without further ado, we’ll get into what I’m talking about later. But let’s just get to you know what’s coming. Everyone’s in and America’s favorite segment.
Time to reveal where the game was won or lost. It’s the turning point. Turning point time. And of course, it’s back-to-back games and extras. So, back-to-back games where we have to talk about what happened offensively and more so what didn’t happen offensively in extras. Very interesting because if you watched a second of my show yesterday, you heard me say put the bunt down about 4 million times, right? Absolutely infuriating yesterday that we have a guy on second, Zach Nettle, leading off and he didn’t do anything. Um, by don’t do anything. I mean he didn’t drop down the bunt and then lines out, right? Well, today, guess what I was doing when Zach Neto comes up in the top of the tenth. I’m yelling, “Drop the bunt down.” And he tries to drop the bunt down and it doesn’t go well. He misses the ball the first time. The second time, it’s a foul bunt. Just like that, you’re down 0 and two. Then, inexplicably on 0 and two, he puts the bunt down again. Fortunately, takes it for ball one. then realizes, wait, there’s two strikes. I’m not going to drop a bunt down. So then he stands, you know, gets into a regular stance, fouls off one more pitch, and then hits a deep fly ball to center field, 373 ft. Mile straw there. Kevin Newman does tag and advance to third. And just like that, we got the same, you know, the result was the same as a sack bunt. Would I have loved to see him actually put the bunt down correctly and do it? Yes. But you know, the reason I’m screaming to put the bunt down is not because I’m obsessed with bunts or something. It’s because I want a runner on third with one out, especially with Nolan Shanal up next because I I was watching on MLB TV or MLB, yeah, MLB Network, excuse me. They had the Toronto broadcast playing and the Toronto announcers were saying, “Oh, well, Nolan Shell, not the guy you want to face if you’re the Blue Jays. Absolutely the guy you want on the plate if you’re the Angels. contact hitter, smart hitter, not gonna swing at balls, not gonna strike out, gonna make contact, right? It’s the exact reason I wanted it to happen yesterday. It’s the exact reason. I’m glad that even though it wasn’t a sack bunt, we got one out, runner on third for Nolan Shaol today and he blew it. I mean, oh my goodness. Nolan Shaol, this is the turning point right here. this play because I know there was also another opportunity um in the 11th inning of course, but this was the shot. Your number two hitter who I just told you everything about why he’s the perfect guy to have up in the situation. Contact hitter, good plate discipline, doesn’t strike out, takes walks if needed, and he gets ahead 10 and he swings out a 10 curveball below the zone and rolls over it. Oh, infuriating. Infuriating. I mean, just at that I’m not even lying. At that point, when that ball was swung at and hit for a weak ground ball, I knew it was over because he’s the guy to get it done. And not only did he get ahead in that count and not get it done, but it wasn’t even close. It wasn’t even a hardline drive that happened and go to the wrong guy. It wasn’t even a shallow fly ball that wasn’t deep enough like the one we saw early in the ball game when Mike Trout was thrown out. No, no, no. He just hit a ball five feet right to the pitcher. Nobody even had to think about it. And for that to happen with two strikes is one thing. For that to happen up one nothing, oh my goodness, infuriating, right? So then yes, of course there’s more stuff that happens in the inning. Mike Trout gets intentionally walked. Man, this guy takes a lot of walks whether intentional or not. And then Taylor Ward hits it decently hard, but it’s a ground ball right to short and the inning is over. Now, Miracle, the Angels get out of it in the bottom of the tenth. They got a lot of help um in this one after intentionally walking Alejandro Kirk. Zephr John gets a strike out. Although the third strike is on a pitch clock um violation by the hitter. Jimenez called for a pitch clock violation. A touchy call, but the right call. get strike three and then a ground out to Shawnwell and a pop out from Miles Straw as Zephran get out of the jam in the 10th. We know we’ve been very critical of him. Got to give him credit for getting it done there. Sure, he got some help, but whatever. Takes us to the top of the 11th and more awful, awful situational hitting from our best hitters, right? This is not Kevin Newman and Scott Kry not getting it done. This is Nolan Shaell. Yes, Taylor Ward kind of, although there was two outs. That’s harder. And then Joe Adell not getting it done. Joe Adell falls behind O2. Um and then he pops up a fast ball basically right down the middle on 0 and2. Um from there Solair takes a walk. Logan Hoppy, another one of our quote unquote best hitters, although we know he’s not been very good this season. And he takes a 10 pitch. again the um you know I don’t even know the the plate discipline the plate approach the the at bats they’re just not good one pitch to Shawn when he swings at a ball below his zone 10 pitch to Logan Hoppy and he’s a mile out in front of a slider down and away if you’re that out in front on a 10 pitch check swing or just swing and miss man screw it I’m asking for a swing and miss that’s how desperate I am at this point but instead head. He gets his bat on the ball. He tries to flare one in center field. Never going to be a hit. And then Ranifo strikes out swinging um to end it. Fischer goes two innings, the 10th and the 11th with a Manfred men and does not allow a run either time. Uh very impressive for him, but more so very very freaking embarrassing for our Angels. And then the most embarrassing play of them all still did not happen. Nathan Lucas comes up bottom of the 11th and I don’t even want to say it because I’m so frustrated. He bunts. He bunts. And amazing how it’s now two games in a row where we are incompetent when it comes to getting a bunt down and two games in a row where we are incompetent in terms of managing the bunts defensively. And it’s funny because in the 10th inning, in case you weren’t watching, when they went to sack bunt, Nolan Sha was about 10 feet from home plate. He was crashing more than I’ve ever seen a first baseman crash. And I get it. Last time or yesterday, he didn’t. It went down to the pitcher and Bachmann threw it into the stands. So, I get it. You want to take the play out of your pitcher’s hands. You want to get it into the hands of a trusted fielder like Nolan Shawn. He was crashing, but somebody somebody didn’t get the memo. I don’t know how you see the first baseman crashing that hard. And I get it. If it’s bunted down the first baseline, Charle crashes and then Renifo’s at third, you can hold the guy at second and then go to first. But you still have to be ready for a bunt if you’re Luis Reno in third. He’s not. The pitcher is not. And Lucas, Lucas, Lucas, Lucas, I think it’s Lucas, I don’t even know. He ends up getting a bunt single because he bunts it down the third baseline and Ranifo doesn’t go for it. The pitcher doesn’t go for it. There’s no play. Now it’s first and third with nobody out and surely they’re going to score the game-winning run. Ironically, Zephrjan did about all he could. He gets Springer to line out. Now, that wasn’t all he could because the ball was scorched, but lines out right to Kevin Newman. Intensely walks Vlad. Strikes out Bob Bashette. Very impress impressive slider there. Um and then Addison Barger comes up. Zephr with a good first pitch. I guess he throws 99 right down the middle but swinging a miss. But then he hangs a sweeper. Barger lines it into right field and the ball game is over. That’s the breakdown of everything that happened in extras. The uh infuriating parts of it are what? One, Shan Wolf can’t come through with a runner on third and one out. The thing we’ve been begging for after Neto couldn’t come through with the bunt and happened to end up being productive after the fact with two strikes. But still, Shawn R doesn’t come through. Infuriating and then we don’t come through again in the top of the 11th and then we save the worst for last. A horrible, horrible, horrible defensive inning there by Reanifo and the pitcher letting that bunt be a base hit and basically handing them this game. So, I see everyone in the comments. I see you all absolutely losing it about Ray Montgomery and uh Jack Kohanoitz. I don’t understand how your takeaway from this game can be Jack Kanoitz. I mean, he was okay. He was not great. He was not terrible. But for all the things I just said, I just took 12 minutes explaining everything that happened in the 10th and 11th inning because that’s where this game was decided for this game to be people complaining about Jack Hohanowitz. Um, I think that’s just prior hate being portrayed and and used on this game. He was not the issue at all. Of course. Was he perfect? No. But if you are going to have your takeaway from this game be Jack Ohanowitz, I don’t know what to tell you. He was not the issue. the issue is what happened in the extra innings for the second straight game. So, with all that being said, we’re going to take our break and when we come back, we’re going to talk about what happened in the first couple of innings because once again, every Angels game is uh everything that happens in the first couple of innings and then everything that happens in the last couple of innings. Nothing happens in between it seems like for the Angels in 2025. We will talk about what happened in the first few innings because if it wasn’t for an extra inning game, a lot would have been decided in those first few innings. We’ll talk about all that and then we’ll get into our conversation about this team in the clutch. We’ll talk about the third game of the series. And clearly people are ready to sound some alarms. Are we ready to do it here? I’ll let you know after a break here on the Locked on Angels Post. Now, on this Saturday, this day after July 5 4th, it being July 5th, and again, I hope you had a great July 4th, but once again, today’s show is brought to you by Game Time. Have you ever decided at the last minute to head to a ball game with friends or family? Maybe it’s game day and you suddenly realize you want to be in the stands. Well, that’s exactly where Game Time comes in. It’s the easiest way to grab last minute tickets without the stress. 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Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code LC kemlb for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Back here live on a second straight extra inning losing edition of the locked Angels post. Angels fall four to three to the Blue Jays in Toronto for the second consecutive day. Yesterday it came in 10. today. It comes in 11. Um, but it doesn’t really matter. The Angels are incompetent when it comes to situational hitting in extra innings right now. And it’s very confusing because I’ve been making the argument, we’ve all been making the argument that this is a clutch baseball team this year, um, but not an extra innings. We’ll talk about that in a second, but we do have to quickly go back to what happened in the first couple of innings. One of the biggest moments of this game was when the Angels looked like they could have had a two nothing lead in the first inning. They’re able to load the bases right away. Zack Neto hit by a pitch to start the ball game against Max Scherzer and then a one-out single for Mike Trout. A one-out single from Taylor Ward. The bases are juiced for Joe Adell and he takes a walk, a great at bat, six pitch at bat, full count against Max Sherzer able to take a fast ball outside to walk in a run and then Jorge Soler comes up and I don’t know how to feel about this one, guys. I really don’t. It wasn’t a great at bat. He hit it somewhat deep to right field. In my opinion, I think you have to send trout here. I think you do. I’ve seen balls much shallower than this one result in sack flies. You guys tell me in the comment section when you stop fighting about Jack Hanowitz and Ray Montgomery. Let me know in the comments section, would you have sent Trout here? And don’t just be a Monday morning quarterback and say no because he got thrown out. Based on how deep the ball was, based on the speed, maybe lack thereof, maybe average speed from Mike Trout, would you have sent him? I think it was the right decision to send him. I thought Barger had a good transfer and a good throw. But here’s where I think um the play was decided. It’s on that slide and I’m glad to see that you guys agreeing that you would have sent him as well. It’s on the slide. I get it. Mike Trout has had hand injuries. I get it. Diving head first when you’re a fragile guy like Mike Trout, despite being a big guy like Mike Trout, it’s it’s hard. And I get it. Big guys like Mike Trout don’t normally slide head first into home plate. But if he does, he’s safe. Because if you look at where his frontmost body part was on that feet first slide, it being his foot, of course, the foot beats the ball to home plate, but the foot is not going over home plate. It’s on the side of home plate because he’s trying to do, you know, the slide past and graze it with your hand slide. But if he’s going in head first and the hand is the first thing, the first body part, it beats the ball just like the foot was going to or the foot did and it would have been two nothing Angels. So frustrating there that because of his injury history and I know people talking about his speed, he didn’t look blazing down the line, but again, I’ve seen slower people score on that. The moral of the story is he’s, you know, has such an injury history. He doesn’t feel comfortable diving head first. Even though he’s wearing an oven mitt, I would have loved him to dive head first. He would have scored the run. It would have been two nothing. Um, but I don’t want to have people criticizing his hustle or anything like that. He already had a, you know, a hustle double earlier in this week. Um, so it’s frustrating, but it is what it is. Could have been two nothing. And it’s even more frustrating when then Jack Kohanitz gives up a run right away in the bottom of the first. Just a typical Jack Kohanitz inning where a lot of contact, right? He starts with single, line out, single, fly out, single, um, force out to start his ball game, and that results in runs a lot of the time. And it did here, Addison Barger, his first of two big-time swings. This one made it one to one. Frustrating because it could have been two to one even after that or two nothing if you handle everything well. But again, the Angels do their job offensively. They always find a way to respond. They do it in the top of the third. A Zach Neto single. a Zach Neto stolen base. Mike Trout walks, Taylor Ward walks, and then J uh Joe Adell gets a sack fly. Jorge Solair strikes out. But once again, everyone Chris uh criticizing Trout, and I hate to keep making this show about Trout, but when I see guys like Caesar in here saying, “Who cares about the speed? He can’t hit anymore.” You know, I’m going to come back and say you can’t say that because I’m we’re only three innings into this breakdown and I’ve already told you about a Mike Trout single and a Mike Trout walk. Guess what? He had three at bats. He got on base three times, a hit and two walks. Mike Trout, the OPS is still rising. It’s at 787. It’s better than Neto. It’s better than Shaunell. It’s better than Ward. It’s better than Solair Noap and everybody else other than Joe Adell, right? So again, I get why people are critical of Mike Trout. We’ve seen him be the best player in baseball multiple years in a row, but the guy is the second best OPS on the team. He gets on base multiple times a game at this point. And I don’t think you can keep saying he doesn’t contribute offensively. Is it frustrating he’s fragile and can’t dive in head first there for a run? Yes. Um Fury saying Gavin, shouldn’t we not have trout running bases till further notice? I mean, we can’t this isn’t softball. We can’t take him out and then put him back in and take him out and put him back in. I mean, he he needs to play, right? So, um you know, you either take him out of the lineup and trade him or you use him, right? Obviously, we’re going to use him. And so, I I don’t want to again make this about Mike Trout. The guy has been good enough. Don’t know why people are bringing up Paul Skins. We’re not getting Paul Skins. Nobody’s getting Paul skins. Uh he would have to demand a trade and almost sit out in order for the Pirates to trade Paul Skins. And if so, they’re not trading him to the Angels. We’d have to give up our whole team. Um we’d have to give up a lot more than Dana and Simo for skins. We’d have to give up about five guys for skins. It’s not happening. Um, but moral of the story is you give up two runs here in the bottom of the third after you score a run in the top of the third. So, Kohanowitz was not fantastic in this one. He did have backto-back or two separate innings where the Angels gain a lead and then he immediately loses it. Um, in the bottom of the third, a costly two-run home run. He walks Lucas uh a five pitch walk. Really none of them that close. And then George Springer takes a one two sinker right down the middle and destroys it. Uh destroys it 413 feet. He continues to be insanely redot. That made it um 3 to2. Uh Blue Jays. The Angels do steal one in the top of the seventh, but of course that just sends the game into extras where they do nothing. Real quick, and my shows have been really long lately, but is this team clutch? I still think so, just in a different way. They are not a situational hitting team, right? They can’t get a sack file when you need them to. They can’t get a productive out when you need them to. They can’t get a base hit with two on and two out or something like that. They’re clutch in the sense that they’re going to give you a home run in the seventh inning when they’re down three nothing to tie the game at three like we saw from Joe Adell yesterday. It’s a different type of clutch. It’s not quite situational, but I know Angels win. It sounds funny to even have this debate after what we saw the last two days, but let’s not forget this team is still well over 500 in one score games. This team has still made every single game we play close, right? Even when we’re down three nothing in the seventh inning yesterday, sometimes even worse, we come back, right? So, I don’t want to act like we are not clutch or we are not competent in terms of late game hitting. It’s just certain situations, base hit, clutch or crutch. I heard crutch. That’s funny. Um, it’s situational. If there’s two out and you need a base hit, we don’t get it. If there’s one out, we need a sack fly. we don’t get it. But if we’re down a couple runs and we need a home run, we seem to get it. So, yes, Fury, you’re absolutely right. We are at most we are a bipolar team and we showed it again yesterday and today. We’re going to quickly preview tomorrow’s game. Would love the Angels of course to salvage one here before you play um before you begin your home stand against the Rangers and company. So, yes. Was our goal here to go two and one against the Braves and two-1 against the Blue Jays? Yes. Did we do it against the Braves and failed to do it against the Blue Jays? Yes. But if we win tomorrow, guess what it is? It’s a three and three road trip. That is perfectly respectable for a 500 baseball club to go three and three in Atlanta and in Toronto against, let’s not forget, a red hot Blue Jays team. So, if you go win tomorrow, you split the road trip, then you just got to win four out of seven of this home stand and it’s still a successful road trip. If you did that, guess what you would be? You would be exactly 500 going to the All-Star break. And I don’t think there is a more fitting thing than that. But yes, tomorrow another early game, not quite uh the noon first pitch. It’s even earlier. The game is at 10:37. It’ll be Tyler Anderson against Kevin Gosman. Two veterans, two guys with almost identical eras. 418 for Gossman, 412 for Anderson. And yet Gosman 6 and6. And Tyler Anderson is 2 and5. That tells you all you need to know about how it is to be a starting pitcher for the Angels. But it’s a coin flip game. The last two have been. and we’ve fallen on the wrong side both times. Hopefully we can get the coin flip on our side tomorrow. But for all that being said, appreciate it guys. Have a great rest of your Saturday. Keep your heads up. I know it’s infuriating game. I’m very frustrated as well. But no need to panic yet. No need to panic yet. It’s not like we lost five by five runs last two games. These are both extra inning ball games that if one inch goes differently in a game like baseball. If one inch goes differently on one swing in each of these two games, the Angels win the ball game. Right. So, let’s not lose our minds yet. Would love to win tomorrow and we’ll be just fine. Okay, I’ll see you guys tomorrow. Have a great rest of your Saturday. I’ll see you tomorrow. And as always, go Angels. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. I’ll see you back tomorrow.

Follow Gavin Carlson on X/Twitter @GavinCarlson_ and share your thoughts on the game with him on X/Twitter and in the YouTube comments section! Leave a LIKE before you go!

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