The Los Angeles Angels had such high hopes coming into this season.
A year after landing Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson in free agency, the team made yet another splash this past offseason in signing Josh Hamilton. But 26 games into the season, the Angels find themselves in fourth place in the AL West with a 9-17 record while also having the seventh-highest payroll in the league.
This series against the Oakland Athletics has not helped the team either. The Angels have dropped all five games against the A’s this season, including the first game of this series in gut-wrenching fashion as the team held a one-run lead going into the ninth before blowing it (and then doing so again in the 15th), eventually losing in the 19th inning to a walk-off home run from Brandon Moss.
It was just one of many deflating losses for the team as they are 3-6 in one-run games this year and are 5-12 against division foes.
Many of their problems stem from their pitching staff. The team features the second-worst team ERA in the league at 4.69. Additionally, their bullpen has been incredibly unreliable, blowing five saves across eight opportunities, good for a 38 percent save percentage, the worst in the league. The Angels will look to their best starter thus far this season, C.J. Wilson, for a much-needed win against the A’s.
Wilson currently holds a 2-0 record with a 4.30 ERA. One issue Wilson has faced this season is his inability to pitch deep into games. Last season, he made it past the sixth inning in 16 of his 34 starts. This season, in his five starts, Wilson has yet to make it past the sixth inning and has surrendered fewer than three runs only once.
One reason for this may be the control issues that Wilson is suffering through. He currently leads the league in walks with 17, and has a BB/9 rate of 5.2, deemed by FanGraphs as “awful.”
Wilson will need to help his bullpen out by pitching deeper into games, and the rest of the Angels will need to start chipping in before all the wind comes out of the sails of this expensive ship.
Brian Weidy is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @frostedweidies or add him to your network on Google.
