Angels Baseball-Pool Photo
It gets less unbelievable each time the unbelievable happens.
And it just keeps happening.
The Giants’ bullpen collapsed for a fourth straight game, Trevor Gott unraveling in his third straight ninth inning, and the Giants lost 7-6, on Monday at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, another stomach-turner from a stomach that has been sick for days.
Gott has not awoken from this nightmare, watching his fifth home run surrendered in three games, this one from the Angels’ Tommy La Stella, drop the Giants’ jaws and a fifth-straight game for a team that is now 8-16.
After Gott allowed nine runs this weekend against the A’s, Gabe Kapler showed faith in him, wanting to trot him out again and get his confidence back. His confidence must be as shattered as La Stella’s ball. He only recorded one out before the Angels walked it off, Mike Trout awaiting on deck.
The Giants’ bullpen was excellent, until it was awful.
It took some sweating, but Jarlin Garcia stranded runners on second and third in the sixth. Tyler Rogers was called upon to retire Trout, which he did, and induced a double-play chopper to end his seventh. Tony Watson was perfect in his eighth inning, needing just nine pitches to return to the dugout, and handed the baton to Gott.
After the monumental bullpen collapses the past three days, the Giants went to work on an opposing pen for a change. They were down 5-3 entering the sixth and touched up relievers Hoby Milner and Noe Ramirez, a Pablo Sandoval single and Brandon Crawford walk setting up a Chadwick Tromp sacrifice to bring in one. Mike Yastrzemski, after falling behind 0-2, worked a long, seven-pitch at-bat before smashing a double to right to knock in two for the Giants’ fifth and sixth runs.
The Giants would need more on a night Brandon Belt homered for a second straight game and Mauricio Dubon had a pair of hits, both showing signs of life at the plate.
As did Tyler Anderson, but that pulse was often too high.
Anderson was solid until he unraveled, both on and off the mound. The lefty was efficient and cruising into the fifth, his big mistake a third-inning fastball down the middle to Trout, which was never going to end well and resulted in Trout’s 10th homer. Anderson’s changeup was his best pitch, and he often messed with the Angels’ timing, perhaps watching Johnny Cueto and using a quick pitch.
The Giants were up 3-2 when he came apart.
With one out in the fifth he walked David Fletcher, followed by Tommy La Stella singling. With two outs, Anthony Rendon lined a ground-rule double that tied it up. Pitching coach Andrew Bailey went to the mound, and the two apparently decided they wanted to pitch to Albert Pujols with runners on second and third and rookie Jo Adell, whom Anderson had struck out twice, on deck.
Pujols made them pay, jumping on an Anderson changeup and lining it off the left-field wall for the Angels’ fourth and fifth runs. Anderson struck out Adell, his eighth of the day, then unleashed some frustration, first with his mouth and then by slamming his glove repeatedly in the dugout.
This is a 10/10 F-bomb from Tyler Anderson pic.twitter.com/hSYHhy5bDy
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) August 18, 2020
That sums up the Giants’ day.