There are 49 games left in the season, which means there is still plenty of baseball to be played, which is fantastic news for the Angels.
The bad news is that, after going all-in at Tuesday’s Trade Deadline in their attempt to make the playoffs for the first time since 2014 with two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani ready to enter free agency, they are now on the verge of postseason contention. The Angels have dropped six straight games and haven’t claimed a victory since the new year after being swept by the Mariners in a four-game series that culminated in a 3-2 loss in 10 innings on Sunday.
It caused the Angels (56-57) to fall back below.500 for the first time since July 17, and they are currently seven games behind the Blue Jays in the chase for the final AL Wild Card slot. Additionally, they trail the Mariners by 4 1/2 games, the Yankees by 2 1/2 games, and the Red Sox by 2 games. Being 10 1/2 games behind the Rangers and eight games behind the Astros in the AL West makes their situation considerably worse.
Manager of the Angels Phil Nevin remarked, “I know everyone’s now done with us and counting us out, but that’s good. “We’re still there with 26 soldiers in there plus staff. We remain aware of what lies in front of us.
It was aggravating enough that the Angels were in all four games, but it was also the first time since July 7–10, 2005, that the Mariners had swept the Angels in four games. The Angels botched the minor things, and they fell by a total of six runs.
They wasted a promising start from rookie Chase Silseth, who over the course of seven excellent innings struck out a career-high 12 batters. The Angels’ offense, though, had trouble as they only went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
Mickey Moniak, an outfielder, said: “Getting swept is never fun. “But that’s baseball, and we need to be prepared to play tomorrow morning. But it’s difficult for everyone. In order to succeed, we’re working as hard as we can. It was simply a difficult series. Every game involved us. It’s difficult not to complete with runners in scoring position, of course.
In the rotation because right-hander Griffin Canning has a left calf strain and is out, Silseth put in a strong performance, allowing just two runs on two solo home runs. A 2.04 ERA over his last three starts, 26 strikeouts, and three walks in 17 2/3 innings show that he has been on a roll.
Nevin remarked, “His secondary pitches were really good.” “I believed he utilized his fastball flawlessly. Even though he was experiencing leg cramps, the velocity continued. But he was aware of our requirements, and we really needed seven innings from him.
The Angels swiftly tied the game both times the Mariners scored off Silseth. While Matt Thaiss evened the score at 2-2 in the seventh with a single home run off reliever Trent Thornton, Mike Moustakas tied the game in the first with an RBI double off right-hander Bryce Miller.
However, the Angels were unable to score after Eugenio Suárez’s RBI single gave Seattle the lead in the bottom of the 10th. Nevin, however, was dissatisfied with home-plate umpire Junior Valentine’s strike zone since Chad Wallach was called for a second strike before he grounded out and Hunter Renfroe was rung up on a pitch that was outside the zone for the first out.
“Awful,” Nevin said. There isn’t any other way to say it. We had scoring opportunities. Although it’s not the call’s fault, it undoubtedly alters the tone of that inning. Terrible. But as I stated, that’s not why we fell short. We had scoring opportunities. We had chances to hit the ball with the bat but we didn’t.