The more things change, the more they stay the same…
Stuck in a Loup
The Angels are stuck in a Loup and need to break out of it if they are to be successful. Last year Aaron Loup was brought in to shore up the bullpen, a bullpen that severely needed shoring up. He was coming off a 2021 season in which he rolled to a 0.95 ERA in 65 appearances for the Mets and the Angels thought they had struck gold and found someone to stabilize their late innings. 66 appearances later, they are looking for the formula to turn lead into gold. Aaron Loup has become a lead weight around the Angels neck and kicked off the 2023 season in full form. Coming in to a close game is supposed to be what he does. Preventing opposing runs and holding a lead is what middle relievers do. When did he forget his role?
A Clean Inning
He comes into a clean inning. In a game where Shohei Ohtani has pitched 6 innings of scoreless ball. Jimmy Herget rolls through the 7th with 16 pitches, and then the ball is presented to Loup. His job is to hold the lead and hand off the game to whoever the Angels decide is their closer today. So what does he do? He throws a sinker that floats right into the middle of the plate to allow Esteury Ruiz to smack a 2-2 single then mixes it up by throwing a 2-2 curveball that ends up over the middle of the plate before it lands in center field for a double to Tony Kemp. 12 pitches and the air rushes out of the Angels Opening Day balloon. A one-run lead turns in to a tie which quickly turns into a one-run deficit and a loss.
Not Completely Loupy
Sure, the loss was not completely Loup’s fault. The Angels only scored a single run with superstars Mike Trout and Ohtani going 1 for 6, but those 12 pitches turned the momentum. What looked like a promising Opening Day win in a close game turned in to another run-of-the-mill blown opportunity that has typified the Angels for too many years to count at this point.
One out of 162
It’s only one game…there are 161 more to go…baseball is a marathon not a sprint…
Yup, it’s all true, but the opportunity to win on Opening Day with your ace on the mound who provided a one-run lead and held the opposition to ZERO is gone. That lost opportunity has us looking up at Seattle, Texas, and Oakland (who most predict will lose 100 games or more).
0-1 hurts, but I suppose we can say that at least Houston lost too.