Another bad night for Angels, especially the bullpen, in 6-0 loss to Toronto
The bullpen did not cost the Angels a game Monday, not on a night Toronto rookie Brett Cecil allowed only two singles in 7 1/3 innings of the Blue Jays’ 6-0 victory, and Angels starter Joe Saunders had already given up two runs when he left the game.
It only made the loss even more unsightly with a seventh-inning walk-a-thon that has become the norm for a relief corps that keeps jack-hammering its way through one rock-bottom after another.
“It’s something we’re taking a close look at,” Manager Mike Scioscia said of his team’s bullpen, which has an American League-worst 5.36 earned-run average.
“Some guys are having problems getting the ball over the plate. We have good arms down there, but we’re in a bit of a funk, and teams have been able to expand leads in the middle and later innings.”
Saunders wasn’t as dominant as he was in his previous three starts, when he allowed just two earned runs in 22 1/3 innings against Seattle, Oakland and the Chicago White Sox.
But he pitched well enough to win, charged with three runs and four hits in 6 1/3 innings, striking out six and minimizing the damage of five walks before being pulled with one out and a runner on first in the seventh inning of a 2-0 game.
Right-hander Jason Bulger, one of the few relievers with a respectable ERA (3.86 before Monday), walked Aaron Hill and gave up a run-scoring double to Adam Lind and an RBI single to Vernon Wells.
Scioscia pulled Bulger in favor of right-hander Bobby Cassevah, who retired Lyle Overbay on an RBI groundout and walked two more batters before shortstop Erick Aybar dropped John Buck’s line drive for an error that made it 6-0 Toronto.
The Angels bullpen, which had a league-best 3.71 ERA from 2000-2009, has the third-worst ERA in the major leagues. Relievers have combined for a league-high 90 walks and 141 hits in 129 1/3 innings this season. By comparison, Angels starters have walked 103 in 284 1/3 innings.
“It’s not as easy as throwing the ball over the middle of the plate,” Scioscia said. “You have to be able to locate and command counts so you can bring your entire repertoire into a game.
“There are definitely some options we’ll have, but right now, our first course of action is to get these guys where they need to be. . . . We have some depth we can explore, but we know these guys are better than this.”
Angels hitters had been better of late, scoring 59 runs in the previous 10 games, but they could not solve Cecil, a 23-year-old left-hander who struck out three, walked two and allowed singles by Kevin Frandsen in the third inning and Hideki Matsui in the eighth. The Angels were shut out for the first time this season.
The Blue Jays took a 1-0 lead in the first when Fred Lewis smacked Saunders’ second pitch of the game off the right-field wall for a triple and scored on Lind’s one-out sacrifice fly to right.
They made it 2-0 in the fourth when Alex Gonzalez singled with one out, Jose Bautista walked and Buck hit an RBI single to left.
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