Angels’ Meyer gone in a flash
Big right-hander shows something, but he also gives up six runs in four innings.
SEATTLE — Alex Meyer soundly failed his first test to fit into the Angels’ rotation. The 6-foot-9 right-hander brought his tantalizing 97mph fastball into his Thursday night start at Safeco Field, but also the same struggles to command it that he has always had. Accordingly, he bore the loss in the Angels’ 11-3 defeat to Seattle.
“He showed flashes of why we’re excited about him,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said afterward.
Scioscia was then asked what Meyer must do to extend those flashes.
“Right now, that’s the $64,000 question,” he said, referencing a game show that last aired in 1958.
Meyer hit the first man he faced and walked the second, and soon let in a run on a Nelson Cruz double. Had catcher Juan Graterol not thrown out Jean Segura seeking to steal second, it would have been two. Meyer escaped that inning and again traversed traffic on the basepaths in the second inning.
In the third, he walked the leadoff man, Ben Gamel, and then struck out Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz, a stretch Scioscia referred to as encouraging. Kyle Seager poked a single into left field, and Danny Va-
lencia shot one into the same location, scoring Gamel. When Ben Revere overthrew home, Valencia took second, and he and Seager scored on Guillermo Heredia’s bloop double into right field.
That was four runs. Seattle scored its fifth and sixth in the fourth, on a Segura single, Gamel double, and Cruz single. Meyer made it no further, as long reliever Daniel Wright entered for the fifth. He faltered in the sixth, seventh, and eighth, but made it through four innings to render other relievers unnecessary.
A split nail on his throwing hand bothered Meyer during the fourth inning. Scioscia, pitching coach Charles Nagy and a trainer visited him on the mound, but he threw two warmup pitches to prove he could remain in the game.
The Angels can ill afford another injury to one of their starting pitchers. Meyer himself is replacing lefthander Tyler Skaggs, who is expected to miss at least two months because of an oblique strain. In the continued absence of Garrett Richards, Skaggs represented the best potential out of any remaining Angels starter. Now, he may miss more time than Richards, and the Angels have few options to replace him beyond Meyer.
Next on the in-house list would be Wright, or, given some time, left-hander Nate Smith, who is mounting a return from a season-opening forearm strain. Thursday was not Meyer’s last chance, but if he issues walks at this same rate (three in four innings) and remains wild, it’s easy to envision the Angels cutting the tryout short.
The Angels (15-15) had not won or lost by more than three runs in 11 days, and they had not won or lost a game by more than six runs all season. So, Thursday’s rout marked a departure from their modus operandi. They scored twice in the second inning and once in the eighth, when the outcome was already apparent.
Yunel Escobar had four singles in five tries. But, after his first, he ran at a leisurely pace on Kole Calhoun’s subsequent grounder, losing his chance to reach second safely when Segura bobbled the ball.
No other Angel reached base more than once. Making only his third start of the season, Graterol delivered a single for the early runs. But, on one Cano swing in the Mariners’ half of the third, Graterol sustained two hits. Cano fouled a ball into Graterol’s shoulder, then struck him in the mask on his backswing. He stayed in the game after evaluation.
The Angels were facing the pitcher they could have acquired instead of Meyer nine months ago: Seattle left-hander Ariel Miranda. Baltimore proffered him as the primary piece of a return for left-hander Hector Santiago, whom the Angels traded at the Aug. 1 deadline. Instead, general manager Billy Eppler opted to acquire Meyer and righthander Ricky Nolasco in an expanded deal with Minnesota, and Baltimore sent Miranda to Seattle for lefthander Wade Miley.
Miranda has a 3.54 earned-run average in 89 innings since that trade.