Shoemaker aces another start for Angels
Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said before Thursday’s series finale against the Seattle Mariners that right-hander Matt Shoemaker has pitched “like a true No. 1 for a long time.”
It was high praise, and praise not quite shared by rival talent evaluators who have watched the 29-yearold this season.
Shoemaker ravaged the American League for most of May and June but has posted pedestrian numbers since. He carried a 4.22 earned-run average into Thursday night’s game.
But then he pitched like a reasonable facsimile of an ace, stymieing Seattle for seven effective innings in a 6-4 Angels victory at Angel Stadium.
The Angels secured a series split with their fourth victory of the month, stepping further from the 11game losing streak that has overwhelmed their second half to date.
They got the best of Mariners right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma, who was described by Scioscia as an “Eveready bunny” before the game.
“He just keeps going,” Scioscia said. “He knows what he wants to do and he does it well.”
Thursday was the 35year-old Iwakuma’s 25th start of 2016. His next should guarantee his $14-million option for 2017, in an unusual medically-influenced contract he signed with the Mariners after his off-season dalliance with the Dodgers failed to finish in an agreement.
Yunel Escobar led off the game with a single, his sixth straight at-bat with a hit after a five-for-five game Wednesday. Mike Trout fouled a ball off his left knee but stayed in the game. He walked and then scored on an Andrelton Simmons single, helped along the bases by an error from Seattle’s Kyle Seager that also scored Escobar.
Seager missed a grounder hit to him by Albert Pujols, a ball remarkably similar to the one Simmons hit that Seager secured to conclude the Mariners’ dramatic Wednesday victory.
The Angels next scored in the fifth, when Jett Bandy clobbered a first-pitch slider over the wall inside the leftfield foul pole.
Escobar led off the eighth with a double. After Kole Calhoun struck out, Mariners Manager Scott Servais ordered Trout intentionally walked. Albert Pujols pounded the second pitch he saw from reliever Nick Vincent for a two-run double. Pujols was soon erased from the bases, but the Angels soon scored another run.
Robinson Cano blasted a solo home run against Shoemaker in the first. The Angels starter then retired Seattle in order the next two innings. He allowed two Mariners to reach in the fourth and fifth innings but stranded them all. Nelson Cruz launched another solo shot in the sixth. Shoemaker then finished that inning and the next without issue.
“That’s a great outing for Matt,” Scioscia said.
Jose Alvarez and Jose Valdez split the eighth before Fernando Salas gave up a two-run homer to Mike Zunino in the ninth.
Shoemaker still could not find the strikeouts that left his repertoire during a rough five-start stretch heading into Thursday. There’s evidence the source of the problem is mislocated splitters, his signature pitch. Cruz’s homer came on another one.
Scioscia acknowledged that Shoemaker had not been “quite as crisp” in recent starts. But he was still grateful for the relative consistency, in that he continued to offer the team at least six innings on a regular basis.
“We are the team with the fewest quality starts in baseball,” Scioscia said. “So, Matt doing what he does is obviously a big lift for us.”