“I have nothing to say. We’ll work hard tomorrow to end the losing streak.”
It doesn’t matter if you’re in Korea or the U.S., there’s little difference in the postgame comments of a manager in a long losing streak.
The Los Angeles Angels have lost six straight games. It’s tied for the longest losing streak of the season. The Angels fell to a 3-2 loss in extra innings against the Seattle Mariners at Angels Stadium on July 7 (ET). The Angels, who have lost six games in a row since sweeping the Atlanta Braves on April 2, are now 56-57 and have been under .500 for 20 days since April 18 (47-48).
In fourth place in the American League (AL) West, the Angels are now seven games behind the third wild-card spot, the Toronto Blue Jays. Toronto, the Angels’ target for catching up, was coming off a 13-1 win over the Boston Red Sox earlier in the day to extend its winning streak to three games.
Coincidentally, they haven’t won a game in six games since the trade deadline on Feb. 2. The Angels acquired starting pitcher Lucas Giolito, setup man Reynaldo Lopez, first baseman CJ Cron and outfielder Randal Grichuk in trades with the Chicago White Sox and Colorado Rockies in late July.
However, the team suffered three straight losses in its next 10 games, plummeting to 2-8. It’s also shocking that they were swept in a four-game series at home by Seattle, another wild-card contender.
Using Toronto’s winning percentage (.558) as a cutoff for the playoffs, the Angels would need to win 34 of their remaining 49 games, or a .694 winning percentage. It’s a miracle that a team that struggles with a .694 winning percentage can immediately improve to nearly .700.
During their six-game losing streak, the Angels had a team batting average of .213, a team OPS of .606, an average of 3.33 runs scored, and a team ERA of 4.43. During the same time frame, their runs scored are 12th in the AL and their team ERA is 11th in the league. Both batters have struggled at the plate.
“We’re going to wake up tomorrow and get out on the field and work hard and play hard,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said after the game, “I know everybody thinks we’re done. I know they’ve eliminated us (from playoff contention). That’s good. We have 26 players and a staff. They know where we are now. They know what’s in front of us.” The message is that there’s not much to say.
In holding onto Shohei Ohtani, the Angels are facing the worst-case scenario for a franchise that has dreams of playing fall ball for the first time in nine years since 2014. If they miss the playoffs this year and lose Ohtani after the season, the Angels will be forced to reorganize.
As The Athletic columnist Jim Borden wrote, “The Angels will regret not trading Ohtani. It’s much harder to develop an amateur draft pick into a big leaguer than it is to take another team’s prospects and develop them.” In other words, the Angels should have gotten a bunch of prospects this offseason instead of losing Ohtani in free agency and receiving a first-round draft pick next year. As playoff hopes fade, Ohtani’s willingness to move will only increase.메이저사이트
Ohtani finished the day 1-for-4 with a home run, a run scored, and two strikeouts. Matt Olson of the Atlanta Braves hit his 39th home run of the season against the Cubs to move within one of Ohtani. With his fall baseball dreams slipping away, the home run title is on track to be taken away from him.
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