Jered Weaver/Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Angels
– Jered Weaver, now 4-6 on the year, had a decent outing, giving up four earned runs in 7 2/3 innings. Certainly, it was an improvement over his previous outing, when he gave up three home runs and allowed seven earned runs in an 8-7 loss to the Yankees. Even so, Weaver’s season ERA of 4.61 is the second-highest of his 10-year career. The only other time he had an ERA of over 4.00 was in his third season in 2008 when it was 4.33. He has a fine career ERA of 3.35.
– Kyle Kubitza’s results in his major-league debut were a mixed bag. He did have two hits, but the third baseman just called up from Triple-A Salt Lake had a mental error in the second inning when instead of throwing to first on a two-out ground ball by Joey Butler, he threw to second to get Kevin Kiermaier leading off second. Kiermaier was eventually tagged out, but not before Nick Franklin scored the second run of the inning. The run counted because the third out came on a tag insead of a force play. Kubitza also had a couple of baserunning mistakes in the third inning. He was playing because David Freese has a tight hamstring. Freese did pinch-hit for Kubitza in the ninth.
– Albert Pujols, Kole Calhoun and Carlos Perez – the Nos. 3, 4 and 5 hitters – were a combined 0-for-11. Throw in a 1-for-4 performance by Mike Trout, make that 1-for-15 by those four. That’s not going to get it done on most nights.
– Speaking of Trout, after striking out a career-high and major-league-leading 184 times in 2014, he is once again striking out too much. He has 56 strikeouts on the season. That does not lead the league, but we should note that 13 of those strikeouts have come in the past 10 games. He has struck out six times in the past four games, including twice in this game. Trout, who three times this season has been struck out three times in a game, has seen his batting average fall from .303 on May 22 to .285. His average was at .333 on May 2.
– To say manager Mike Scioscia has been patient with outfielder Matt Joyce would be putting it mildly. Scioscia continues to put Joyce in the lineup, but Joyce can’t even get to the proverbial Mendoza line. After going 0-for-3 in this one, his batting average is .186. He has not had an RBI since May 30, when he hit a home run. Joyce has 167 at-bats and has played in 52 of the Angels’ 59 games, so this is not a small sample size we’re talking about.