OC Register: José Suarez allows game to get away in Angels’ loss to Orioles

[AngelsWin.com]

ANAHEIM — As José Suarez trudged from the mound to the dugout, Angel Stadium fans let him know how they felt about the start to his season by showering him with boos.

The Angels’ left-hander entered in a close game and turned it into a not-so-close game, allowing four runs in the sixth inning of the Angels’ 6-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday afternoon.

Suarez now has a 9.20 ERA in 14⅔ innings over eight games.

It’s a small sample, to be sure, but the results have been consistently poor. This comes on the heels of a 2023 season in which Suarez had an 8.29 ERA, accumulating most of that in the first month before spending almost five months on the injured list.

Suarez, 26, has not been able to reproduce the solid work he did as a starter in 2021 and 2022. Now, he’s out of options, and another team would likely take a crack at him with a waiver claim if the Angels attempted to send him to the minors.

So far the Angels have only used him in games when they were losing. In four of the games the deficit was at least four runs, but in the other four the Angels have been down by one or two runs. He turned a two-run deficit into a four-run deficit in what was eventually a one-run loss on April 14 in Boston, and on Wednesday his outing was again costly.

The Angels trailed 2-0 before Suarez entered, and then he didn’t retire any of the first five hitters he faced. He got a double play, but a fourth run scored to run the deficit to 6-0.

That’s when he left and the fans let him hear it.

Adding to their frustration, soon after Suarez left the Angels’ hitters finally woke up, getting back in the game.

The Angels had just one hit through the first five innings, but in the sixth inning Mike Trout blasted a homer – his major-league leading 10th of the season – and then Taylor Ward hit a two-run homer. Zach Neto added a solo homer in the eighth, cutting the deficit to two runs.

In the ninth, the Angels scored one run when Ehire Adrianza went all the way to third on an infield hit and an error and then scored on a ground ball. Jo Adell drew a two-out walk, but he was caught stealing second to end it. The play was reviewed and he appeared to be safe, but the call on the field stood.

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By coming up short, the Angels stuck Tyler Anderson with a loss on a day that he allowed two runs in five innings.

Anderson escaped the first, third and fifth innings, stranding two runners each time.

He was assisted by his defense twice. In the third, Miguel Sanó made a diving stop at third base to save a run. Two innings later, Ward tracked down a ball in the gap in left-center, saving an extra-base hit.

Sanó later left the game with left knee soreness.

With the loss, the Angels (10-15) once again failed to win back-to-back games. They haven’t had a winning streak of any length since winning four in a row from March 31-April 3, which was 19 games ago. They haven’t won a series in that span either.

More to come on this story.

Mike Trout is the first Major Leaguer this season to hit 10 home runs. pic.twitter.com/jeceqUx7Y9

— MLB (@MLB) April 24, 2024

.@TimSalmon15 breaks down the final play of the game@Angels | #RepTheHalo pic.twitter.com/XDGhj6ugKV

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) April 24, 2024

Taylor Ward gets it just over the wall for the 2 run HR@Angels | #RepTheHalo pic.twitter.com/BeI9wmKiFc

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) April 24, 2024

No words.@Angels pic.twitter.com/a3e8WKTIsW

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) April 24, 2024

SANÓ SNAGS A HEATER & GETS THE OUT@angels | #RepTheHalo pic.twitter.com/IRr3ks4U5e

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) April 24, 2024

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[Angelsfan1984]

Can Perry allow Jose Suarez to get away?

[Vlad27Trout27]

has Suarez been DFA yet? if

[Slegnaac]

Just waiting for Silseth to return

[jsnpritchett]

7 minutes ago, Slegnaac said:

Just waiting for Silseth to return

[jsnpritchett]

18 minutes ago, Slegnaac said:

Just waiting for Silseth to return

 

9 minutes ago, jsnpritchett said:

This is from Fletcher's update on Monday: 

"Right-hander Chase Silseth (elbow inflammation) is still not cleared to throw."

[Slegnaac]

19 minutes ago, jsnpritchett said:

This is from Fletcher's update on Monday: 

"Right-hander Chase Silseth (elbow inflammation) is still not cleared to throw."

Bummer

[samwum]

In 2021 and 2022 Jose Suarez had a sub 4.00 ERA and was good. He threw a fastball, curveball, and changeup -- nothing else.

In 2023 and 2024 Jose Suarez has been an abomination of a pitcher. He has been throwing a fastball, slider, cutter, and changeup -- no curveball.

Maybe someone can pass this along to someone within the organization?

[T.G.]

1 minute ago, samwum said:

Maybe someone can pass this along to someone within the organization?

Sarcasm?

[samwum]

Just now, T.G. said:

Sarcasm?

Sarcasm, apathy, exhaustion, I don't know.

[greginpsca]

Has he even pitched in a game so far without giving up runs?

[Stradling]

16 minutes ago, greginpsca said:

Has he even pitched in a game so far without giving up runs?

Yea, 3 of 7 he’s given up zero runs. 

[Slegnaac]

50 minutes ago, samwum said:

In 2021 and 2022 Jose Suarez had a sub 4.00 ERA and was good. He threw a fastball, curveball, and changeup -- nothing else.

In 2023 and 2024 Jose Suarez has been an abomination of a pitcher. He has been throwing a fastball, slider, cutter, and changeup -- no curveball.

Maybe someone can pass this along to someone within the organization?

What about the Sweeper?

 

 

asking for a friend 

[samwum]

8 minutes ago, Slegnaac said:

What about the Sweeper?

 

 

asking for a friend 

Lol. Actually I do appreciate you mentioning that, Fangraphs doesn't have a sweeper category so Suarez' slider might actually be a sweeper, I don't know. Would certainly connect some dots -- it felt like every HR Ohtani gave up last year was off of his awesome new "sweeper".

[Vlad27Trout27]

2 hours ago, samwum said:

In 2021 and 2022 Jose Suarez had a sub 4.00 ERA and was good. He threw a fastball, curveball, and changeup -- nothing else.

In 2023 and 2024 Jose Suarez has been an abomination of a pitcher. He has been throwing a fastball, slider, cutter, and changeup -- no curveball.

Maybe someone can pass this along to someone within the organization?

1. he is out of shape, and fat.

2. his stuff has regressed, he's lost close to 2 MPH on his fastball, his chnage-up used be great, and is garbage now, both his fastball and changes are meatballs. thus, he sucks.

3. He is fat! did I mention this? but he's fat.

heck Barria would have probably been better.

[Tank]

4 hours ago, AngelsWin.com said:

Suarez now has a 9.20 ERA in 14⅔ innings over eight games.

not sure how many more chances he deserves, but this kind of performance shouldn't be tolerated any more.

[EDinTUSTIN]

That is two games in a row that Sano made a great play at third. If he can keep that up and get that bat going, Rendon can take all the time he needs. Eternity comes to mind.

[BTH]

3 minutes ago, EDinTUSTIN said:

That is two games in a row that Sano made a great play at third. If he can keep that up and get that bat going, Rendon can take all the time he needs. Eternity comes to mind.

[EDinTUSTIN]

39 minutes ago, Tank said:

not sure how many more chances he deserves, but this kind of performance shouldn't be tolerated any more.

They need to cut bait with Suarez. He needs to be sent back down to see if he can turn things around. It is time for Wash to start delivering on his admonishment that those who are not pulling their weight and doing their job won't be on the team anymore. A good start would be dumping or demoting Suarez, and then telling Sandoval to get his act together or he'll be following Suarez.

[BTH]

45 minutes ago, Tank said:

not sure how many more chances he deserves

0

[jsnpritchett]

5 minutes ago, EDinTUSTIN said:

They need to cut bait with Suarez. He needs to be sent back down to see if he can turn things around. It is time for Wash to start delivering on his admonishment that those who are not pulling their weight and doing their job won't be on the team anymore. A good start would be dumping or demoting Suarez, and then telling Sandoval to get his act together or he'll be following Suarez.

Suarez can't be sent down unless he clears waivers. He's out of options. I'm 100% fine with him leaving the organization at this point. 

[Mark68]

21 minutes ago, EDinTUSTIN said:

They need to cut bait with Suarez. He needs to be sent back down to see if he can turn things around. It is time for Wash to start delivering on his admonishment that those who are not pulling their weight and doing their job won't be on the team anymore. A good start would be dumping or demoting Suarez, and then telling Sandoval to get his act together or he'll be following Suarez.

He has no options left. They can't just "demote" him. They'd have to DFA him. 

Not that I'm opposed to this...

[samwum]

53 minutes ago, Vlad27Trout27 said:

1. he is out of shape, and fat.

2. his stuff has regressed, he's lost close to 2 MPH on his fastball, his chnage-up used be great, and is garbage now, both his fastball and changes are meatballs. thus, he sucks.

3. He is fat! did I mention this? but he's fat.

heck Barria would have probably been better.

Haha, hard to argue with any of those points. 

I'm not sure on Barria, his underlying stats always suggested he's about as bad a pitcher you can get. Sometimes he got lucky with soft contact and outperformed his underlying stats though, and I can definitely appreciate his contributions as the club's rubber arm. 

Regarding Suarez, you're absolutely right about his stuff regressing. His stuff and production has dropped off a cliff and I actually feel really bad for the guy with how he's deservedly become public enemy #1.

I'm really curious about his changeup regressing from great to a meatball pitch. Is it possible that Suarez' changeup was more effective when his pitch mix consisted of 3 pitches at different speeds? In other words, I wonder if Suarez has struggled to keep hitters of balance since replacing his slow curveball with a slider and cutter that have comparable velocity to the changeup. 

At the very least, I hope Suarez isn't restricted by the front office and has the freedom to use the arsenal he prefers. His time is coming to a close and it's probably time to revert to what worked best. 

 

[EDinTUSTIN]

That call at second was absolutely ludicrous. And that was reviewed objectively? If the roles were reversed, we know what would have transpired from New York. However, that said, letting Suarez to keep pitching was nonsense. The Angels need to put themselves in a position where they don't have to rely on correct calls to win games. I know one thing, if that would've been Sosh managing, he would've had a conniption fit and been in some umpire's face with that eye-boring, and vein popping visage.

[EDinTUSTIN]

55 minutes ago, jsnpritchett said:

Suarez can't be sent down unless he clears waivers. He's out of options. I'm 100% fine with him leaving the organization at this point. 

Yeah, you are right. I forgot about him being out of options. Anyway, the only option as I see it is just to outright cut him loose.