Andrew Heaney had perhaps his second worst outing of the season on Friday when the Los Angeles Angels faced the Seattle Mariners. In 3.1 innings, he gave up three home runs — leading to four earned runs — while striking out just five. It got him his second loss of the season in a game where the Angels still had plenty of chances.
Heaney has been somewhat inconsistent to begin the season. He has had five starts, and in three of them, he allowed zero, one, and two earned runs respectively. In the other two, he’s given up four and seven. It’s not exactly clesar why this is happening, but Heaney has some theories for Friday’s issues.
The Angels starter called himself all over the place, despite throwing over half of his pitches for strikes, according to Daniel Guerrero of MLB.com:
“I just didn’t get a good feel tonight,” Heaney said. “I was kind of all over the place. I didn’t really establish anything in the strike zone. I didn’t put guys away when I got ahead. Didn’t make great pitches, when I needed to.”
Joe Maddon saw something different from Heaney, saying that the home runs he was giving up was a surprise. He specifically said that he thought Heaney pitched well on the night.
“He didn’t throw the ball badly,” Maddon said. “[Heaney] didn’t get the results he was looking for and they did hit some homers out, up and down the lineup, so it was kind of confusing a bit because I thought he was making decent pitches.”
Heaney is certainly going to be harder on himself than Maddon, but it’s interesting how different their perspectives are on his performance. For Heaney, it was certainly not his best outing of the year. In fact, after three straight really good games, it was a surprise to see him struggle so much.
Hopefully, over the next few days, he can figure out his command and be back to his normal success in his next start. That’s all Heaney can do to get things back on track.
Alex Cobb agreed with Maddon’s decision to pull him
The Angels have had a couple lackluster performances by starters in a row, with Jose Quintana, Alex Cobb, and Heaney all struggling. When Cobb was pulled in the third inning of his game, he said he agreed with Maddon’s decision, saying it was likely only going to get worse.
