ANAHEIM, Calif. — This could have been a wonderful story for the home team, in more ways than one.
The young man who started Friday night’s game grew up in Orange County, a graduate of a high school so new that its Wikipedia entry lists one name under “Notable Alumni.”
James Kaprielian is the one, the pride of Beckham High in Irvine, about 10 miles down Interstate 5 from Angel Stadium.
Unfortunately for the Angels, he was the starting pitcher for the Oakland Athletics.
The Angels could use some good young pitching or, really, some good pitching of any kind. Their 5.26 earned-run average is the worst in the major leagues.
On Friday, their starting pitcher reduced his ERA to a season-low 7.92. The first man out of their bullpen faced 10 batters, retired three, with his ERA rising to a season-high 5.48. The closer, pitching in a non-save situation, gave up two home runs in one inning. He has given up five home runs in 16 innings this season; his ERA stands at 5.63.
The Angels lost, 8-4, falling into a last-place tie in the American League West, a season-high 7-1/2 games out of first place.
On Friday, they sent Jose Quintana to the mound. For the first time this season, Quintana pitched beyond the fifth inning, but not much beyond it.
The Angels let him pitch to the heart of the Oakland order for a third time, with the score tied, 1-1. He gave up a double to Ramon Laureano, got one out, then gave up a single to Chad Pinder.
The Angels then yanked Quintana, but Sean Murphy’s double off reliever Mike Mayers scored Laureano and Pinder.
Laureano and Jed Lowrie homered off closer Raisel Iglesias, after Pinder had homered off Mayers and Mark Canha had homered off Quintana.
The Angels paid Quintana $8 million this season to fortify their starting rotation, the latest in a series of not inexpensive free agents asked to help fill a hole created by the team’s inability to develop pitching.
The draft is not the only way to develop pitching. Every pitcher that has started a game for the A’s this season was acquired from another team. The A’s got Kaprelian from the New York Yankees, in a trade for Sonny Gray.
But the draft certainly is a cost-effective way to develop pitching, and to save financial resources for other uses.
On that score, the last decade was a lost one for the Angels.
None of the pitchers drafted by the Angels from 2010-19 has provided them with even 100 innings in a season.
The Angels used some as prospect capital in trades to acquire Andrelton Simmons, Huston Street, Justin Upton and Ernesto Frieri — and, oops, Vinnie Pestano, a forgettable reliever for whom they gave up Mike Clevinger.
And, as one decade rolls into another, the Angels again are desperate for pitching. At the end of this season, the contracts of four of their starting pitchers will expire.
Chris Rodriguez, 22, the Angels’ fourth-round pick in the 2016 draft, has the most electric arm in the organization. He started this season in the bullpen, in his major league debut, and for now he is working his way back from shoulder inflammation.
He lost the 2020 season to the pandemic, and most of the 2018 and 2019 seasons to injury. His minor league experience consists of 78 innings. For now, the Angels want to see him healthy, and they’ll try to win this season first and then worry about whether he should start.
The 2021 season is not yet done, of course. But, if competing in 2021 turns to planning for 2022 sooner than they had hoped, Rodriguez ought to get a look.
