Down 2-0 in the series, what's the worst thing that could happen to the Angels other than a pop fly into shallow right field on which Mike Trout, Kole Calhoun, Howie Kendrick and Albert Pujols all collide and get knocked out of the game?
How about C.J. Wilson retiring just two batters in the first inning and leaving after giving up three runs?
C.J. Wilson... pic.twitter.com/PoX4gSHI4s
— Tate Steinlage (@SteinlageT) October 6, 2014
CJ Wilson hitting the showers..at least he has great hair to wash with Head and Shoulders
— Joe Mreczko (@JoeMreczko) October 6, 2014
After Trout had staked the Angels to a 1-0 lead with a home run, Wilson retired the first batter but then gave up ground-ball singles to Norichika Aoki and Lorenzo Cain. He struck out Eric Hosmer and walked Billy Butler before Alex Gordon cleared the bases with a double to left-center, the slow-moving Butler huffing and puffing all the way home from first.
With no room to play around with, Mike Scioscia yanked Wilson after 23 pitches and Vinnie Pestano got out of the inning.
Wilson had a similar outing in his next-to-last start of the regular season, when the A's knocked him out in the first inning with six hits and four runs. He had five other starts of fewer than four innings during the season.
This was a big concern in picking the Angels: Wilson's tendency to have blow-up outings. This one came at the worst possible time.
