It’s hard to grasp how truly awful Josh Hamilton was on Tuesday night. He came to the plate five times. Here’s what happened:
- First Inning: No score, Mike Trout on first, nobody out, Hamilton grounds into a double play;
- Third Inning: Mariners up 2-1, Mike Trout on first, nobody out, Hamilton grounds into a double play;
- Fifth Inning: Mariners up 2-1, Peter Bourjos on second, Mike Trout on first, one out, Hamilton grounds into a double play;
- Seventh Inning: Mariners up 2-1, Chirs Ianetta on second, two outs, Hamilton strikes out;
- Ninth Inning: Score tied 2-2, Erik Aybar on second, Chris Ianetta on first, two out, Hamilton strikes out.
Those were a lot of chances to tie the game, give the Angels the lead or, at the very least, keep an inning going and let someone else help out. Instead he left seven men on base, Anaheim lost in extra innings and Hamilton experienced perhaps his worst night in an Angels uniform.
For those of you who want a statistical measure of this badness, note that Hamilton’s Win Probability Added (WPA), which measures how much a player contributed to his team’s win or loss on a given day, was -.477. That means he, all by his lonesome, reduced the Angels’ chances of winning last night’s game by 47.7%.
On the bright side: only four more years to go on that contract after this one.
