Angels News: Phil Nevin Defends Pitching Coach Matt Wise Amid Halos’ Struggles
It's no secret that the Los Angeles Angels' pitching has fallen short this season.
In fact, aside from Shohei Ohtani's nearly herculean efforts every start -- efforts that led to fatigue issues for the two-way player -- and Reid Detmers' start on Wednesday where he flirted with a no-hitter, the team's pitching has been mediocre at best in 2023.
That's simultaneously a reason why they went out and acquired Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez before the trade deadline and why the team is dealing with ever-fading playoff hopes -- they sit seven games back of a postseason spot as of Friday.
While Lopez has been great out of the Halos bullpen, the same can't be said for Giolito.
The southern California native who was brought over to be a solid No. 2 or 3 option behind Ohtani has been anything but that, logging a ghastly 8.14 ERA over his brief time donning the red and white.
The Angels' issues on the mound and Giolito's inability to patch some of them have led the Halos to post a collective 4.54 ERA, placing them 21st in MLB and sandwiched in between the rebuilding New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals.
This is far from where the Angels want (and frankly need) to be in order to salvage any chance at the postseason, but manager Phil Nevin came to the defense of pitching coach Matt Wise, who's been under fire of late due to the staff's shortcomings.
“I love the rapport he has with the pitchers, the way they respond to him,” Nevin said. “There are some guys that have taken some steps forward. I understand some guys have taken some steps back, but I don’t put that on Matt. Yes, coaching is a lot of it, but at this level, you gotta be a man and figure some things out on your own to be a professional.”
While those are probably welcome comments for Wise to hear, ultimately the staff needs to perform better on a nightly basis -- and they very well might have already run out of time to tangibly fix things.
There's still roughly a month and a half left in what's been a regular season filled with ups and downs, and they could mathematically flip the script on what's been a horrible stretch after the trade deadline, a period where they've gone just 4-11 since August began.
But once in a blue moon aberrations won't do it. The Halos need to find, at long last, the consistency that's been missing all too often.
And if they don't? Questions about what went wrong will follow, and history won't look too kindly upon the Angels leaky pitching staff.
