Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitcher Huston Street exited Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles with a leg injury.
According to Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times, “some leg issue” was hobbling Street, who did not want to exit his outing after giving up a home run to J.J. Hardy.
Moura noted the Angels gave him one more batter to face, but Street walked Adam Jones before the team pulled him.
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Street Battling Injuries Again in 2016
Sunday, July 10
In 20 appearances this season before Sunday, Street was 3-1 with a 4.67 ERA in just 17.1 innings. He’s never had an ERA lower than 3.73 over his 12-year career.
It’s hardly the follow-up season the Angels expected from him after 40 saves last year.
But his drop in numbers could have a lot to do with previous injury troubles. On April 28, he went on the disabled list with a left oblique strain. He missed more than a month, returning to the mound for the Angels on May 31.
Seeing Street play limited innings is nothing new. He hasn’t hit the 70-inning plateau since 2008, when he was with the Oakland Athletics.
Heading into June, though, Street had an ERA under 1.00, and on June 9, it dropped to 0.82 after a clean eighth inning against the New York Yankees. However, a blown save against the Cleveland Indians two days later—he allowed three earned runs in that game—began the ascent of his ERA.
He blew a 2-1 lead against the Houston Astros on June 21, allowing two earned runs, and he gave up three more to the Astros eight days later:
Street’s season has made fans wonder about his baseball mortality, as the 32-year-old has also seen a dip in his velocity.
According to FanGraphs, Street’s fastball has dropped to a career-worst average of 87.9 miles per hour. That’s a little more than three miles per hour slower than his velocity during his rookie season.
If Street misses considerable time, the Angels will have to rely on Joe Smith and Fernando Salas to close out games while he recovers. But the front office might feel his time out even more, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register:
The Angels entered Sunday 16.5 games out of first place in the American League West, and they could have used Street as trade bait to bring in some young, fresh talent to start addressing the roster’s needs.
Now another injury could scare teams away from doing business.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.
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