Two starts ago, Garrett Richards was being anointed (by some) as the new ace of the Angels starting staff. The kid with the mid-90's fastball and lively breaking ball was supposed to hold down the fort before Jered Weaver came back.

Two starts ago, Richards and his team had a much better outlook on this 2013 season than they do after tonight. A few hours after playing in the longest game in franchise history, the Angels offense did everything in their power to knock together some runs. And thanks to Mike Trout and Mark Trumbo, the game remained fairly close on a night when aforementioned "ace" Garrett Richards decided he was playing spikeball. That's not much of an exaggeration, either. In 5 2/3 innings, Richards walked two, and also made two costly wild pitches that bounced well before reaching the plate, allowing key Oakland A's runs to score. We can delve into how he pitched much better than his final line of 5.2, 8 H, 7ER, 2BB, but 7 runs is 7 runs.

Nick Maronde offered no "relief," also throwing a wild pitch, while surrendering two earned runs on ZERO hits, and two walks. If not for the shoddy relief work from the young lefty, the game would have remained within reach. But it was not to be for this day.

Oy vey.

Athletics 10, Angels 6

Game Notes

-- In what turned out to be the most bizarre moment in a bizarre past couple games, Angels manager Mike Scioscia made his most insufferable blunder yet. Get this: 

1. Pitching coach Mike Butcher pays Maronde a visit to the mound, in what turned out to be an unsuccessful attempt at calming down the pitcher. 

2. A few pitchers later, with the same batter still at the plate, here comes Scioscia, waddling out to do… something? Nobody is quite sure what. First base umpire Gary Cederstorm promptly shoos him away, reminding the clueless manager that Butcher had already come out and that he could only visit the pitcher if to make a pitching change. Which, apparently, Scioscia wasn't going to do…?

3. If that description was confusing to you, it's because it was a confusing moment.

Mike Scioscia is confusing.

-- Shortstop Erick Aybar made his return to the Angels lineup tonight and provided some spark at the top of the order., with a walk and a hit. If he can continue this, the Angels just might be able to weather the loss of Peter Bourjos for the next couple weeks. Keyword being a big "might."

-- Josh Hamilton walked. I repeat, Josh Hamilton walked! In other news, a flock of swine was spotted in flight around the Sierra Madre mountain range area.

-- After clubbing two home runs last night, Albert Pujols looked old again. 0-5.

-- Mark Trumbo is powerful.

Halo A-Hole of the Game

The month of April really sucks.

The Angel bullpen was once the backbone of the Scioscia era, now that backbone has broken and left the Angels a crippled shell of their old selves. Despite efforts to rebuild the relief corps in recent years, things only seem to be getting worse amidst a vicious cycle of pitcher abuse, decreasing depth and woeful role mismanagement.

Early in his managerial career, Mike Scioscia was lauded for being smart with his bullpen usage. As the years have gone on, that reputation has diminished and possibly even reversed, especially if you look at recent seasons. Judging by his difficulties juggling the current batch of misfits, it seems that Scioscia's early success had less to do with tactical brilliance and more to do with having such a deep and talented crop of relievers that he couldn't mess them up if he tried.

Now though he is saddled with a bullpen so devoid of talent that he may not be able to find success if he tried, and boy is he trying. That wasn't supposed to be the case though. Jerry Dipoto recognized the problems the lack of bullpen depth caused the Halos in 2012, his first year as GM. He signed Ryan Madson and Sean Burnett in the off-season while adding Mark Lowe off waivers before the season began. This should have made things better. Some of it is Scioscia's fault and some of it is Dipoto's.

It is too late for me to write a real recap. This game was also too weird and frustrating for such a thing, so here is a list of the nuttiness for those of you who weren't brave enough to stay up and watch:

-Two quality starts in one game from the Angels

-Five players lost to injury

-Two exploded hamstrings

-Two homers by Albert Pujols

-One murdered baseball by Mark Trumbo

-One pitcher that was scratched from the start only to end up pitching multiple innings in relief

-Two dozen non-sensical statements from the Angel broadcasting crew as they try to fill air time and act as if they aren't punchy

-One umpire who was clearly so drowsy that he completely lost the strike zone during the 15th inning

-One last train leaving Oakland at midnight that no doubt left dozens of A's fans stranded

-One shot of a woman sleeping in the stands that got videobombed by a dude picking his nose

-Nineteen innings of Chris Iannetta squatting behind the plate and Albert Pujols playing first base (poorly) on bad feet and Josh Hamilton not getting a hit

-One bad sac bunt that could've been a triple play only to have Pujols bobble the ball and then have to hold his throw because Jerome Williams was in his way so they only got one out

-One comically bad Trout misplay of a ball in left that resulted in a video replay of a ball that landed three feet short of the wall, just because

-One pitcher batting in an American League game

-Three gingers with beards pitching in the same game

-Two teams setting new records for the longest game in franchise history

Halo Hero/A-HOLE

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The April 30th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Aybar starts rehab assignment, Bourjos and Jimenez both suffer injuries and much more...

The Story: Erick Aybar began a rehab assignment at Triple-A Salt Lake last night.

The Monkey Says: It could be a short assignment, but probably a few games since they went through the trouble of sending him to Utah rather than keeping local with the 66ers. There are also reports that Callaspo will begin a similar assignment tomorrow with Inland Empire. Hopefully both will be back no later than this weekend.

The Story: Both Peter Bourjos (hamstring) and Luis Jimenez (shin) left last night's Angel game due to injury.

The Monkey Says: The hits just keep on coming. The Angels are so banged up that John Hester and Travis Witherspoon are the only position players in the minors on the 40-man roster who aren't on the DL. Perhaps the Angels will skip sending Callaspo to rehab and have him come back to play assuming Lucho can't go. As for Bourjos, he seems certain to miss at least a few days and probably go on the DL. He will be much tougher to replace, though it figures to be J.B. Shuck in the short-term. Ideally they would promote Kole Calhoun, but he broke his hand. Bill Hall or Brad Hawpe might somehow work there way into the mix. I kind of wonder if the Angels might not be better off calling up C.J. Cron to DH if it appears Bourjos will miss significant time.

The Angels-Athletics game is still going on in extra innings right now which is good because it gives fans at the O.co Coliseum a chance to see if this home run that Mark Trumbo hit to lead off the second has landed yet.

Official cause of the baseball's death was ruled to be first degree Trumbombing. Distance of death is unofficially 475 feet which would tie it for the longest home run this year. No word yet on whether or not the Oakland police will be filing homicide charges against Trumbo.

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Last week I celebrated that the Angels were good again. Um... oops! This week, that no longer appears to be the case so I apologize if you drown in all the sarcasm dripping off of this week's rankings....

RANK	PLAYER	CHANGE	COMMENTS
1		+1 Last Week: 2	Mike Trout - He hasn't been hitting much, but at least he is still drawing walks and finally stole some bases.
2		-1 Last Week: 1	Albert Pujols - I'd suggest that his recent struggles and general inability to drive the ball are because of his aching feet, but I fear that he would yell at me like that poor Mariners beat reporter.
3		-- 0 Last Week: 3	Mark Trumbo - Another Angel with an inexplicable decrease in power. Mark is hitting .296 but with just 3 homers and a .163 ISO.
4		+2 Last Week: 6	Peter Bourjos - Nobody does more with less than Bourjos. By that I mean nobody get more hits by hitting the ball a shorter distance.
5		-- 0 Last Week: 5	Garrett Richards - His start went off the rails a bit when Scioscia tried to ruin his arm milk another inning out of him to spare the bullpen, but it is pretty safe to say he should keep his rotation spot after Weaver gets back.
6		+4 Last Week: 10	Howie Kendrick - A walk off homer against the Rangers? You just bought yourself three GIDPs worth of me not getting mad at you.
7		-3 Last Week: 4	Ernesto Frieri - Allowing a game-winning homer to A.J. Pierzynski is always going to get you dropped in the rankings.
8		+1 Last Week: 9	Scott Downs - Downs blew two saves last week and he is probably still the team's best middle reliever (also the blown save rule is stupid).
9		-2 Last Week:7	Chris Iannetta - I know he hasn't been on fire with the bat, but I still don't get why he has to hit behind Brendan Harris.
10		+5 Last Week: 15	Jason Vargas - The Angels' season summed up in one GIF.
11		+1 Last Week: 12	C.J. Wilson - The strikeouts and lack of walks are encouraging but would it kill him to pitch more than six innings? Oh, it will? That's a risk I am willing to take.
12		-4 Last Week: 8	Sean Burnett - He's the one Dipoto acquisition that has actually worked out so far this year so of course he is hurt now. Why wouldn't he be?
13		+1 Last Week: 14	Dane De La Rosa - With five appearances in seven days, Mike Scioscia clearly trusts De La Rosa but also seems hellbent on riding him into the ground.
14		-1 Last Week: 13	Tommy Hanson - Welcome back, Tommy. Keep your chin up.
15		+2 Last Week: 17	Jerome Williams - The best thing he did all week was not pitch a fit about being replaced by Roth at the last minute for the spot start.
16		+2 Last Week: 18	Josh Hamilton - So he is going to start hitting in May, right? Isn't that how this struggling, big name, free agent slugger works?
17		-6 Last Week: 11	Luis Jimenez - Maybe it is time to un-libre the Lucho and get Callaspo back in the lineup.
18		-2 Last Week: 16	Michael Roth - Even though the results weren't pretty, Roth showed some great signs in his spot start and very clearly has a nice future in front of him.
19		+1 Last Week: 20	Hank Conger - It was nice to see Conger homer but he really found his true calling in being the bench guy with zany, over-the-top reactions to homers.
20		-1 Last Week: 19	Brendan Harris - Harris is running out of steam, so thank goodness Aybar should be back this week.
21		+3 Last Week: 24	Joe Blanton - I am convinced that Blanton Jedi mind tricked Scioscia into leaving him in for an extra inning because Joe realized he pitched too well and needed to screw things up before he made his exit.
22		-1 Last Week: 21	J.B. Shuck  - I think we can all agree that this whole mess is somehow J.B. Shuck's fault. I don't know how, but it is.
23		-1 Last Week: 22	Andrew Romine - Romine got a hit! WE DID IT!
24		-- 0 Last Week: n/a	Nick Maronde - Out of all the rookie relievers called up recently, Maronde is the one with the talent to make a big impact, and now there is a need for him to with Burnett on the DL. No pressure.
25		-2 Last Week: 23	Michael Kohn - Last week I said it was "throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks" for the Angel bullpen. Kohn ain't sticking.

Dropped from rankings: Lowe (pretending he has a stiff neck so nobody realizes that he just plain stinks)

Biggest Riser: Vargas, up five spots

Biggest Dropper: Jimenez, down six spots

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The April 29th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including frustrations boil over in the clubhouse, Hanson returns, Burnett to the DL and much more...

The Story: Frustrations boiled over in the Angel clubhouse after they dropped their series in Seattle.

The Monkey Says: That frustration was memorialized in this GIF. It is also memorialized in my ulcer. I really don't even know what to say anymore. This was a huge series for the Angels to turn things around and they did the opposite. As much as I keep telling myself that it is still early, that excuse just isn't going to fly much longer.

The Story: Sean Burnett has been placed on the disabled list with more tightness in his forearm.

The Monkey Says: When it rains, it pours.