ANAHEIM, Calif. – He couldn’t make it stop. None of it. Not the misfired pitches and missed locations, not the multitude of hits and base runners, not the homers – three of them a row – that turned a normally docile Angels crowd into a frenzy, it all swirled and spiraled out of Yusei Kikuchi’s control leaving him sweat-soaked and sullen. He gave a helpless glance skyward as if the baseball gods were somehow turning him into the pitching version of Job.
He had delivered yet another abysmal performance, crushing the Mariners’ victory hopes less than halfway through the game and setting his team up for yet another lopsided loss – a 12-3 drubbing by Angels.