Optimistic Defeat Dec. 26, 2011
Opening Day in the NBA didn’t exactly give Lakers fans the present they were hoping for, as the Lakers lost by one point to the Chicago Bulls on Christmas. To make matters worse, it is really starting to look like the NBA (ie the commissioner) hates the Lakers franchise, all of a sudden. Commissioner David Stern vetoed the trade that would have brought Chris Paul to the Lakers, after it was approved by three teams’ general managers, because he didn’t think the Hornets were getting enough in the trade, but more importantly, he and the other owners were protesting that the Lakers would become too good, and ruin the money-making opportunities for other teams in “smaller markets”. This led to a group of disgruntled players and an ill-advised trade of one of their best players (Odom) for nothing in return, on a team with a lot of pre-existing issues as the start of the season approached. Just to add insult to injury, the NBA approved of a trade sending Paul to the LA Clippers, which makes them potentially really good for many years, in the very same market (and arena) as the Lakers, leaving an even worse taste in the Lakers‘ mouths.
Many obstacles already lay in their path, because of a new coach, Mike Brown, and his completely different approach to coaching, instating all new concepts on both offense and defense, and a roster that is missing their center Andrew Bynum for the first four games of the season, especially since the bench looked pretty barren on paper, even with Bynum in the mix. Sure, the league did show some compassion and reduce Bynum’s suspension from 5 to 4 games to keep in proportion with the shortened season, but the start of this shortened season schedule seems to put the Lakers at more of a disadvantage than anyone else. Part of the difficulties for the league will be that they have to play three back-to-back games at least one time during the regular season, and that is fair, and no one can dispute that. The Lakers, however, are the only team in the league who are forced to play their back-to-back-to-back to start the season, which seems like it’s so unfair that it should never have been a possibility for any team, to the point it should have been in the collective bargaining agreement or something. So not only do they have to play their first four games without their best defensive player and one of the best players on the team (when healthy of course), they have to play the first three of games in a row, to start their season, after a very short training camp and only ¼ of the regular amount of preseason games, both versus one team. To make matters worse, and further my point that the NBA hates the Lakers, the Lakers have been scheduled to play 6 games in the first 8 days, through New Years’s Day, which again seems absolutely absurd. If they make it into 2012 with a record of 3-3 it would be a holiday miracle, but I’m more concerned with the players staying healthy and being able to play in each of those games, since injuries are sure to be a problem this season even without a ridiculous schedule.
With all this piling up on them, and the very tough loss to the Bulls, in a game where they led by 10 late in the 4th quarter, there still seems to be some silver lining in the loss, and some answers to a few of the questions about their roster. The fact remains that they were up by 10 with about 3 minutes left, and were up by 8 with about 2 minutes left, and if not for four consecutive missed free throws by Pau Gasol and Josh McRoberts, as well as a bad turnover by Kobe Bryant which led to the Bulls game winning shot, the Lakers would have won that game easily, against a team that most pick to at least make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, in the Bulls. Despite their lack luster free throw shooting at the end, Pau Gasol played well and was more aggressive than usual at some points in the game, and McRoberts showed some real tenacity and grit out on the floor, fighting for rebounds, playing pretty good defense, making good passes near the basket, and scoring a few points of his own. McRoberts and the other new-comer Troy Murphy, who the Lakers signed after making that horrendous Lamar Odom trade (for NOTHING), looked like they have some energy on defense and offense, which should help them with rebounding and scoring off the bench, so that is a welcomed event for Lakers fans. Their defense played very well in the second half, and held one of the best teams in the league to very poor shooting percentages for about 21 of the last 24 minutes of the game, and since they haven’t had much time together, one can expect them to play even better defensively going forward. Another bench player that I was starting to doubt is their backup point guard, Steve Blake, but he looks like he may be shooting and playing with more confidence than he did last year, so that could be another plus, if he is able to revert back to the player he was for the Blazers, adding points and assists to the stat line for his team. Kobe played okay, but more is always expected of him, especially when he makes so many turnovers, with the last one is being broadcast constantly as the lead-in to the Bulls’ Derrick Rose’s game-winning shot, and then he had the ball at the end of the game and had his shot blocked. The team wouldn’t have been in that position if they could just make a free throw or two down the stretch, but obviously they just played sloppy at the end of the game, and it cost them a victory, so they have some things to regret. Despite all of the things that went wrong at the end, I think everyone on the team should find some solace in the fact that they were in position to win and played exceptionally well for most of the 2nd half. They just beat themselves, rather than the opposition playing better than them, so it proved (at least to themselves) that they can compete with (and beat) one of the league’s best teams, as long as they improve as their team and mask some of their apparent weaknesses.
There are still some issues and in reality, the team is one major injury away from probably being a lottery team (out of the playoff picture). Ron Artest changed his name to Metta World Peace, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is slow, can’t make many jump shots, and absolutely cannot make a layup with his right hand even though he is right-handed, but at least he is coming off the bench now. 2nd -year-man, Devin Ebanks has been installed as the starting small forward, which comes as little bit of a surprise, but if he can live up to his Trevor Arize-like potential, he could be a solid defender and dependable 10 point/game type player, but his potential certainly isn‘t a given. Fisher is going to need some extra time off during the season, since he is one of the oldest players on the team, and probably didn’t a whole lot of time to work out in the gym during the off-season since he is the rep for players union and was involved in more negotiating and traveling than anything else. His backup, Blake, can hopefully out with more productive minutes but they are going to have to depend on young player(s) to fill some of the void also, which is always dangerous. The offense seems to depend too heavily on Kobe, as it is reverting back to the pass-to-Kobe-and-watch offense that plagued the team for a few years, especially when Phil Jackson wasn’t the head coach. That gets annoying, but hopefully the new players will realize that he calls for the ball on every possession, and so it’s okay if you take the shot instead of passing the ball to Kobe so he can take his fall away nonsense shot to beat the shot clock and result in a(nother) bad possession. He’s a great player, but sometimes he seems to burn himself out and hurts the team when he puts all his energy into trying to score so much the first three quarters, and then his teammates haven’t put up many shots for most of the game, so they aren’t confident to make shots at the end, if they are forced to take the opportunity. Most teams will double team Kobe at the end of a close game, like the Bulls did, and force him to pass to someone else so they have to make the shot, and if his teammates are standing around watching and taking just a hand full of shots, they won’t be as prepared or confident in their shot making capabilities. There just needs to be a balanced attack, to take the pressure off of Kobe and his already injured wrist, thus involving his teammates in the offense more, and make the opposition respect the other players, so Kobe would have more energy and space to operate at the end of the game, if necessary. Pau Gasol needs to demand the ball more, since he is the best post player on the team, run the offense through him sometimes so he can choose to pass the ball to open teammates or take a high-percentage shot, and prove that he is still one of the best players in the league. As long as they work as a team on offense, continue to improve on defense, and steer clear of major health issues to their best players, they could make some noise this season.
Of course, optimism and potential doesn’t mean much without results, and every game means a little bit more with the condensed schedule, so a loss is still marked down as such on their overall record. However, given the pessimistic views I, and many fans, had of this team coming into the season, it‘s surprising that a loss could be possibly viewed as a positive thing. I expected them to get blown out in their own building, and it looked to be a likely occurrence after the first half, but maybe that was just my tendency to lower my expectations so anything better turns into a good outcome. Whatever the case is, I’m just glad to see some potential with this team, even if turns out to be short-lived. I’ll take it while I can get it, because there’s always a chance they could be 1-5 and in last place, in about a week, so I better allow myself to live in the realm of possibilities, as a biased fan, for now.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Hooray For The Halos
2012 ANGELS PREVIEW
The Angels have been my favorite sports team all my life, so, as you may expect, I was ecstatic to hear that they signed the best hitter and starting pitcher available on the free agent market, during the MLB winter meetings, earlier this month. On the very same day, they signed first baseman Albert Pujols to a gigantic 10- year, $254 million contract and starting pitcher CJ Wilson to a 5-year, $77.5 million deal, instantly vastly improving a team that managed to stay in the playoff race, until the very last week of last season, without them. It used to be that the Angels would get good players, far too deep into their careers, so by the time they acquired formerly great players like Dave Winfield, Tony Parker, Bo Jackson, and Lee Smith, they were mostly past their prime. More recently, I remember how exciting it was when the Angels signed Vladimir Guerrero (we miss you, Vlad) and many of us can point to the acquisition of great players like Reggie Jackson or even Nolan Ryan as other memorable key additions that helped put the Angels on the map. Now, December 8th, 2011 will probably go down as one of the greatest best days in Angels history, maybe only behind the night they secured the World Series title in 2002. It is almost certainly the greatest day for one team in the history of free agency, and could mark the dawn of a new baseball dynasty... But lets not get ahead of ourselves just yet.
Pujols is already a Hall of Fame player, with three MVP awards, two championship rings, six Silver Slugger awards and two Gold Glove awards, while setting offensive records each year since he started playing in the majors. He started n 2001, when he won the Rookie of the Year Award, bursting on the scene with a .329 average , 37 homers, and 130 RBI, and continued to dominate the league from then on. During his illustrious career, he has made the All-Star team and been a finalist in the MVP race nearly every season he has played, and he produced the best statistical output over his first ten years (now eleven) in the history of the game. Some argue that he had his worst season of his career last year, which is absolutely true, so I won’t argue against that point. I will, however, make the point that it was his first season hitting under .300 (he hit .299), and he still had 313 total bases, hit 37 homeruns and drove in 99 runs, which are all more than any Angels players had last year, and Pujols did it in 145 games. He missed 17 games due to injury, was admittedly distracted by everyone asking him about his future with the Cardinals- a team that he felt had disrespected him by not offering a worthy contract extension, and he still put together one of the best offensive seasons in the league. His numbers were lower than his 11-season averages of 350+ total bases, 329 AVE, 40 HR, 120 RBI, .617 slugging %, and 88 walks per season, but those were the best statistical averages for any player, over that career span, in the history of baseball, so you have to expect the numbers to drop some (not to mention the injury, and missing about 10% of the season). He still walked (61) more than he struck out (58) in 2011, had a .541 slugging % , along with his other stats, and remains one of the most feared hitters in the game, after overcoming a slow start to what turned out to be his worst season. Needless to say, those so-called below-average stats will provide a great boost to his new team, even if his numbers aren’t quite as high as his record setting career averages, because he is still one of the best players in baseball and is intent on breaking more records. It is almost a foregone certainty that Pujols will break the career record for homeruns, finally removing the [allegedly] fraudulent career(s) of Barry Bonds (and Alex Rodriguez, if he continues to stalk the record) from the top of the lists in the record book, and I look forward to watching him hit hundreds of homeruns throughout the rest of his career and drive in hundreds of runs each season as he helps the Angels compete every year. For a team that struggled mightily on offense last season, depending heavily on their team pitching to keep them in the race, this offensive juggernaut is exactly what the Angels need to infuse some clout into their lineup, and instill some fear into the opposition’s pitching staff.
The Angels had the absolute best pitching staff in the American League last year, with superb starting pitchers like Jared Weaver, Dan Haren, Ervin Santana, and a surprising Jerome Williams, to go along a good relief corps highlighted by Scott Downs (I think he’s the best lefty reliever in the league) and a few hard throwing youngsters, most notably Jordan Walden. The Rangers won the division by a few games, but only ran away with it in the last week of the season, and their best starting pitcher was CJ Wilson. Now he is coming back to where he grew up, rounding out the Angels starting staff with a much-needed quality left-hander, and making the best pitching staff in the league even better. He has been one of the best starters in the American League the last couple of seasons, compiling a 31-15 (win-loss) record in his only two seasons as a starter, after beginning his big league career as a reliever. He has compiled excellent overall stats, despite pitching half of his games s in one of most hitter-friendly parks ever, down in Arlington, Texas. Last season he posted a superb 2.94 ERA, which was 7th best in the league, struck out 206 batters, and sported the league’s best road ERA of 2.31, when he pitched away from the difficult home ball park. I’m sure the Angels feel like he can only get better, with experience within the much more accommodating, pitcher-friendly surroundings of Anaheim Stadium.
Barring any major injury, the Angels starting staff is probably the best in the American League, and will almost certainly rival that of the Philadelphia Phillies, who have three potential Cy Young Winners on their team, for best starting staff in baseball. With those four high-inning guys, along with Jerome Williams or one of their promising young pitchers taking up the fifth spot in the rotation, the relief pitchers may have to work just about as much as the Phillies staff do (very little). Weaver, Haren, and even Santana were already potential Cy Young Award candidates, and Wilson is likely to improve some of his individual stats, and one would expect them to have more opportunities to win games, thanks to their new, potentially potent offense. The offense has the potential to be very good, especially if their outfielders produce more than they did last year, especially Vernon Wells (or his replacement) and Torii Hunter needs to get back to his standard season to provide some stability to their lineup. Their defense is solid, especially the outfield, with gold glove winners, Hunter and Wells, in the corners, and Peter Bourjos, who was robbed of what should have been his first golden glove award, after a stellar defensive season as the centerfielder in 2011. Pujols has one the award in the recent past, Erick Aybar did win the award last season, as the best fielding shortstop in the AL, and Howie Kendrick has improved his defense over the years at 2nd base (and may be another candidate to move over to 3rd base, considering the number of positions he played last year). They do take a step back defensively with the departure of one of the best fielding catchers in baseball, Jeff Mathis, but adding Ianetta, along with the two young catchers, Conger and Wilson, from last season, will absolutely improve their offensive statistics from the catcher position. Adding either one of the two top- tier free agents would have improved the team significantly, but now adding both puts the puts the Angels in great position to start a postseason streak, and puts their front office in line for some awards, all in one historic day..
Last off-season, the Angels failed to bring in the two players they were seeking, Carl Crawford and Adrian Beltre, and seemed to make a desperate last second move to get someone of note, when they acquired the greatly overpaid Vernon Wells (I’m talking more money per season than Pujols), and trading away their catcher Mike Napoli (who, days later, was traded from Toronto to Texas). Wells went on to stink up the yard for about 95% of the season, barely getting his average over the .200 mark, and killing rallies even as he moved down in the lineup because of his lack of production. Meanwhile Mike Napoli went on to have the best season for a catcher in all of baseball, then made even more of a name for himself in the postseason, where he nearly led the Rangers to the championship single-handedly. To make matters worse, the Angels catchers who replaced Napoli didn’t carry a combined average over .200? That was one of the worst front office moves in Angels history, to go along with trading away Jim Edmonds, and when they let the great Nolan Ryan leave back in the 80’s, because they refused to pay him $1 million per season, but that wasn’t the only time the front office failed to improve the team .
During the 2011 season, I, and probably every other fan who watches, was pleading and hoping that they would add another hitter, preferably a 3rd baseman, or a reliever to help out, since they were relying too heavily on their pitching staff and a rookie closer to finish off tight games every night, because their offense wasn‘t providing much support. The Angels’ general manager, Tony Reagins, did nothing, while the Rangers improved their bullpen with two or three big moves, and the end result was the Rangers pulling away in the AL West division, and nearly winning a championship. Apparently, the owner felt the same way I did, because that GM was fired and replaced by Jerry Dipoto in October. While those two huge free agent signings obviously improve the team, and represent a huge initial move by the new GM, the fact remains that the same positions on the field that made the team susceptible last year, still present big opportunities for improvement in 2012.
The 3rd basemen tandem of Maicer Izturis and Alberto Callaspo, don’t provide the offensive power, or great defensive capacity that is expected of the 3rd base position. The two play more like a 2nd baseman, hitting for a decent average, as contact hitters, hitting the occasional double and helping out with the sacrifice bunt if they hit 2nd, to go along with limited fielding range and below-average arms for the 3B position. The Angels do rely on speed and base running a lot in their offense, but I’m sure their front office will be the first to admit that they desire a more prototypical 3rd baseman, to provide more overall run production. Their bullpen was pretty good but they still need to acquire a real closer, even though I like Jordan Walden and his 100 MPH fastball, but his control is much to be desired, especially when one walk in the 9th can change the entire outcome of the game and season. They did make a move to improve the catching position, signing the more offensive minded Chris Ianetta (formerly with Rockies), and trading away the great fielding, but notoriously poor hitting catcher, Jeff Mathis, to Toronto. There aren’t too many options remaining to sign free agents, so maybe a trade will be in order soon.
My only fear now is that the Rangers counter the Angels move and sign the other highly touted (and very expensive) slugging 1st baseman, Prince Fielder, but there are about six other teams who are also bidding for his services, so hopefully he won’t join the Rangers’ great offense. I was hoping the Angels would go after Aramis Ramirez, who played 3B for the Cubs the last few seasons, for the last couple of seasons really, and especially when I heard they have all this money from the recent TV contract they signed, but he signed a new contract with the Brewers so that opportunity is lost. Premiere closer Joe Nathan was on the market but the Rangers swooped him up quickly to improve their already superior bullpen. There are still players like the Phillies’ closers Madson and Lidge, or Twins utility man Michael Cuddyer, but the list of viable free agents is running thin. In either case, it looks like he Angels may have to make a trade, and since they seem to have an excess of major league-ready players, it appears be more likely than signing another free agent.
The Angels have extra players in the outfield, with rookie phenom Mike Trout becoming a viable candidate to make the roster, pushing the aging Bobby Abreu further down the totem pole. The Angels have three outfielders penciled in already, but I’m sure they would be thrilled if anyone actually wants to trade for left fielder Vernon Wells so they can get that huge contract off their books, and they could make room for Trout or another youngster in the outfield. Their 1st baseman from last year, Mark Trumbo, was their most productive hitter last year, and they tried him out in the outfield last year, but he is probably best suited for the DH position, so he can just clobber some balls and not worry about defense, because he struggled somewhat with unforced errors. Pujols is a gold glove winning 1st baseman, so they will want him in the field, but they also have another potential slugger coming back to their lineup, with Kendrys Morales hopefully making his way back from last year’s season-ending surgery. If Morales does come back, he also plays 1st, but he is probably even more likely to take the DH role, since the Angels will want to, and have to, limit his movement on the field, and reduce the risk of another injury. So now they have three 1st basemen, five outfielders (if you include Abreu in the mix), but only have enough spots in the lineup for 4 of the 8 players, so what do they do?
I think they should try to keep Morales and Trumbo as alternating designated hitters, or rotate Trumbo in and out of left field, if Wells continues to struggle, but they still have other non-core players who make good trade bait. Many rumors indicate that they are going to try to move Trumbo to 3rd base, to make room for Pujols at 1st, but Trumbo had trouble fielding the few balls hit to him at 1st, so I have serious doubts that he will be able to field and throw effectively from across the diamond, where balls come at you even faster, and more frequently than at 1st. It looks like trading for someone could be the best solution, but if they can’t trade Abreu, Wells, Callaspo, Izturis or someone else for a natural 3rd baseman, I have a possible solution to the problem. Why not move Pujols back to the position he played when he first came up with the Cardinals, third base? He’s the best fielder of the potential 1st base candidates, has experience at 3rd (103 games, 19 errors) and it may actually be less dangerous than playing at 1st, considering many serious injuries occur to 1st basemen’s wrist/ arm when a throw forces him to reach into the runner’s path as he sprints down the base line. The obvious argument against it is the risk of making their new high income player uncomfortable, by moving him away from his more customary spot on the diamond, and possibly increasing the injury risk related to him having to exert more energy than he is used to at a more demanding position. With Pujols at 3rd, Morales and Trumbo can alternate between DH and 1B, with Abreu in the lineup as DH occasionally, and it makes more sense than sticking Trumbo at 3rd with far less experience playing infield positions than most of his teammates. Callaspo and Izturis make excellent backups, at multiple positions, and at least one of them should get chances to play somewhat frequently, considering the manager Mike Scoscia’s tendency to give his bench players a chance on the field. They have a strong team without making any more changes, and they’re probably quite content with the so-called ‘problem’ of having too many good players, rather than the much more difficult proposition of not having enough talent.
I’m sure they will make another move or two to bring in a few additional players, but just as it stands now, the Angels look like they’ll be formidable for many years to come. When a team makes moves like these which instantly make their team a contender, everyone in baseball takes notice, and the team’s potential should attract other players to want to play here, so I’m sure the opportunities to make a move will present themself soon. The owner Arte Moreno has bought into a bigger and better future, and it seems like they have drawn the line in the sand, daring the opposition to step across it. I‘m already looking forward to next season, and it’s December, so they get an “A” (with a halo on top) for effort.
The Angels have been my favorite sports team all my life, so, as you may expect, I was ecstatic to hear that they signed the best hitter and starting pitcher available on the free agent market, during the MLB winter meetings, earlier this month. On the very same day, they signed first baseman Albert Pujols to a gigantic 10- year, $254 million contract and starting pitcher CJ Wilson to a 5-year, $77.5 million deal, instantly vastly improving a team that managed to stay in the playoff race, until the very last week of last season, without them. It used to be that the Angels would get good players, far too deep into their careers, so by the time they acquired formerly great players like Dave Winfield, Tony Parker, Bo Jackson, and Lee Smith, they were mostly past their prime. More recently, I remember how exciting it was when the Angels signed Vladimir Guerrero (we miss you, Vlad) and many of us can point to the acquisition of great players like Reggie Jackson or even Nolan Ryan as other memorable key additions that helped put the Angels on the map. Now, December 8th, 2011 will probably go down as one of the greatest best days in Angels history, maybe only behind the night they secured the World Series title in 2002. It is almost certainly the greatest day for one team in the history of free agency, and could mark the dawn of a new baseball dynasty... But lets not get ahead of ourselves just yet.
Pujols is already a Hall of Fame player, with three MVP awards, two championship rings, six Silver Slugger awards and two Gold Glove awards, while setting offensive records each year since he started playing in the majors. He started n 2001, when he won the Rookie of the Year Award, bursting on the scene with a .329 average , 37 homers, and 130 RBI, and continued to dominate the league from then on. During his illustrious career, he has made the All-Star team and been a finalist in the MVP race nearly every season he has played, and he produced the best statistical output over his first ten years (now eleven) in the history of the game. Some argue that he had his worst season of his career last year, which is absolutely true, so I won’t argue against that point. I will, however, make the point that it was his first season hitting under .300 (he hit .299), and he still had 313 total bases, hit 37 homeruns and drove in 99 runs, which are all more than any Angels players had last year, and Pujols did it in 145 games. He missed 17 games due to injury, was admittedly distracted by everyone asking him about his future with the Cardinals- a team that he felt had disrespected him by not offering a worthy contract extension, and he still put together one of the best offensive seasons in the league. His numbers were lower than his 11-season averages of 350+ total bases, 329 AVE, 40 HR, 120 RBI, .617 slugging %, and 88 walks per season, but those were the best statistical averages for any player, over that career span, in the history of baseball, so you have to expect the numbers to drop some (not to mention the injury, and missing about 10% of the season). He still walked (61) more than he struck out (58) in 2011, had a .541 slugging % , along with his other stats, and remains one of the most feared hitters in the game, after overcoming a slow start to what turned out to be his worst season. Needless to say, those so-called below-average stats will provide a great boost to his new team, even if his numbers aren’t quite as high as his record setting career averages, because he is still one of the best players in baseball and is intent on breaking more records. It is almost a foregone certainty that Pujols will break the career record for homeruns, finally removing the [allegedly] fraudulent career(s) of Barry Bonds (and Alex Rodriguez, if he continues to stalk the record) from the top of the lists in the record book, and I look forward to watching him hit hundreds of homeruns throughout the rest of his career and drive in hundreds of runs each season as he helps the Angels compete every year. For a team that struggled mightily on offense last season, depending heavily on their team pitching to keep them in the race, this offensive juggernaut is exactly what the Angels need to infuse some clout into their lineup, and instill some fear into the opposition’s pitching staff.
The Angels had the absolute best pitching staff in the American League last year, with superb starting pitchers like Jared Weaver, Dan Haren, Ervin Santana, and a surprising Jerome Williams, to go along a good relief corps highlighted by Scott Downs (I think he’s the best lefty reliever in the league) and a few hard throwing youngsters, most notably Jordan Walden. The Rangers won the division by a few games, but only ran away with it in the last week of the season, and their best starting pitcher was CJ Wilson. Now he is coming back to where he grew up, rounding out the Angels starting staff with a much-needed quality left-hander, and making the best pitching staff in the league even better. He has been one of the best starters in the American League the last couple of seasons, compiling a 31-15 (win-loss) record in his only two seasons as a starter, after beginning his big league career as a reliever. He has compiled excellent overall stats, despite pitching half of his games s in one of most hitter-friendly parks ever, down in Arlington, Texas. Last season he posted a superb 2.94 ERA, which was 7th best in the league, struck out 206 batters, and sported the league’s best road ERA of 2.31, when he pitched away from the difficult home ball park. I’m sure the Angels feel like he can only get better, with experience within the much more accommodating, pitcher-friendly surroundings of Anaheim Stadium.
Barring any major injury, the Angels starting staff is probably the best in the American League, and will almost certainly rival that of the Philadelphia Phillies, who have three potential Cy Young Winners on their team, for best starting staff in baseball. With those four high-inning guys, along with Jerome Williams or one of their promising young pitchers taking up the fifth spot in the rotation, the relief pitchers may have to work just about as much as the Phillies staff do (very little). Weaver, Haren, and even Santana were already potential Cy Young Award candidates, and Wilson is likely to improve some of his individual stats, and one would expect them to have more opportunities to win games, thanks to their new, potentially potent offense. The offense has the potential to be very good, especially if their outfielders produce more than they did last year, especially Vernon Wells (or his replacement) and Torii Hunter needs to get back to his standard season to provide some stability to their lineup. Their defense is solid, especially the outfield, with gold glove winners, Hunter and Wells, in the corners, and Peter Bourjos, who was robbed of what should have been his first golden glove award, after a stellar defensive season as the centerfielder in 2011. Pujols has one the award in the recent past, Erick Aybar did win the award last season, as the best fielding shortstop in the AL, and Howie Kendrick has improved his defense over the years at 2nd base (and may be another candidate to move over to 3rd base, considering the number of positions he played last year). They do take a step back defensively with the departure of one of the best fielding catchers in baseball, Jeff Mathis, but adding Ianetta, along with the two young catchers, Conger and Wilson, from last season, will absolutely improve their offensive statistics from the catcher position. Adding either one of the two top- tier free agents would have improved the team significantly, but now adding both puts the puts the Angels in great position to start a postseason streak, and puts their front office in line for some awards, all in one historic day..
Last off-season, the Angels failed to bring in the two players they were seeking, Carl Crawford and Adrian Beltre, and seemed to make a desperate last second move to get someone of note, when they acquired the greatly overpaid Vernon Wells (I’m talking more money per season than Pujols), and trading away their catcher Mike Napoli (who, days later, was traded from Toronto to Texas). Wells went on to stink up the yard for about 95% of the season, barely getting his average over the .200 mark, and killing rallies even as he moved down in the lineup because of his lack of production. Meanwhile Mike Napoli went on to have the best season for a catcher in all of baseball, then made even more of a name for himself in the postseason, where he nearly led the Rangers to the championship single-handedly. To make matters worse, the Angels catchers who replaced Napoli didn’t carry a combined average over .200? That was one of the worst front office moves in Angels history, to go along with trading away Jim Edmonds, and when they let the great Nolan Ryan leave back in the 80’s, because they refused to pay him $1 million per season, but that wasn’t the only time the front office failed to improve the team .
During the 2011 season, I, and probably every other fan who watches, was pleading and hoping that they would add another hitter, preferably a 3rd baseman, or a reliever to help out, since they were relying too heavily on their pitching staff and a rookie closer to finish off tight games every night, because their offense wasn‘t providing much support. The Angels’ general manager, Tony Reagins, did nothing, while the Rangers improved their bullpen with two or three big moves, and the end result was the Rangers pulling away in the AL West division, and nearly winning a championship. Apparently, the owner felt the same way I did, because that GM was fired and replaced by Jerry Dipoto in October. While those two huge free agent signings obviously improve the team, and represent a huge initial move by the new GM, the fact remains that the same positions on the field that made the team susceptible last year, still present big opportunities for improvement in 2012.
The 3rd basemen tandem of Maicer Izturis and Alberto Callaspo, don’t provide the offensive power, or great defensive capacity that is expected of the 3rd base position. The two play more like a 2nd baseman, hitting for a decent average, as contact hitters, hitting the occasional double and helping out with the sacrifice bunt if they hit 2nd, to go along with limited fielding range and below-average arms for the 3B position. The Angels do rely on speed and base running a lot in their offense, but I’m sure their front office will be the first to admit that they desire a more prototypical 3rd baseman, to provide more overall run production. Their bullpen was pretty good but they still need to acquire a real closer, even though I like Jordan Walden and his 100 MPH fastball, but his control is much to be desired, especially when one walk in the 9th can change the entire outcome of the game and season. They did make a move to improve the catching position, signing the more offensive minded Chris Ianetta (formerly with Rockies), and trading away the great fielding, but notoriously poor hitting catcher, Jeff Mathis, to Toronto. There aren’t too many options remaining to sign free agents, so maybe a trade will be in order soon.
My only fear now is that the Rangers counter the Angels move and sign the other highly touted (and very expensive) slugging 1st baseman, Prince Fielder, but there are about six other teams who are also bidding for his services, so hopefully he won’t join the Rangers’ great offense. I was hoping the Angels would go after Aramis Ramirez, who played 3B for the Cubs the last few seasons, for the last couple of seasons really, and especially when I heard they have all this money from the recent TV contract they signed, but he signed a new contract with the Brewers so that opportunity is lost. Premiere closer Joe Nathan was on the market but the Rangers swooped him up quickly to improve their already superior bullpen. There are still players like the Phillies’ closers Madson and Lidge, or Twins utility man Michael Cuddyer, but the list of viable free agents is running thin. In either case, it looks like he Angels may have to make a trade, and since they seem to have an excess of major league-ready players, it appears be more likely than signing another free agent.
The Angels have extra players in the outfield, with rookie phenom Mike Trout becoming a viable candidate to make the roster, pushing the aging Bobby Abreu further down the totem pole. The Angels have three outfielders penciled in already, but I’m sure they would be thrilled if anyone actually wants to trade for left fielder Vernon Wells so they can get that huge contract off their books, and they could make room for Trout or another youngster in the outfield. Their 1st baseman from last year, Mark Trumbo, was their most productive hitter last year, and they tried him out in the outfield last year, but he is probably best suited for the DH position, so he can just clobber some balls and not worry about defense, because he struggled somewhat with unforced errors. Pujols is a gold glove winning 1st baseman, so they will want him in the field, but they also have another potential slugger coming back to their lineup, with Kendrys Morales hopefully making his way back from last year’s season-ending surgery. If Morales does come back, he also plays 1st, but he is probably even more likely to take the DH role, since the Angels will want to, and have to, limit his movement on the field, and reduce the risk of another injury. So now they have three 1st basemen, five outfielders (if you include Abreu in the mix), but only have enough spots in the lineup for 4 of the 8 players, so what do they do?
I think they should try to keep Morales and Trumbo as alternating designated hitters, or rotate Trumbo in and out of left field, if Wells continues to struggle, but they still have other non-core players who make good trade bait. Many rumors indicate that they are going to try to move Trumbo to 3rd base, to make room for Pujols at 1st, but Trumbo had trouble fielding the few balls hit to him at 1st, so I have serious doubts that he will be able to field and throw effectively from across the diamond, where balls come at you even faster, and more frequently than at 1st. It looks like trading for someone could be the best solution, but if they can’t trade Abreu, Wells, Callaspo, Izturis or someone else for a natural 3rd baseman, I have a possible solution to the problem. Why not move Pujols back to the position he played when he first came up with the Cardinals, third base? He’s the best fielder of the potential 1st base candidates, has experience at 3rd (103 games, 19 errors) and it may actually be less dangerous than playing at 1st, considering many serious injuries occur to 1st basemen’s wrist/ arm when a throw forces him to reach into the runner’s path as he sprints down the base line. The obvious argument against it is the risk of making their new high income player uncomfortable, by moving him away from his more customary spot on the diamond, and possibly increasing the injury risk related to him having to exert more energy than he is used to at a more demanding position. With Pujols at 3rd, Morales and Trumbo can alternate between DH and 1B, with Abreu in the lineup as DH occasionally, and it makes more sense than sticking Trumbo at 3rd with far less experience playing infield positions than most of his teammates. Callaspo and Izturis make excellent backups, at multiple positions, and at least one of them should get chances to play somewhat frequently, considering the manager Mike Scoscia’s tendency to give his bench players a chance on the field. They have a strong team without making any more changes, and they’re probably quite content with the so-called ‘problem’ of having too many good players, rather than the much more difficult proposition of not having enough talent.
I’m sure they will make another move or two to bring in a few additional players, but just as it stands now, the Angels look like they’ll be formidable for many years to come. When a team makes moves like these which instantly make their team a contender, everyone in baseball takes notice, and the team’s potential should attract other players to want to play here, so I’m sure the opportunities to make a move will present themself soon. The owner Arte Moreno has bought into a bigger and better future, and it seems like they have drawn the line in the sand, daring the opposition to step across it. I‘m already looking forward to next season, and it’s December, so they get an “A” (with a halo on top) for effort.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
What The Hell Are The Lakers Doing?
I hope I’m not the only one that actually breathed a sigh of relief when the proposed trade between the Hornets, Rockets and Lakers fell through (at the time). I thought the Lakers were giving up too much and the Hornets were getting back way too much in the trade, and for some reason the Commissioner nixed the trade citing “basketball reasons”, essentially intimating that the Hornets weren’t getting back enough in the trade, and that it would change the balance of power more towards the Lakers side. The Lakers were intent on trading away their two best big men, who exemplify why the Lakers were viewed to have an advantages over much of the competition, forcing other teams to adjust their rosters just to compete with the group of tall players the Lakers had on their front line. The Hornets were going to get Lamar Odom (from the Lakers), Luis Scola, Kevin Martin, and another player (from the Rockets), and probably a draft pick or two. Meanwhile the Rockets were going to get the Lakers’ Paul Gasol, and the Lakers would just end up with Chris Paul. According to those who opposed the trade- the commissioner and some other owners who complained- the Lakers would be getting a great player and saving money in the deal, so they could be in line to make another trade for a good player, therefore it was a lopsided trade in their favor. The only reason the trade could be vetoed like that, is because the New Orleans Hornets are the only team owned by the NBA, so the commissioner had the final say on the trade, even though the teams’ GMs had agreed on the trade. That is a distinct conflict of interest, it seems, and it seems like the other owners shouldn't have a say in what one team does, but that is the way it is, so the league acts as the owner and vetoes the trade that it didn't like (whether for selfish reasons for the better of the Hornets team). If you examine the end results of the proposed trade, the Lakers were losing two of their best three players, and getting one great player back who doesn’t play their position, leaving the power forward position basically vacant, as well as hurting their overall depth on the bench (especially at forward position).
Chris Paul is obviously a great point guard, and would make a formidable back court with Kobe Bryant, but what else would they have left? I haven’t mentioned their center Andrew Bynum, who would have been the lone remaining tall player who actually poses a threat offensively and defensively. He usually looks good when he plays, but his only evidence of consistency, is the fact he has seemingly failed to stay healthy and/or productive for more than half a season, each year since coming into the league. The owners who complained about the Chris Paul trade, complained that the Lakers would then be able to trade for the Orlando Magic center, Dwight Howard, but I still have no clue what they think the Lakers would have left on their roster to trade for the most sought-after low-post center in the league, since their only tradable player of value left (excluding Kobe) on their team would be the injury-prone, still unproven young center Bynum, and maybe Metta World Peace (AKA Ron Artest), or… Luke Walton, I presume, as if anyone would want to take on his contract. Basically, assuming anyone would value any of the other players left on the Lakers roster makes no sense, so they wouldn’t have any great advantage like those trade proposal opponents seem to assume, not to mention that the Hornets would have received three former (and potential) all-star players, in exchange for a player they are certainly (100% chance) going to lose by next season. Sure, I'll admit that it really isn’t the Laker management’s fault that the trade did eventually fall through, but the fact they were trying to make the swap in the first place, along with the consequences and mishaps since then certainly can be blamed entirely on them, and this team is going to suffer because of this nonsense, possibly for a very long time to come.
Lamar Odom is obviously a sensitive individual based on any interview or TV show you watch , and the fact that the Lakers even though about trading pissed him off, and he felt betrayed, so he went into the General Manager’s office and complained and “demanded” to be traded. I don’t understand how a player can demand a trade when you’re under contract; you can ask to be traded, but it’s in the player’s best interest to continue to play well, or other teams won’t want him anyway, so you can‘t just tank a season because your feelings are hurt and you don‘t like your team‘s management any more. So what does the Lakers GM, Mitch Kupchak, do? He trades Odom away to the defending champion Mavericks (who whooped the Lakers last year) for a future draft pick (that will be low because the Mavs are a playoff team), to save money and get a trade exemption for Odom’s contract value, whatever that really means. Maybe the trade exception allows them to get another player at the same salary as Odom, in a possible trade with another trade without some salary cap implications or without affecting the salary numbers being traded, or whatever benefit they get for making the trade. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t help their team now, and it doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense, since losing a quality player like that should only hurt their chances to make a possible trade. Why would someone want to trade away their great player to the Lakers for a draft pick, instead of a good player like Lamar Odom? Why not keep him on your team, and either he will simmer down and be happy with his team once again, or if his trade [requests] continue, then look to trade him for some actual value. I understand the money they “save” helps out the team’s bottom line (and luxury tax fees, etc), and it’s not my money to complain about their accounting methods, but the fact remains that it serves very little purpose for the team playing on the basketball court to just dump his salary and get practically nothing back in return, in a knee-jerk reactionary, unnecessary trade.
Odom is one of the most team-oriented players I have ever seen, one of the more versatile players in the league, who can play almost every position on the court. and he is playing for what appears to be a discount, at less than $8.5 million per year. That doesn’t sound like a discount to people like you and me, in relation to our lives and the fact I will never ever see that much money in my lifetime, let alone for playing 66 games of basketball. Rest assured, within the realm of the huge payrolls and salaries in the NBA, where [arguably] inferior overall players like Nene and Tyson Chandler just signed 4 or 5 year contracts for $13-15 million per season, the best 6th man (who would have even better stats if he started) in the league deserves, who is probably a better rebounder than those two taller centers, and is easily a better passer than those two and only behind Chandler in overall defense (maybe). Maybe the trade exemption allows them to get another player at the same salary as Odom, in a possible trade with another trade without some salary cap implications or without affecting the salary numbers being traded, or whatever benefit they get for making a (possible) trade. Whatever the case is, if they were so insistent on trading him, they could have waited any number of days or weeks until another team actually offered something of value, or better yet, wait to see if he changes his mind, after the initial sting of the perceived deception subsided.
Now, the Magic are saying they aren’t even fielding offers for Dwight Howard because he‘s changed his mind about ‘demanding‘ a trade again, and the Hornets just traded Chris Paul to the LA Clippers- of all teams- so the Lakers now have little to no chance to add a good player, and have lost one of their best players, while pissing off most of the players, (especially Pau Gasol who was part of the initial proposed trade), too, who were also opposed to the proposed trades. On top of that, they lost their second best performer off the bench, Shannon Brown, who signed with the Phoenix Suns, to go along with the fact they have a new head coach, who is implementing a whole new offense and defensive strategies in a couple short weeks of training camp.
I was hoping that the commissioner would deem the new Lamar Odom trade to be unfair and bad for the Lakers basketball operations, so he could veto that one too, since he is supposed to approve all trades, but that obviously didn't happen. The Lakers management better hope that the league decides to veto the Clippers trade, too, so they get another shot at it, or else their only chance at a successful season seems to if each starting player remains completely healthy all season , since they have no depth at any position. One could argue (and maybe the same owner who whined last time will again) agains the equality of the trade, since the Clippers have become a very good team, while also saving money in the trade, and the Hornets don’t appear to get that much more than they would have in the proposed Laker trade. The Clippers now have new players Paul, Chauncey Billups, and Caron Butler to fill up the back court, accompanying their rookie phenom Blake Griffin, and the expert dunker/shot blocker DeAndre Jordan, to go along with three or four guards (Williams, Bledsoe, Foye) and they received two first round picks, which they can and probably will use to trade for more front court players, and on top of all of those benefits, they are something like $14 million under the salary cap. The Hornets receive Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, A.F. Aminu, and a first round pick, belonging to the Timber wolves (which is almost certainly a top-10 pick since the Wolves are perennially terrible). Kaman is a prime example of inconsistency, Eric Gordon is the best player of the bunch, with major all-star potential, but he also has proven to be somewhat injury prone, and Aminu is a 2nd year player with apparent potential, so on the surfce, it seems the only real benefit is youth and possibly high potential, compared to the lot of experienced, all-star calibur players the Hornets would have received in the original Paul-to-Lakers trade. It certainly appears like all of the reasons the commissioner and owners protested before, could also be in play here as well, if they decide to go with it, but I doubt it, considering the negative feedback when they did it the first time. The other alternative for the Lakers' success is every starter remaining healthy and playing [well] in every game, since the bench is composed of Steve Blake, 2nd-year man Character, newly acquired shooter Jason Kapono, and a bunch of rookies or players they will add later. That is about as likely as an undefeated season, especially with the short preseason time, the compressed schedule caused by the lockout, resulting in a higher game per week ratio and more back-to-back scenarios than usual, as well as the fact that hundreds of players get injured every year, in normal circumstances.
Perhaps the money that the Lakers saved in the Odom debacle will actually result in a good team next season, because this team as it presently stands is obviously worse than last year, and they now are the 2nd best team in LA.(unless the new trade is vetoed too), considering the moves the Clippers have made and will make to get even better (and because they legally have to spend that money to get closer to the salary cap, according to the rules). Now I wish that original trade had been approved, since the team gained nothing in exchange for losing Odom in the long run, and now most of Odom's ex-teammates are befuddled or just plain angry, and the prospects of making a good trade are basically null and void. Great job, Lakers! At least the Clipper games will be on TV all season too….
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Aston’s Angels Report (July 7-27th)
Aston’s Angels Report July 30, 2011
Obviously I have been on somewhat of a hiatus, or maybe it isn’t so obvious to anyone but myself and like two other people. I spent far too much time watching games, taking copious notes, and writing those daily reports, and I’m taking a different route this time. I’m not going into detail about each game, at least not the ones that happened weeks ago, because that would just be stupid (or more so than it was to do so in the first place, anyway).
I left off just before the All-Star break and the games vs. the Mariners, and what turned out to be contribution to the worst losing streak by one team this season. The Angels swept the Mariners, the team who just recently ended a losing streak of 17 or 18 games, and have fallen way back in the division race, after staying close to the point they were ahead of the Angels just a week or so earlier. On July 7th, the Angels won the first game, 5-1, behind another complete game by Jared Weaver, who held the young Mariners offense to just six hits, two of which came in the 3rd inning when the M’s scored their lone run.
The Angels called up their top prospect Mike Trout, to fill in for Peter Bourjos in centerfield, because of a pulled hamstring suffered in game 1. They won game 2, 4-3 with a rare display of power, hitting four solo homeruns to account for each of their runs to back up Ervin Santana who allowed 3 runs and saw his team down 2-3 after the 5th, before Hank Conger hit a homerun (which would have given them the lead if Trumbo hadn’t been thrown out trying the steal during the at-bat). The Angels actually started and finished the game with a homerun, as Erick Aybar led of the Angels’ 1st inning with a homerun, and Mark Trumbo ended the game in the bottom of the 9th with a no-doubter walk-off blast to the deepest part of the park, in center field, into the trees and shrubbery out there.
They were riding high after that victory and faced Seattle’s rookie Michael Pineda for the first time this season, and forced him into his worst outing of the year. He was 8-5 with a 2.58 ERA and leading most people’s ballets for Rookie of the Year, and he looked unhittable in the first two innings, striking out 5 of the first 6 hitters. The Angels were apparently playing possum, as they erupted for four runs in the 3rd, thanks to a big 3-run homer from Torii Hunter. Joel Peneiro had trouble on the mound, and let the Mariners back into the game after his early 4-0 lead, letting the M’s score in the 4th and 5th to shrink the lead to 4-3. The Angels then scored three more in the bottom of the 5th, after another Hunter homer, then added a couple more later in the game, en route to a 9-3 win.
The Angels completed the sweep on July 10th, but it was yet another tough match-up for the Angels’ Dan Haren, who had to go up against another opponent’s ace, Felix Hernandez (last years Cy Young Award winner), after he had back-to-back 1-0 victories in his previous two starts. He allowed two runs in the top of the 1st, on a one-arm reach of a swing by Adam Kennedy to knock in two runs with two outs, so he was going to definitely need a little more support than he had been accustomed to. Haren settled back down into his dominant self to stabilize the defensive side, and Mark Trumbo came through with another big hit, launching a 2-run homer off of Hernandez in the bottom of the 4th , to tie the game. The game remained 2-2 with a series of 1-2-3 innings for both pitchers, until the bottom of the 8th, when the Mariners changed pitchers, bringing in David Pauley, to the Angels’ delight, I’m sure. Hunter led off with a single and Howie Kendrick walked, before Alberto Callaspo came through with a big two-out hit, doubling them both in to give his team the 4-2 lead, going into the 9th. Haren remained in the game and allowed a lead off double to Dustin Ackley (another top prospect I got to see for the first time), but struck out Smoak and got Kennedy to pop out for the 2nd out. Manager Mike Scioscia decided to pull Haren, one out away from the complete game, and even the fans at Angels stadium booed. It seemed like a questionable move, since he only had thrown 113 pitches to that point, and it was the last game before the all-star break so he would get a longer rest than usual anyway, and Jordan Walden has a propensity for blowing saves, but it worked out as Walden struck out the last hitter to seal the victory. This completed am impressive 11-2 home-stand, pushing them to 8 games over .500, and more importantly helped them keep pace with the streaking Texas Rangers, who won 7 in a row leading up to the all-star break.
Next came the all-star game, which had a large number of substitutes to replace pitchers who couldn’t play in the game because they had pitched for their teams on Sunday, or players who were injured, or just didn’t want to go. The National League won, probably because they had most of their original all-star selection pitchers available to shut down the American League sluggers. It just further proved how ridiculous the idea the commissioner Bud Selig had to make the outcome of this silly game name the home team of the World Series, and I hope that stupid rule is taken away soon. Even if the actual players who were originally selected to play did get on the field, I would still say it is a dumb idea, since it is just a popularity contest, every team has to be represented (which is good for the fans but not so good if you want the best of the best players), and it is an EXHIBITION game by nature, so the results shouldn’t affect anything, let alone who gets home field advantage in the biggest series of the season… On the plus side, Jordan Walden made one of the plays of the game, fielding a grounder with his bare hand to throw out a runner at home, so that gave the Angels some notoriety at least.
They started the “2nd half” of the season, on the road in Oakland, which proved once again to be something of a kryptonite for the Angels, only winning one game of the four game series, despite the A's very poor record and awful offense. On July 15th, in game one, Haren allowed a big homerun to Josh Willingham which proved to be the winning runs for the A‘s, whose pitching staff continued its stellar performance, holding down the Angels offense for most of the series. On the 16th, they played a rare scheduled double-header, like in the old days where each team had at least one double header scheduled every year. They won the first game, 4-2, behind another great outing by Jared Weaver, who continues to be the best pitcher in baseball, no matter what others (in Detroit and New York, particularly) say. They lost the night cap, 4-3 in extra innings, despite homeruns from Trumbo for the lead and later by Wells to get back into the game. Angels reliever Rich Thompson walked the lead off batter in the 10th, and he later came around to score the winning run on a Scott Sizemore single. The last game of the series was a laugher, as Joel Peneiro was shelled early and removed before he completed two innings, and Gio Gonzalez shut down the Angels offense in a 9-0, series clinching victory. It marked the first time the Angels had lost a series in a long time, and it started to look like the Angels were falling too far behind the AL West leading Rangers who still hadn’t lost a game in two weeks.
The Angels came home for their next series, one of the biggest of the year, against their division rival Rangers. The series started off poorly for the Angels, as they were shut out by the Rangers in the first game (July 19th), as Tyler Chatwood was once again given no runs in support. The Rangers’ lead in the AL West increased again, as they improved their winning streak to 12 straight, so the Angels were in a bad position going into game 2, needing to win to have a chance to salvage the series and keep close in the division race. Dan Haren started game two of the series, but his recent troubles continued as he allowed 7 runs in just over 4 innings, in a very atypical performance, and the Rangers had a 8-3 lead after scoring 5 runs in the 5th. The bottom of the 6th inning may well represent the turning point in the Angels’ season, as they came back and scored 6 runs as part of a much needed offensive outburst, to take a 9-8 lead. Equally as impressive was the fact that the Angels bullpen managed to shut down the Rangers’ potent offense for the rest of the game, and held on to win it 9-8. They ended the Rangers’ winning streak, and had a chance to win a huge series, with Jared Weaver on the mound for game 3. The Angels scored one run when the Rangers centerfielder dropped an easy line drive that would have ended the inning, but instead allowed the runner to score from 2nd, and that was enough to push them to victory. Weaver shut out the Rangers over 7 innings, then Downs and Walden finished off the 1-0 win, and CJ Wilson took the hard luck loss, despite not allowing any earned runs in a complete game. This may be the season-changing series, and gave them a chance to stay in the division race, and proved to both teams that they can play with last years American League champions…
Next, they traveled to Baltimore to face the Orioles, and won the first game of that series, as Ervin Santana allowed just 3 hits in almost 8 innings, and just one run late in the game. He carried a no-hitter into the 6th inning, but his teammates didn’t give him any run support until the 7th when they went up 2-0. Takahashi came into the game to relieve Santana with two outs in the 8th, and then Vernon Wells hit a grand slam off of the Orioles’ closer Kevin Gregg to boost the lead to 6-1, so Takahashi came back out in the 9th and got credit for the save, since the game was close when he originally came in. They got off to a faster start in game 2 of the series, scoring two runs in the first inning, on a two-run homerun by Wells, who homered in his two consecutive at-bats. The rest of the game was the problem, as the offense did nothing for the rest of the game against the O’s starter Brad Bergeson, and Joel Pineiro allowed a bunch of hits (11) and three runs in his 5 innings of work, and the Angels lost 3-2. Game 3 was another tight one, as the Angels were up 3-2 in the 8th inning, as Chatwood pitched well in his 7 innings, allowing just the two runs. The other notable stat was no walks allowed by Chatwood, which can perhaps serve as a lesson for Chatwood who tends to walk too many batters unnecessarily, and gives up runs because of them more often than not. Mike Trout was playing in front of about a hundred friends and family members, because he grew up less than 100 miles from the ballpark in Baltimore, and he hit his first big league homerun, clobbering a line drive deep into the seats in left field for a 3-run homer to help break the game open. It was much more impressive than his first big league hit, which was an infield hit when he beat out a bunt when the pitcher took too long making the throw to 1st and threw the ball away. Hunter followed with a two-run homer to boost the lead to 8-3 and they won the game 9-3, to clinch another series win.
They traveled to Cleveland to play the Indians on July 25th, and each game of the series was a pitching duel. Dan Haren was back to his usual self, and held the Indians to just one run. Bobby Abreu hit a rare homerun in the 8th inning and the Angels took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the 9th, but Jordan Walden couldn’t save the game. The leadoff man singled, stole second, and scored on a double by the giant Travis Hafner to tie the score quickly. Eventually the bases were loaded and Scioscia took out Walden and brought in Takashashi, and brought in Hunter from right field to play as another infielder on the right side. Hunter got a groundball and threw out the runner at home for the 2nd out, so he went back out to right field for the next hitter. Jason Kipnis picked this time to get his first major league hit, pulling a high fastball through the hole on the right side of the infield but Hunter wasn’t there this time, and it rolled to him in right, for the game-winning hit.
Jared Weaver pitched another brilliant game in the middle of the series, once again lowering his already miniscule ERA, allowing just one run in 7 innings, on a solo homerun in the bottom of the 7th to Matt LaPorta. Just before that, the Angels scored the first runs of the game, when Mark Trumbo hit a clutch 2-run double after they intentionally walked Kendrick to get to him. Walden came in to close the game out, but it looked like he was on the verge of another blown save, as Hafner led off with a groundball that hit the lip of the grass near home plate and bounced way over Trumbo’s head, turning a groundout into a single, and eventually the bases were loaded with no outs. He had to throw a couple full count pitches to LaPorta and eventually got a weak grounder towards 2nd, so Kendrick charged it and threw for the out at home, and Mathis threw to 1st for the unconventional double play, to complete the biggest play of the game. Walden blew away the hero of game 1, Kipnis, striking him out on a high fastball finish off the save he earned the hard way.
Game 3 of the series may be the most memorable game of the season for the Angels, highlighted for the sparkling performance by Ervin Santana, who threw a NO-HITTER, and, ironically, earn the first win of his career against the Indians. It was the first complete game no-hitter by an Angel starter in about 27 years, and the first for the franchise since Langston and Witt combined for one back in the 90’s. Strangely enough, he was actually losing for most of the game, because the very first hitter he faced reached base on an error by Aybar, and eventually scored on a wild pitch that catcher Bobby Wilson couldn’t contain. The Angels didn’t score until the 5th on a sacrifice fly by Trout, then they took the lead in the 6th, when Hunter scored on a passed ball, and then they watched as Santana was getting ahead of hitters with his fastball and blowing them away with his slider, as he struck out ten hitters, including 5 of the last 8 batters he faced. When he wasn’t striking them out, he was getting a lot of weak ground outs, and the Indians really only had a chance at getting a hit in the 6th, on a grounder up the middle by Mr. Kipnis, where Kendrick had to dive to make the stop and got up quickly to throw him out. The Angels scored one more in the 9th for the 3-1 lead, but the story was Santana, who was overpowering from start to finish. I thought that an Angels pitcher would get one this year, but I figured it would be Haren or Weaver, but Santana proved he belongs in the class of top tier pitchers in baseball, after that performance, cementing his place in the record books.
The Angels took a very enthusiastic plane ride to Detroit where they faced the Tigers, starting on July 28th, which I’ll get into later. They have managed to keep up with the surging Rangers, despite their 12-game winning streak, and even put an end to the streak when they came back from that 5 run deficit, eventually taking the series, to remain close in the race. They came into Detroit just 2 games back in the American League West standings, and now have the lowest team ERA in the American League. Pitching and defense have kept them close to the division lead all season, making up for the overall lack of offense (mainly hitting with runners on base) and poor individual seasons for players like Abreu, Hunter and Wells, which have plagued them for most of the season. Time will tell if they can continue their pursuit of 1st place and claim a spot in the playoffs, and it certainly would also be nice if they added another hitter or relief pitcher before the trade deadline, but that seems unlikely, with that time coming up in less than a day now. Injuries and poor offensive production seem to be the major obstacles ahead, and the Rangers are hitting and pitching well so far this season, so it won't be easy to keep up, but it's still pretty impressive that they have so far...
Obviously I have been on somewhat of a hiatus, or maybe it isn’t so obvious to anyone but myself and like two other people. I spent far too much time watching games, taking copious notes, and writing those daily reports, and I’m taking a different route this time. I’m not going into detail about each game, at least not the ones that happened weeks ago, because that would just be stupid (or more so than it was to do so in the first place, anyway).
I left off just before the All-Star break and the games vs. the Mariners, and what turned out to be contribution to the worst losing streak by one team this season. The Angels swept the Mariners, the team who just recently ended a losing streak of 17 or 18 games, and have fallen way back in the division race, after staying close to the point they were ahead of the Angels just a week or so earlier. On July 7th, the Angels won the first game, 5-1, behind another complete game by Jared Weaver, who held the young Mariners offense to just six hits, two of which came in the 3rd inning when the M’s scored their lone run.
The Angels called up their top prospect Mike Trout, to fill in for Peter Bourjos in centerfield, because of a pulled hamstring suffered in game 1. They won game 2, 4-3 with a rare display of power, hitting four solo homeruns to account for each of their runs to back up Ervin Santana who allowed 3 runs and saw his team down 2-3 after the 5th, before Hank Conger hit a homerun (which would have given them the lead if Trumbo hadn’t been thrown out trying the steal during the at-bat). The Angels actually started and finished the game with a homerun, as Erick Aybar led of the Angels’ 1st inning with a homerun, and Mark Trumbo ended the game in the bottom of the 9th with a no-doubter walk-off blast to the deepest part of the park, in center field, into the trees and shrubbery out there.
They were riding high after that victory and faced Seattle’s rookie Michael Pineda for the first time this season, and forced him into his worst outing of the year. He was 8-5 with a 2.58 ERA and leading most people’s ballets for Rookie of the Year, and he looked unhittable in the first two innings, striking out 5 of the first 6 hitters. The Angels were apparently playing possum, as they erupted for four runs in the 3rd, thanks to a big 3-run homer from Torii Hunter. Joel Peneiro had trouble on the mound, and let the Mariners back into the game after his early 4-0 lead, letting the M’s score in the 4th and 5th to shrink the lead to 4-3. The Angels then scored three more in the bottom of the 5th, after another Hunter homer, then added a couple more later in the game, en route to a 9-3 win.
The Angels completed the sweep on July 10th, but it was yet another tough match-up for the Angels’ Dan Haren, who had to go up against another opponent’s ace, Felix Hernandez (last years Cy Young Award winner), after he had back-to-back 1-0 victories in his previous two starts. He allowed two runs in the top of the 1st, on a one-arm reach of a swing by Adam Kennedy to knock in two runs with two outs, so he was going to definitely need a little more support than he had been accustomed to. Haren settled back down into his dominant self to stabilize the defensive side, and Mark Trumbo came through with another big hit, launching a 2-run homer off of Hernandez in the bottom of the 4th , to tie the game. The game remained 2-2 with a series of 1-2-3 innings for both pitchers, until the bottom of the 8th, when the Mariners changed pitchers, bringing in David Pauley, to the Angels’ delight, I’m sure. Hunter led off with a single and Howie Kendrick walked, before Alberto Callaspo came through with a big two-out hit, doubling them both in to give his team the 4-2 lead, going into the 9th. Haren remained in the game and allowed a lead off double to Dustin Ackley (another top prospect I got to see for the first time), but struck out Smoak and got Kennedy to pop out for the 2nd out. Manager Mike Scioscia decided to pull Haren, one out away from the complete game, and even the fans at Angels stadium booed. It seemed like a questionable move, since he only had thrown 113 pitches to that point, and it was the last game before the all-star break so he would get a longer rest than usual anyway, and Jordan Walden has a propensity for blowing saves, but it worked out as Walden struck out the last hitter to seal the victory. This completed am impressive 11-2 home-stand, pushing them to 8 games over .500, and more importantly helped them keep pace with the streaking Texas Rangers, who won 7 in a row leading up to the all-star break.
Next came the all-star game, which had a large number of substitutes to replace pitchers who couldn’t play in the game because they had pitched for their teams on Sunday, or players who were injured, or just didn’t want to go. The National League won, probably because they had most of their original all-star selection pitchers available to shut down the American League sluggers. It just further proved how ridiculous the idea the commissioner Bud Selig had to make the outcome of this silly game name the home team of the World Series, and I hope that stupid rule is taken away soon. Even if the actual players who were originally selected to play did get on the field, I would still say it is a dumb idea, since it is just a popularity contest, every team has to be represented (which is good for the fans but not so good if you want the best of the best players), and it is an EXHIBITION game by nature, so the results shouldn’t affect anything, let alone who gets home field advantage in the biggest series of the season… On the plus side, Jordan Walden made one of the plays of the game, fielding a grounder with his bare hand to throw out a runner at home, so that gave the Angels some notoriety at least.
They started the “2nd half” of the season, on the road in Oakland, which proved once again to be something of a kryptonite for the Angels, only winning one game of the four game series, despite the A's very poor record and awful offense. On July 15th, in game one, Haren allowed a big homerun to Josh Willingham which proved to be the winning runs for the A‘s, whose pitching staff continued its stellar performance, holding down the Angels offense for most of the series. On the 16th, they played a rare scheduled double-header, like in the old days where each team had at least one double header scheduled every year. They won the first game, 4-2, behind another great outing by Jared Weaver, who continues to be the best pitcher in baseball, no matter what others (in Detroit and New York, particularly) say. They lost the night cap, 4-3 in extra innings, despite homeruns from Trumbo for the lead and later by Wells to get back into the game. Angels reliever Rich Thompson walked the lead off batter in the 10th, and he later came around to score the winning run on a Scott Sizemore single. The last game of the series was a laugher, as Joel Peneiro was shelled early and removed before he completed two innings, and Gio Gonzalez shut down the Angels offense in a 9-0, series clinching victory. It marked the first time the Angels had lost a series in a long time, and it started to look like the Angels were falling too far behind the AL West leading Rangers who still hadn’t lost a game in two weeks.
The Angels came home for their next series, one of the biggest of the year, against their division rival Rangers. The series started off poorly for the Angels, as they were shut out by the Rangers in the first game (July 19th), as Tyler Chatwood was once again given no runs in support. The Rangers’ lead in the AL West increased again, as they improved their winning streak to 12 straight, so the Angels were in a bad position going into game 2, needing to win to have a chance to salvage the series and keep close in the division race. Dan Haren started game two of the series, but his recent troubles continued as he allowed 7 runs in just over 4 innings, in a very atypical performance, and the Rangers had a 8-3 lead after scoring 5 runs in the 5th. The bottom of the 6th inning may well represent the turning point in the Angels’ season, as they came back and scored 6 runs as part of a much needed offensive outburst, to take a 9-8 lead. Equally as impressive was the fact that the Angels bullpen managed to shut down the Rangers’ potent offense for the rest of the game, and held on to win it 9-8. They ended the Rangers’ winning streak, and had a chance to win a huge series, with Jared Weaver on the mound for game 3. The Angels scored one run when the Rangers centerfielder dropped an easy line drive that would have ended the inning, but instead allowed the runner to score from 2nd, and that was enough to push them to victory. Weaver shut out the Rangers over 7 innings, then Downs and Walden finished off the 1-0 win, and CJ Wilson took the hard luck loss, despite not allowing any earned runs in a complete game. This may be the season-changing series, and gave them a chance to stay in the division race, and proved to both teams that they can play with last years American League champions…
Next, they traveled to Baltimore to face the Orioles, and won the first game of that series, as Ervin Santana allowed just 3 hits in almost 8 innings, and just one run late in the game. He carried a no-hitter into the 6th inning, but his teammates didn’t give him any run support until the 7th when they went up 2-0. Takahashi came into the game to relieve Santana with two outs in the 8th, and then Vernon Wells hit a grand slam off of the Orioles’ closer Kevin Gregg to boost the lead to 6-1, so Takahashi came back out in the 9th and got credit for the save, since the game was close when he originally came in. They got off to a faster start in game 2 of the series, scoring two runs in the first inning, on a two-run homerun by Wells, who homered in his two consecutive at-bats. The rest of the game was the problem, as the offense did nothing for the rest of the game against the O’s starter Brad Bergeson, and Joel Pineiro allowed a bunch of hits (11) and three runs in his 5 innings of work, and the Angels lost 3-2. Game 3 was another tight one, as the Angels were up 3-2 in the 8th inning, as Chatwood pitched well in his 7 innings, allowing just the two runs. The other notable stat was no walks allowed by Chatwood, which can perhaps serve as a lesson for Chatwood who tends to walk too many batters unnecessarily, and gives up runs because of them more often than not. Mike Trout was playing in front of about a hundred friends and family members, because he grew up less than 100 miles from the ballpark in Baltimore, and he hit his first big league homerun, clobbering a line drive deep into the seats in left field for a 3-run homer to help break the game open. It was much more impressive than his first big league hit, which was an infield hit when he beat out a bunt when the pitcher took too long making the throw to 1st and threw the ball away. Hunter followed with a two-run homer to boost the lead to 8-3 and they won the game 9-3, to clinch another series win.
They traveled to Cleveland to play the Indians on July 25th, and each game of the series was a pitching duel. Dan Haren was back to his usual self, and held the Indians to just one run. Bobby Abreu hit a rare homerun in the 8th inning and the Angels took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the 9th, but Jordan Walden couldn’t save the game. The leadoff man singled, stole second, and scored on a double by the giant Travis Hafner to tie the score quickly. Eventually the bases were loaded and Scioscia took out Walden and brought in Takashashi, and brought in Hunter from right field to play as another infielder on the right side. Hunter got a groundball and threw out the runner at home for the 2nd out, so he went back out to right field for the next hitter. Jason Kipnis picked this time to get his first major league hit, pulling a high fastball through the hole on the right side of the infield but Hunter wasn’t there this time, and it rolled to him in right, for the game-winning hit.
Jared Weaver pitched another brilliant game in the middle of the series, once again lowering his already miniscule ERA, allowing just one run in 7 innings, on a solo homerun in the bottom of the 7th to Matt LaPorta. Just before that, the Angels scored the first runs of the game, when Mark Trumbo hit a clutch 2-run double after they intentionally walked Kendrick to get to him. Walden came in to close the game out, but it looked like he was on the verge of another blown save, as Hafner led off with a groundball that hit the lip of the grass near home plate and bounced way over Trumbo’s head, turning a groundout into a single, and eventually the bases were loaded with no outs. He had to throw a couple full count pitches to LaPorta and eventually got a weak grounder towards 2nd, so Kendrick charged it and threw for the out at home, and Mathis threw to 1st for the unconventional double play, to complete the biggest play of the game. Walden blew away the hero of game 1, Kipnis, striking him out on a high fastball finish off the save he earned the hard way.
Game 3 of the series may be the most memorable game of the season for the Angels, highlighted for the sparkling performance by Ervin Santana, who threw a NO-HITTER, and, ironically, earn the first win of his career against the Indians. It was the first complete game no-hitter by an Angel starter in about 27 years, and the first for the franchise since Langston and Witt combined for one back in the 90’s. Strangely enough, he was actually losing for most of the game, because the very first hitter he faced reached base on an error by Aybar, and eventually scored on a wild pitch that catcher Bobby Wilson couldn’t contain. The Angels didn’t score until the 5th on a sacrifice fly by Trout, then they took the lead in the 6th, when Hunter scored on a passed ball, and then they watched as Santana was getting ahead of hitters with his fastball and blowing them away with his slider, as he struck out ten hitters, including 5 of the last 8 batters he faced. When he wasn’t striking them out, he was getting a lot of weak ground outs, and the Indians really only had a chance at getting a hit in the 6th, on a grounder up the middle by Mr. Kipnis, where Kendrick had to dive to make the stop and got up quickly to throw him out. The Angels scored one more in the 9th for the 3-1 lead, but the story was Santana, who was overpowering from start to finish. I thought that an Angels pitcher would get one this year, but I figured it would be Haren or Weaver, but Santana proved he belongs in the class of top tier pitchers in baseball, after that performance, cementing his place in the record books.
The Angels took a very enthusiastic plane ride to Detroit where they faced the Tigers, starting on July 28th, which I’ll get into later. They have managed to keep up with the surging Rangers, despite their 12-game winning streak, and even put an end to the streak when they came back from that 5 run deficit, eventually taking the series, to remain close in the race. They came into Detroit just 2 games back in the American League West standings, and now have the lowest team ERA in the American League. Pitching and defense have kept them close to the division lead all season, making up for the overall lack of offense (mainly hitting with runners on base) and poor individual seasons for players like Abreu, Hunter and Wells, which have plagued them for most of the season. Time will tell if they can continue their pursuit of 1st place and claim a spot in the playoffs, and it certainly would also be nice if they added another hitter or relief pitcher before the trade deadline, but that seems unlikely, with that time coming up in less than a day now. Injuries and poor offensive production seem to be the major obstacles ahead, and the Rangers are hitting and pitching well so far this season, so it won't be easy to keep up, but it's still pretty impressive that they have so far...
Friday, July 8, 2011
Aston’s Angels Report [Games 86-88 vs Detroit- W,W,L]
AAR: Aston’s Angels Report July 4-6, 2011
Game 86-88: Pitching + Defense= Win Or: Why Joe West Sucks Vol. 1, Issue 88
Obviously I’m behind in my writing, as if it really matters to anyone else, and maybe it’s just some version of OCD or other brain malfunction that forces me to want to continue, so here I am again typing away, even though I could easily just say I took a vacation for the Holiday and omit even watching the games, without any repercussions whatsoever. Maybe it’s just turned into a habit, maybe I want to prove (at least to myself) that I could do this for a living, or maybe I am sick of quitting things because I’m not successful at it (I.E. the guitar, baseball, pursuit of math tutor career). Or maybe it’s just that I dread having to back into the social work force, pleasing the social masses with a smile mask and arbitrary pleasantries, while continuing my [fleeting] hopes that I could actually have a job that I enjoy, because it allows me to work autonomously and creatively… And this is me trying to write a shorter document?…Let’s try this again!
I’m going to compile the entire series vs. the Detroit Tigers into one submission, and maybe I’ll continue it this way in the future, who knows (or cares?). After winning, 13 of the 18 inter-league game, the Angels started the series with Detroit in a tie for 1st place in their division, but after losing the 3rd game of the series, they fell one game back, because the Rangers swept their series. Pitching and defense was the name of the game in this series, as all three Angels starters had good outings, especially Dan Haren and Joel Pineiro, and each was helped out by stellar defense behind them, but some poor defense hurt the 3rd game’s starter, Tyler Chatwood, and ruined an otherwise solid outing. The all-mighty Joe West’s umpiring crew was involved, and as usual they made sure they were noticed, ejecting coaches and players, before and after making bad calls that altered the outcomes of games, and then dismissing anyone who dared to question their decisions, without even listening, as if it is impossible for them to be wrong.
Game 1 of the series was on Sunday, the 4th of July, and the Angels celebrated with a couple loud displays on offense, to back up one of Joel Pineiro’s best outings in a couple of months. He retired the first six batters he faced, and it looked like his pitches were moving more than they have lately, especially his sinker, as indicated by the four groundball outs. The first hit he allowed came in the 3rd, when the catcher Alex Avila celebrated his all-star team selection with a double down the 1B line, on a grounder that should have been stopped by 1B Mark Trumbo, but bounced right by him and into right field. Pineiro would strike out 2B Ryan Raburn, and get 3B Brandon Inge on a line out, before walking CF Austin Jackson (on a 3-2 sinker that was called a ball, as the Angels players started to go to the dugout, thinking it was a strikeout). LF Brennan Boesch grounded out to 2nd to end the 3rd.
Pineiro was given the lead early, when Torii Hunter hit a solo homerun deep to center field on a fastball right down the middle, from the Tigers’ rookie pitcher Charlie Furbush, making his first start in the majors, after 12 relief appearances so far this season. He retired the next five hitters he faced, until Peter Bourjos led off the 3rd inning with a grounder through the left side, on a 96 MPH fastball from the young lefty. Bourjos stole 2nd base, then catcher Jeff Mathis struck out, but Bourjos stole 3rd base on the 1st pitch to SS Erick Aybar, and the 3B Inge had to dive to catch an errant throw from the catcher, to save an error and a run. On the 2-2 pitch to Aybar, Furbush caught his cleat as he stepped to make his pitch, and stumbled off the mound without throwing the pitch, which is a balk, so the runner was automatically awarded home. They really manufactured that run, to make the score 2-0, and after Aybar and Hunter made outs, the game headed to the 4th.
Pineiro got into some trouble in the top of the 4th, started by a leadoff walk to RF Magglio Ordonez, which is never a good thing, especially when one of the best hitters in baseball, All-Star Miguel Cabrera coming up, and to make matters worse, Ordonez went to 2nd on a wild pitch to put a man in scoring position. Luckily for the Angels, they have Peter Bourjos in center field, and he was the main reason Cabrera went hitless in this one, except for his groundout in the 2nd. With the man at 2nd, he hit a sinking liner into CF, and Bourjos ran in to catch it just before it hit the ground, but stayed on his feet to avoid the problem he had last game (diving when he probably didn’t have to) and keeping the runner at 2nd base. The DH, Victor Martinez pulled an outside fastball and grounded out to 2nd, but SS Jhonny (yes that is how you spell it) Peralta pulled a grounder through the left side for an RBI single, to make the score 2-1.
In the bottom of the 4th, the Angels got a two-out double from their all-star 2B Howie Kendrick, to extend his hitting streak to 13 games, but Trumbo ended the inning with a fly out to left. They would, however, score single runs in three of the next four innings to take the 5-1 lead, starting in the 5th. Callaspo led off with a single back up the middle, went to 2nd on a bunt by Mathis, and scored on a bloop single to center by Aybar, which made the score 3-1 and ended the night for the Tigers’ starter. Lester Oliveros came in relief and ended the inning with a line drive to center. In the 6th, Vernon Wells hit a one-out double off the big wall in right center, that would have been a homer if it was just a couple feet to the left, and scored on a two-out single to right by Trumbo, to make it 4-1. They went down 1-2-3 in their next at bat, but added one more in the bottom of the 8th, when Vernon Wells blasted a homerun on a high fastball off of new reliever Phil Coke, deep into left field, into the stands beyond both bullpens.
Pineiro shut the Tigers out in his final three innings, with some help from his defense to preserve the lead. He retired them in order in the 5th, with about 8 pitches or so, but faced some major problems in the 6th [when the score was still 3-1]. Boesch led off the inning with a soft liner into left for a single, and Pineiro compounded the problem with another walk to Ordonez, this time on four straight balls, to bring their dangerous 1st baseman up with runners on again. He whacked a low sinker into deep centerfield, and Bourjos sprinted back to the track, jumped and caught the ball as he crashed into the wall, robbing Cabrera of another hit and saving the Angels from at least one run (probably two runs), from scoring. It was a huge play, and the momentum seemed to continue from that point on, and the next hitter, Martinez, pulled another outside pitch, and grounded into a double play, to end the inning. He got out of another jam in the top of the 7th, after Peralta continued his hot hitting with a leadoff double down the left field line. Avila grounded out, and Raburn singled to right, but Peralta was held at 3rd. This time it was Brandon Inge’s turn to hit into an inning-ending double play, hitting a grounder to Callaspo who threw to Kendrick at 2nd, and he made a good throw to 1st even though he was being barreled into by Raburn. That kept the score 4-1, and ended the night for Pineiro, who pitched 7 full innings for the first time in months, and finally earned a win (just a 4-3 record with a lot of no-decisions).
Scott Downs struck out two en route to an easy 1-2-3 inning in the 8th, and Michael Kohn came in to finish the game in the 9th, after Vernon Wells homer in the bottom of the 8th pushed the lead to 4 runs, so a save wasn’t in the works anymore. He walked Cabrera to lead off the inning, but retired the next three to end the game and seal the victory for the Angels. Five one-run innings, good pitching, and great defense were the winning combination in this one, and they were able to celebrate America’s Holiday with a victory.
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Game 2 of the series was another pitcher’s duel, as expected, with two of the best pitchers in the American League, facing off against each other. Dan Haren won his last game against the Nationals 1-0, in a major pitching duel, and his opponent on Tuesday was the fireballer, Justin Verlander, who is always a threat to throw [another] no-hitter. Both pitched virtually flawlessly in this one, but the umpires made themselves very apparent in this one, unfortunately for Verlander. There were only a few changes in the lineups, with Maicer Izturis playing 3rd, instead of Callaspo, which moved Aybar down to the 6th spot. The Tigers switched Cabrera and Martinez, so Cabrera was DH instead, and Don Kelly was the 3B instead of Brandon Inge. There wasn’t a whole lot of offense to report in this one, since there were less than ten total hits, as pitching dominated from the start.
The Tigers did got a base runner in the 1st inning, when Boesch struck out on a split finger in the dirt, but reached 1st because the ball went through the legs of Mathis and couldn’t get to the ball to make the throw on the dropped 3rd strike play. Ordonez hit fly outs to end the inning, so Haren actually had to get four outs to get out of the inning. He retired the side in order in the 2nd, helped out by a good running catch by LF Vernon Wells, running into left center to snag a deep fly ball by Peralta for the 2nd out, before Avila struck out looking to end the inning.
Verlander retired the side in order in his first inning of work, it cost the Angels more than just three outs, because Abreu was ejected by the home plate umpire for saying that the 3-2 pitch was low ( I read his lips). I guess he was tossed for continuing to argue, but the inning was over, and he doesn’t play the field, so I don’t see the big deal of at least discussing it, but Angel Campos instead decided to throw out one of the most mild mannered players in the game, after a 20-second argument. The Angels scored their lone run of the game in the 2nd inning, when Howie Kendrick hit a slow grounder to the SS, and was called safe on Peralta’s throw to 1st. It wasn’t a great throw; more of an off-balance flip that floated high, but it still beat Kendrick to the base, so he should have been called, but Joe West made the safe call. That of course prompted the Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland to come out and argue (and ask if the ruling was that Martinez was off the base when he caught the high throw), but Joe West was already waving him away before he got there, insisting that Kendrick beat the throw, and was so overly confident that he had the call right, and he couldn’t believe that Leyland would dare come out to argue. With Aybar up, Kendrick started for 2nd as part of a hit and run play, and Aybar hit a grounder into right field that Ordonez had to run towards the line to field. Kendrick was hustling around the bases, and continued chugging as the 3rd base coach sent him home when the throw went to 2nd, and the throw from Rayburn was too late. Kendrick scored from 1st on what was basically a single, that Aybar stretched into a double, as their aggressive base running earned them a run. Trumbo grounded out and Bourjos hit a fly out to strand Aybar at 2nd, but the Angels capitalized on another bad call by an umpire to score what turned out to be the winning run of the game. The ego of some of these umpires is just ridiculous, but if he cares at all, he will look at the tape and realize that he made another bad call, and maybe he will finally figure out that he is, in fact, not infallible.
The Tigers got their first hit of the game in the 3rd, when their leadoff man Austin Jackson got his 2nd turn at the plate, and tripled to deep right center with two outs. Brennan Boesch grounded out to the pitcher, on an inside slider, to end the inning, after fouling a ball off his leg on a similar pitch, which brought the trainer out to examine him for a few minutes and forced him out of the game in the next inning (replaced by Andy Dirks in the next inning.) Both pitchers only had one inning with any hardship from that point on, and it came in the 5th. After retiring the Tigers in order in the 4th, Haren allowed a leadoff single to Peralta in the 5th, and he moved to 2nd on a groundout (it would have been a double play if they hadn’t sent the runner on a hit-and-run play, so he got a head start to 2nd). Raburn tried to bunt, for some reason, and Haren pounced off the mound to make the play at 1st, but they had another runner at 3rd with two outs. Haren got the 9th place hitter, Don Kelly, out, throwing a slider in tight to induce a weak pop out to the SS, to end the inning.
Verlander set the Angels down in order in the bottom of the 3rd and 4th before hitting a roadblock in the 5th, when Aybar led off the inning with his second hit of the game, a broken bat single into right. Trumbo hit a hard grounder to 3rd that Kelly made a great diving stop on, but he got up and made a terrible throw, way over Martinez’s head at 1st and into the stands. It was ruled a hit plus an error, so runners were now on 2nd and 3rd with no outs, and Verlander then issued a four-pitch walk to Bourjos, so the Angels looked primed to push another run across, with the bases loaded and no outs. Verlander struck out Mathis, then got Izturis to pop out to the SS, and had a long battle with Hunter (who has hit Verlander well in his career), and after fouling off a few 3-2 fastballs, he hit scolded a line drive into center, but it was right to Jackson for the last out. The Angels blew a huge opportunity to extend the lead, and it looked like it could come back to haunt them later, but Haren made that 1-0 lead stick.
Another instance of umpire interference came up in the 6th inning, and this time it cost the Tigers their manager. During the inning, the 3rd base umpire, Angel Hernandez made Verlander get a new ball, accusing him of licking his fingers and not wiping them off, for the second time in the game, which Verlander didn’t appreciate too much and complained to the home plate umpire as he came out to trade balls. After Verlander got out of the inning, their manager called Joe West over to the dugout and yelled at him about that and probably the missed call at 1st again, to protect his players basically, and West was sick of hearing it, so he ejected Leyland. When Verlander was pulled in the 8th inning, he turned around and said one word to Hernandez at 3rd, which was enough to get him ejected by him, but before he even realized it, he said a few things to West over at 1st, on his way to the dugout. I’m surprised more pitchers don’t yell at the umpires more often as they leave the game, since getting ejected doesn’t really effect anything, when they are already out of the game.
After that previously mentioned single by Peralta, leading off the 5th, Dan Haren proceeded to retire every hitter he faced from then until the final out in the 9th (15 straight outs). He allowed just two hits in the game, and struck out nine batters, without allowing a walk, as part of a magnificent complete game shutout. He threw first-pitch strikes to 24 of the 30 hitters he faced, and nearly three times as many strikes as balls during the entire game. He was able to throw any pitch at any time, and changed up his pitch sequences as the game progressed to constantly baffle the Tigers’ hitters. If not for a blown call by an umpire, turning an out into a hit, the game may have remained scoreless, because Verlander only allowed 7 hits in almost 8 innings, and was the tough-luck loser, through no fault of his own. It looked like the Angels just said “Here’s your run, now get us a win”, and Haren somehow won 1-0 for the second straight game, to earn his 100th career win, with only his 4th ever complete game shutout. For a pitching nerd like me, it was a thing of beauty, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pitcher win 1-0 twice in a row like that, at least not in the last few years.
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In Game 3, on Wednesday, the Angels got off to an early lead, but some poor defense and wild pitching, along with an assist by the dreadful umpiring of Joe West (again), allowed the Tigers back into the game and then eventually give up the win. Angels starter Tyler Chatwood walked more than he struck out (a problem for him this season), with no help from the home plate umpire Joe West, who refused to call strikes on several high-quality pitches, resulting in walks (extra runners) and extra pitches. The two runs he surrendered were unearned, and he was still in line for a win when he left in the 6th, but the bullpen were wild too and the walked batters spelled their demise in the end.
The Tigers’ Brennan Boesch remained out of the lineup after fouling a pitch off his right knee in the last game, so Don Kelly took over LF, while Andy Dirks played RF, instead of Magglio Ordonez, probably because it was a day game after a night game. Ramon Santiago played 2B instead of Raburn, and Brandon Inge was back at 3B. The Angels gave the day off to Erick Aybar, so Izturis took over SS, and Abreu played LF, to allow Vernon Wells to stay off the field as the DH, after tweaking his ankle in the last game.
Chatwood came in with a 5-5 record and very respectable 3.83 ERA, and got off to a shaky start, walking Jackson to lead off the game, and then allowing a single to Santiago, who just slapped one into left, to put two runners on for the middle of the lineup. During the at-bat to Jackson, the 2-2 fastball was above the knees and down the middle, but home plate umpire Joe West called it a ball, and Jackson thought it was ball four and went to all the way to 1st, before realizing it was just ball three. That comical mistake overshadowed the real issue, but it gave the broadcast extra time to show the replay with the strike zone box on the screen, which showed just how bad of a call that was. Joe West’s inconsistency and discriminatory strike calls would be an issue throughout the game; he at least lacked consistency, and I would go a step further and say showed favoritism to other pitchers, because he seems like that kind of person to me and everyone else who deals with him. Chatwood probably had his best three-batter-sequence after those first two reached, striking out Andy Dirks (batting 3rd for some reason) with a good fastball that moved across the plate to the outside corner. Then he fell behind mighty Miguel Cabrera (2-0), but blew him away with three straight 95+ MPH fastballs for three swinging strikes to get a big strikeout, and finished the inning with a good curveball to Martinez to induce the weak pop out on the infield.
The Tigers’ starter was Brad Penny, who had a 5-6 record, and 4.43 ERA, and pitched well after a poor start. The Angels barely scored one run to win the last game 1-0, so their 1st inning in this game was something of an offensive explosion. Izturis grounded out to lead off, but the Angels followed with four straight hits, beginning with an inside-out line drive by Torii Hunter, who hit an inside fastball into right field, for a single. Abreu worked the count full and, with Torii Hunter running, hit a grounder through the left side, to advance Hunter to 3rd, with one out. Vernon Wells, pulled a 2-0 fastball, down the left field line, for an RBI double, to push across the first run of the game. Howie Kendrick came up next with runners at 2nd and 3rd, and the first pitch from Penny was supposed to be outside, but he threw one that tailed to the other side and almost hit Kendrick in the foot, but [you guessed it] Joe West put up the strike signal. The count went to 0-2, and Penny tried another fastball, but it went right down the middle and Howie smacked a line drive back up the middle, to drive in two more, and make the score 3-0. Kendrick would steal 2nd, but Callaspo and Trumbo hit fly ball outs to end the inning….
Back to my umpire tangent, the pitch to Kendrick missed location by almost 2 feet (no exaggeration), traveled halfway into Howie’s batter’s box, and yet it was still called a strike!! That, my friends, is called favoritism, not just inconsistency, especially in context of this game, when so many strikes from the other pitcher were called balls. If I was Howie, I would have probably gotten thrown out after that one, because that was probably the worst call I’ve ever seen on a strike call. The first rule of umpiring is supposed to be: make the same call for both teams (i.e. all players), with no favoritism; their job is simply to be consistent, and now they won’t even allow another player or manager to question them when they’re so far from consistency it changes the outcome of games, because their ego has grown bigger than the game they are supposed to be monitoring.
In the 2nd, Peralta hit a grounder to Callaspo at 3rd, who nonchalantly went after it, and misplayed the ball off his arm, but luckily it bounced off his body in front of him, and Peralta is slow, so he had time to make the out at 1st despite the poor fielding. Avila walked, but Inge grounded into a double play to end the inning relatively quickly… In the 3rd inning, Don Kelly hit a fastball into center for a solid leadoff single, to start what would be a taxing inning for Chatwood. Jackson hit a high chopper to 3rd, and Callaspo decided to wait back for it, then unleashed a high throw to 1st, for a very costly error (and 2nd defensive mistake of the game really). With two men on, Santiago laid down a sacrifice bunt to the pitcher to move the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Chatwood had to throw five strikes to get three against Andy Dirks, thanks again to Joe West, who called the first pitch a ball even though it was a strike upon the replay, and then again on the 2-2 fastball, another ball on what was a strike, to force a full count. Chatwood struck him out swinging at a fastball for the 2nd out, which should have been the last out, if not for that error by Callaspo. Now he had to face Cabrera, who hits .390 with runners in scoring position this year, and once again got no help from the umpire. Chatwood did get ahead 0-2, but eventually went to a full count after his one curveball in the at-bat went in the dirt and was blocked nicely by Conger. His 3-2 pitch was a fastball again over the outside corner (inside to left-hand batters) and it was once again falsely called ball four, to extend the inning and load the bases for the DH Victor Martinez. He of course lined a single into right field, scoring two runs, to make it 3-2, thanks in large part to prejudicial judgments by the umpire who is supposed to be impartial. If a pitch crosses the plate in the strike zone, it is a strike, even if the pitcher is a rookie, and the hitter is a veteran; it’s as simple as that, unless you are a major league umpire, apparently….
The Angels offense did basically nothing from the 2nd inning on, until the last batter Penny faced in the 7th inning. He set them down in order in the 2nd, using his curveball to get two strikeouts and a groundout. Hunter singled to right to lead off the 3rd, in a carbon copy of his first hit, but he was erased on a double play by Vernon Wells, after Abreu made the first out. They went down in order again in the 4th, and Izturis walked in the 5th but that was there only base runner. In the bottom of the 6th, Abreu walked to lead off, but Vernon Wells hit into another double play to the 3rd baseman again for two quick outs. Kendrick checked his swing on a 1-2 curveball in the dirt, but Joe West called him out without appealing to the 1st base umpire (another pet peeve of mine). He turned around a stormed away, ignoring Kendrick’s inquiry/argument, only turning his head slightly to say something (probably something dismissive like “yes you did“, with his back toward him, because he was headed off the field, to the bathroom or water fountain. So, because he had to pee or was thirsty, he refused to even ask for help on a play he is supposed to, and disregarded any comment from Kendrick, who rarely complains about anything (he didn’t even flinch on that phantom strike call in his first at-bat).
In the top of the 4th, Joe West tried to give the Tigers the lead, calling ball four on a 3-1 fastball, to Don Kelly for an unearned walk, that shouldn’t have been. Then he did the same thing on a 3-2 fastball, in the same place, to Jackson, to turn a strikeout into a walk, and two runners on with two out. Santiago got the benefit of another call, when West called the 1-0 inside fastball, a ball, instead of strike two. He then singled into left field, but Abreu threw a good one-hop throw to Conger, who caught and tagged out Kelly, sliding into home, for the final out, keeping the lead in tact. Some forget how good of a throwing arm Abreu has, since he doesn’t play in the field much and is viewed as something of a liability because he isn’t very fast, but he leads active players in outfield assists for his career… Chatwood got his first 1-2-3 inning, in the top of the 5th, but Chatwood was already near 100 pitches (no thanks to the invisible strike zone) so his night was close to over. He came out to pitch the 6th and retired Peralta on a fly out, but that was his last batter, and Hisanori Takahashi was brought in to replace him. He walked the first batter he faced, Avila, but struck out Inge and got a fly out from Kelly to end the inning, and keep Chatwood in line for a possible victory with the 3-2 lead.
Unfortunately, it unraveled in the top of the 7th, as Takahashi came back out to pitch, and walked their fastest runner, and leadoff man, Jackson to start the inning, which is always a bad sign. Santiago put down another sacrifice bunt, moving Jackson into scoring position at 2nd base. Left-hand hitter Andy Dirks made contact with an 0-2 outside slider, and broke his bat, but it died a hero, as the ball blooped into right field, and enabled Jackson to score the tying run. Takahashi was then removed from the game, a little late in my opinion; I think allowing the leadoff walk would have been a good reason to pull him right there. Michael Kohn was brought in to face the slugger, Cabrera, but he surrendered the game-winning hit, as Cabrera pulled an inside 93 MPH fastball, muscling it over the left field fence for a two-run homerun and the 5-3 lead. Kohn retired Martinez and Peralta but the damage was done, and it can all be traced back to a leadoff walk in the inning.
The Angels were now down by two, going into the 7th, and Penny was in the midst of mowing through the Angels, so it wasn’t looking too good. He retired Callaspo to lead off the 7th, but the Mark Trumbo snapped the Angels funk, when he smashed a curveball into deep left center for a solo homer to bring them within one run. That was the first hit Penny allowed since the 3rd inning, and turned out to be the last batter he would face. David Purvey came in, and retired the two batters he faced to end the inning.
Rich Thompson came into the game for the Angels in the 8th, and pitched like he did earlier in the year, using his firm fastball and great curveball to dominate hitters and get easy outs. He got ahead of each hitter with fastballs, struck out the first two he faced with his big curveball, and then get Kelly to groundout to end the inning quickly. Benoit came in to pitch for the Tigers in the bottom half, and got Izturis to fly out leading off the inning. Hunter took a 0-1 fastball that was in the exact same place as the ones called a ball by West all game, when Chatwood threw it, but it was called a strike to make the count 0-2 (a big difference from 1-1), to the dismay of Hunter and everyone in the Angels dugout. Hunter grounded out on the next pitch, for the 2nd out, and Abreu drew a two-out walk, but the inning ended when Wells struck out on a high fastball. When an umpire bases his decision on whether a pitch is a strike on who is throwing it, and how long the game has been going on [in the hot weather, because he wants to go home] there is a problem.
Thompson pitched well again in the 9th, even though he walked Jackson (I have no idea why they couldn’t throw a strike to a guy who hits about .250 and is their fastest runner) . He retired Santiago, who popped up a bunt, then Dirks hit a fly out to right. Cabrera was called out by West, on a check swing, which made Cabrera angry and forced Leyland out to complain (he was due for that eventually). Once again he refused to ask for help, and it looked like he needed to catch a plane or something… Jose Valverde came in to close the game out for the Tigers and set the Angels down in order, to continue his perfect record in save opportunities, with his 21st save this season. Of course it had to end on another fraudulent call from Joe West, who called Trumbo out on an outside fastball, which was NEVER called a strike when Chatwood threw it, but became a strike since the game was almost over and it was a veteran pitcher on the mound.
Too many walks (8), and one major defensive miscue cost the Angels a chance at a sweep, but they still came away with the series win, to extend their streak to seven straight series victories as they continue their run to take over the lead in their division. Of course, the final two games could have ended differently, and were shrouded with controversy because of egomaniacal umpires who forgot what their job is. Umpires are getting worse, making bad calls, throwing out people because they dare complain (with just cause in most cases), while acting like fans come to the ballpark to see them, and hopefully these facts will bring on the advent of instant replay, so the game isn’t stained by these conceited, inconsistent, and seemingly biased men who think they are beyond criticism. I can’t wait!!
Wins (5-1 + 1-0), Loss 5-4 Record: 46-42
Game 86-88: Pitching + Defense= Win Or: Why Joe West Sucks Vol. 1, Issue 88
Obviously I’m behind in my writing, as if it really matters to anyone else, and maybe it’s just some version of OCD or other brain malfunction that forces me to want to continue, so here I am again typing away, even though I could easily just say I took a vacation for the Holiday and omit even watching the games, without any repercussions whatsoever. Maybe it’s just turned into a habit, maybe I want to prove (at least to myself) that I could do this for a living, or maybe I am sick of quitting things because I’m not successful at it (I.E. the guitar, baseball, pursuit of math tutor career). Or maybe it’s just that I dread having to back into the social work force, pleasing the social masses with a smile mask and arbitrary pleasantries, while continuing my [fleeting] hopes that I could actually have a job that I enjoy, because it allows me to work autonomously and creatively… And this is me trying to write a shorter document?…Let’s try this again!
I’m going to compile the entire series vs. the Detroit Tigers into one submission, and maybe I’ll continue it this way in the future, who knows (or cares?). After winning, 13 of the 18 inter-league game, the Angels started the series with Detroit in a tie for 1st place in their division, but after losing the 3rd game of the series, they fell one game back, because the Rangers swept their series. Pitching and defense was the name of the game in this series, as all three Angels starters had good outings, especially Dan Haren and Joel Pineiro, and each was helped out by stellar defense behind them, but some poor defense hurt the 3rd game’s starter, Tyler Chatwood, and ruined an otherwise solid outing. The all-mighty Joe West’s umpiring crew was involved, and as usual they made sure they were noticed, ejecting coaches and players, before and after making bad calls that altered the outcomes of games, and then dismissing anyone who dared to question their decisions, without even listening, as if it is impossible for them to be wrong.
Game 1 of the series was on Sunday, the 4th of July, and the Angels celebrated with a couple loud displays on offense, to back up one of Joel Pineiro’s best outings in a couple of months. He retired the first six batters he faced, and it looked like his pitches were moving more than they have lately, especially his sinker, as indicated by the four groundball outs. The first hit he allowed came in the 3rd, when the catcher Alex Avila celebrated his all-star team selection with a double down the 1B line, on a grounder that should have been stopped by 1B Mark Trumbo, but bounced right by him and into right field. Pineiro would strike out 2B Ryan Raburn, and get 3B Brandon Inge on a line out, before walking CF Austin Jackson (on a 3-2 sinker that was called a ball, as the Angels players started to go to the dugout, thinking it was a strikeout). LF Brennan Boesch grounded out to 2nd to end the 3rd.
Pineiro was given the lead early, when Torii Hunter hit a solo homerun deep to center field on a fastball right down the middle, from the Tigers’ rookie pitcher Charlie Furbush, making his first start in the majors, after 12 relief appearances so far this season. He retired the next five hitters he faced, until Peter Bourjos led off the 3rd inning with a grounder through the left side, on a 96 MPH fastball from the young lefty. Bourjos stole 2nd base, then catcher Jeff Mathis struck out, but Bourjos stole 3rd base on the 1st pitch to SS Erick Aybar, and the 3B Inge had to dive to catch an errant throw from the catcher, to save an error and a run. On the 2-2 pitch to Aybar, Furbush caught his cleat as he stepped to make his pitch, and stumbled off the mound without throwing the pitch, which is a balk, so the runner was automatically awarded home. They really manufactured that run, to make the score 2-0, and after Aybar and Hunter made outs, the game headed to the 4th.
Pineiro got into some trouble in the top of the 4th, started by a leadoff walk to RF Magglio Ordonez, which is never a good thing, especially when one of the best hitters in baseball, All-Star Miguel Cabrera coming up, and to make matters worse, Ordonez went to 2nd on a wild pitch to put a man in scoring position. Luckily for the Angels, they have Peter Bourjos in center field, and he was the main reason Cabrera went hitless in this one, except for his groundout in the 2nd. With the man at 2nd, he hit a sinking liner into CF, and Bourjos ran in to catch it just before it hit the ground, but stayed on his feet to avoid the problem he had last game (diving when he probably didn’t have to) and keeping the runner at 2nd base. The DH, Victor Martinez pulled an outside fastball and grounded out to 2nd, but SS Jhonny (yes that is how you spell it) Peralta pulled a grounder through the left side for an RBI single, to make the score 2-1.
In the bottom of the 4th, the Angels got a two-out double from their all-star 2B Howie Kendrick, to extend his hitting streak to 13 games, but Trumbo ended the inning with a fly out to left. They would, however, score single runs in three of the next four innings to take the 5-1 lead, starting in the 5th. Callaspo led off with a single back up the middle, went to 2nd on a bunt by Mathis, and scored on a bloop single to center by Aybar, which made the score 3-1 and ended the night for the Tigers’ starter. Lester Oliveros came in relief and ended the inning with a line drive to center. In the 6th, Vernon Wells hit a one-out double off the big wall in right center, that would have been a homer if it was just a couple feet to the left, and scored on a two-out single to right by Trumbo, to make it 4-1. They went down 1-2-3 in their next at bat, but added one more in the bottom of the 8th, when Vernon Wells blasted a homerun on a high fastball off of new reliever Phil Coke, deep into left field, into the stands beyond both bullpens.
Pineiro shut the Tigers out in his final three innings, with some help from his defense to preserve the lead. He retired them in order in the 5th, with about 8 pitches or so, but faced some major problems in the 6th [when the score was still 3-1]. Boesch led off the inning with a soft liner into left for a single, and Pineiro compounded the problem with another walk to Ordonez, this time on four straight balls, to bring their dangerous 1st baseman up with runners on again. He whacked a low sinker into deep centerfield, and Bourjos sprinted back to the track, jumped and caught the ball as he crashed into the wall, robbing Cabrera of another hit and saving the Angels from at least one run (probably two runs), from scoring. It was a huge play, and the momentum seemed to continue from that point on, and the next hitter, Martinez, pulled another outside pitch, and grounded into a double play, to end the inning. He got out of another jam in the top of the 7th, after Peralta continued his hot hitting with a leadoff double down the left field line. Avila grounded out, and Raburn singled to right, but Peralta was held at 3rd. This time it was Brandon Inge’s turn to hit into an inning-ending double play, hitting a grounder to Callaspo who threw to Kendrick at 2nd, and he made a good throw to 1st even though he was being barreled into by Raburn. That kept the score 4-1, and ended the night for Pineiro, who pitched 7 full innings for the first time in months, and finally earned a win (just a 4-3 record with a lot of no-decisions).
Scott Downs struck out two en route to an easy 1-2-3 inning in the 8th, and Michael Kohn came in to finish the game in the 9th, after Vernon Wells homer in the bottom of the 8th pushed the lead to 4 runs, so a save wasn’t in the works anymore. He walked Cabrera to lead off the inning, but retired the next three to end the game and seal the victory for the Angels. Five one-run innings, good pitching, and great defense were the winning combination in this one, and they were able to celebrate America’s Holiday with a victory.
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Game 2 of the series was another pitcher’s duel, as expected, with two of the best pitchers in the American League, facing off against each other. Dan Haren won his last game against the Nationals 1-0, in a major pitching duel, and his opponent on Tuesday was the fireballer, Justin Verlander, who is always a threat to throw [another] no-hitter. Both pitched virtually flawlessly in this one, but the umpires made themselves very apparent in this one, unfortunately for Verlander. There were only a few changes in the lineups, with Maicer Izturis playing 3rd, instead of Callaspo, which moved Aybar down to the 6th spot. The Tigers switched Cabrera and Martinez, so Cabrera was DH instead, and Don Kelly was the 3B instead of Brandon Inge. There wasn’t a whole lot of offense to report in this one, since there were less than ten total hits, as pitching dominated from the start.
The Tigers did got a base runner in the 1st inning, when Boesch struck out on a split finger in the dirt, but reached 1st because the ball went through the legs of Mathis and couldn’t get to the ball to make the throw on the dropped 3rd strike play. Ordonez hit fly outs to end the inning, so Haren actually had to get four outs to get out of the inning. He retired the side in order in the 2nd, helped out by a good running catch by LF Vernon Wells, running into left center to snag a deep fly ball by Peralta for the 2nd out, before Avila struck out looking to end the inning.
Verlander retired the side in order in his first inning of work, it cost the Angels more than just three outs, because Abreu was ejected by the home plate umpire for saying that the 3-2 pitch was low ( I read his lips). I guess he was tossed for continuing to argue, but the inning was over, and he doesn’t play the field, so I don’t see the big deal of at least discussing it, but Angel Campos instead decided to throw out one of the most mild mannered players in the game, after a 20-second argument. The Angels scored their lone run of the game in the 2nd inning, when Howie Kendrick hit a slow grounder to the SS, and was called safe on Peralta’s throw to 1st. It wasn’t a great throw; more of an off-balance flip that floated high, but it still beat Kendrick to the base, so he should have been called, but Joe West made the safe call. That of course prompted the Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland to come out and argue (and ask if the ruling was that Martinez was off the base when he caught the high throw), but Joe West was already waving him away before he got there, insisting that Kendrick beat the throw, and was so overly confident that he had the call right, and he couldn’t believe that Leyland would dare come out to argue. With Aybar up, Kendrick started for 2nd as part of a hit and run play, and Aybar hit a grounder into right field that Ordonez had to run towards the line to field. Kendrick was hustling around the bases, and continued chugging as the 3rd base coach sent him home when the throw went to 2nd, and the throw from Rayburn was too late. Kendrick scored from 1st on what was basically a single, that Aybar stretched into a double, as their aggressive base running earned them a run. Trumbo grounded out and Bourjos hit a fly out to strand Aybar at 2nd, but the Angels capitalized on another bad call by an umpire to score what turned out to be the winning run of the game. The ego of some of these umpires is just ridiculous, but if he cares at all, he will look at the tape and realize that he made another bad call, and maybe he will finally figure out that he is, in fact, not infallible.
The Tigers got their first hit of the game in the 3rd, when their leadoff man Austin Jackson got his 2nd turn at the plate, and tripled to deep right center with two outs. Brennan Boesch grounded out to the pitcher, on an inside slider, to end the inning, after fouling a ball off his leg on a similar pitch, which brought the trainer out to examine him for a few minutes and forced him out of the game in the next inning (replaced by Andy Dirks in the next inning.) Both pitchers only had one inning with any hardship from that point on, and it came in the 5th. After retiring the Tigers in order in the 4th, Haren allowed a leadoff single to Peralta in the 5th, and he moved to 2nd on a groundout (it would have been a double play if they hadn’t sent the runner on a hit-and-run play, so he got a head start to 2nd). Raburn tried to bunt, for some reason, and Haren pounced off the mound to make the play at 1st, but they had another runner at 3rd with two outs. Haren got the 9th place hitter, Don Kelly, out, throwing a slider in tight to induce a weak pop out to the SS, to end the inning.
Verlander set the Angels down in order in the bottom of the 3rd and 4th before hitting a roadblock in the 5th, when Aybar led off the inning with his second hit of the game, a broken bat single into right. Trumbo hit a hard grounder to 3rd that Kelly made a great diving stop on, but he got up and made a terrible throw, way over Martinez’s head at 1st and into the stands. It was ruled a hit plus an error, so runners were now on 2nd and 3rd with no outs, and Verlander then issued a four-pitch walk to Bourjos, so the Angels looked primed to push another run across, with the bases loaded and no outs. Verlander struck out Mathis, then got Izturis to pop out to the SS, and had a long battle with Hunter (who has hit Verlander well in his career), and after fouling off a few 3-2 fastballs, he hit scolded a line drive into center, but it was right to Jackson for the last out. The Angels blew a huge opportunity to extend the lead, and it looked like it could come back to haunt them later, but Haren made that 1-0 lead stick.
Another instance of umpire interference came up in the 6th inning, and this time it cost the Tigers their manager. During the inning, the 3rd base umpire, Angel Hernandez made Verlander get a new ball, accusing him of licking his fingers and not wiping them off, for the second time in the game, which Verlander didn’t appreciate too much and complained to the home plate umpire as he came out to trade balls. After Verlander got out of the inning, their manager called Joe West over to the dugout and yelled at him about that and probably the missed call at 1st again, to protect his players basically, and West was sick of hearing it, so he ejected Leyland. When Verlander was pulled in the 8th inning, he turned around and said one word to Hernandez at 3rd, which was enough to get him ejected by him, but before he even realized it, he said a few things to West over at 1st, on his way to the dugout. I’m surprised more pitchers don’t yell at the umpires more often as they leave the game, since getting ejected doesn’t really effect anything, when they are already out of the game.
After that previously mentioned single by Peralta, leading off the 5th, Dan Haren proceeded to retire every hitter he faced from then until the final out in the 9th (15 straight outs). He allowed just two hits in the game, and struck out nine batters, without allowing a walk, as part of a magnificent complete game shutout. He threw first-pitch strikes to 24 of the 30 hitters he faced, and nearly three times as many strikes as balls during the entire game. He was able to throw any pitch at any time, and changed up his pitch sequences as the game progressed to constantly baffle the Tigers’ hitters. If not for a blown call by an umpire, turning an out into a hit, the game may have remained scoreless, because Verlander only allowed 7 hits in almost 8 innings, and was the tough-luck loser, through no fault of his own. It looked like the Angels just said “Here’s your run, now get us a win”, and Haren somehow won 1-0 for the second straight game, to earn his 100th career win, with only his 4th ever complete game shutout. For a pitching nerd like me, it was a thing of beauty, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pitcher win 1-0 twice in a row like that, at least not in the last few years.
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In Game 3, on Wednesday, the Angels got off to an early lead, but some poor defense and wild pitching, along with an assist by the dreadful umpiring of Joe West (again), allowed the Tigers back into the game and then eventually give up the win. Angels starter Tyler Chatwood walked more than he struck out (a problem for him this season), with no help from the home plate umpire Joe West, who refused to call strikes on several high-quality pitches, resulting in walks (extra runners) and extra pitches. The two runs he surrendered were unearned, and he was still in line for a win when he left in the 6th, but the bullpen were wild too and the walked batters spelled their demise in the end.
The Tigers’ Brennan Boesch remained out of the lineup after fouling a pitch off his right knee in the last game, so Don Kelly took over LF, while Andy Dirks played RF, instead of Magglio Ordonez, probably because it was a day game after a night game. Ramon Santiago played 2B instead of Raburn, and Brandon Inge was back at 3B. The Angels gave the day off to Erick Aybar, so Izturis took over SS, and Abreu played LF, to allow Vernon Wells to stay off the field as the DH, after tweaking his ankle in the last game.
Chatwood came in with a 5-5 record and very respectable 3.83 ERA, and got off to a shaky start, walking Jackson to lead off the game, and then allowing a single to Santiago, who just slapped one into left, to put two runners on for the middle of the lineup. During the at-bat to Jackson, the 2-2 fastball was above the knees and down the middle, but home plate umpire Joe West called it a ball, and Jackson thought it was ball four and went to all the way to 1st, before realizing it was just ball three. That comical mistake overshadowed the real issue, but it gave the broadcast extra time to show the replay with the strike zone box on the screen, which showed just how bad of a call that was. Joe West’s inconsistency and discriminatory strike calls would be an issue throughout the game; he at least lacked consistency, and I would go a step further and say showed favoritism to other pitchers, because he seems like that kind of person to me and everyone else who deals with him. Chatwood probably had his best three-batter-sequence after those first two reached, striking out Andy Dirks (batting 3rd for some reason) with a good fastball that moved across the plate to the outside corner. Then he fell behind mighty Miguel Cabrera (2-0), but blew him away with three straight 95+ MPH fastballs for three swinging strikes to get a big strikeout, and finished the inning with a good curveball to Martinez to induce the weak pop out on the infield.
The Tigers’ starter was Brad Penny, who had a 5-6 record, and 4.43 ERA, and pitched well after a poor start. The Angels barely scored one run to win the last game 1-0, so their 1st inning in this game was something of an offensive explosion. Izturis grounded out to lead off, but the Angels followed with four straight hits, beginning with an inside-out line drive by Torii Hunter, who hit an inside fastball into right field, for a single. Abreu worked the count full and, with Torii Hunter running, hit a grounder through the left side, to advance Hunter to 3rd, with one out. Vernon Wells, pulled a 2-0 fastball, down the left field line, for an RBI double, to push across the first run of the game. Howie Kendrick came up next with runners at 2nd and 3rd, and the first pitch from Penny was supposed to be outside, but he threw one that tailed to the other side and almost hit Kendrick in the foot, but [you guessed it] Joe West put up the strike signal. The count went to 0-2, and Penny tried another fastball, but it went right down the middle and Howie smacked a line drive back up the middle, to drive in two more, and make the score 3-0. Kendrick would steal 2nd, but Callaspo and Trumbo hit fly ball outs to end the inning….
Back to my umpire tangent, the pitch to Kendrick missed location by almost 2 feet (no exaggeration), traveled halfway into Howie’s batter’s box, and yet it was still called a strike!! That, my friends, is called favoritism, not just inconsistency, especially in context of this game, when so many strikes from the other pitcher were called balls. If I was Howie, I would have probably gotten thrown out after that one, because that was probably the worst call I’ve ever seen on a strike call. The first rule of umpiring is supposed to be: make the same call for both teams (i.e. all players), with no favoritism; their job is simply to be consistent, and now they won’t even allow another player or manager to question them when they’re so far from consistency it changes the outcome of games, because their ego has grown bigger than the game they are supposed to be monitoring.
In the 2nd, Peralta hit a grounder to Callaspo at 3rd, who nonchalantly went after it, and misplayed the ball off his arm, but luckily it bounced off his body in front of him, and Peralta is slow, so he had time to make the out at 1st despite the poor fielding. Avila walked, but Inge grounded into a double play to end the inning relatively quickly… In the 3rd inning, Don Kelly hit a fastball into center for a solid leadoff single, to start what would be a taxing inning for Chatwood. Jackson hit a high chopper to 3rd, and Callaspo decided to wait back for it, then unleashed a high throw to 1st, for a very costly error (and 2nd defensive mistake of the game really). With two men on, Santiago laid down a sacrifice bunt to the pitcher to move the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Chatwood had to throw five strikes to get three against Andy Dirks, thanks again to Joe West, who called the first pitch a ball even though it was a strike upon the replay, and then again on the 2-2 fastball, another ball on what was a strike, to force a full count. Chatwood struck him out swinging at a fastball for the 2nd out, which should have been the last out, if not for that error by Callaspo. Now he had to face Cabrera, who hits .390 with runners in scoring position this year, and once again got no help from the umpire. Chatwood did get ahead 0-2, but eventually went to a full count after his one curveball in the at-bat went in the dirt and was blocked nicely by Conger. His 3-2 pitch was a fastball again over the outside corner (inside to left-hand batters) and it was once again falsely called ball four, to extend the inning and load the bases for the DH Victor Martinez. He of course lined a single into right field, scoring two runs, to make it 3-2, thanks in large part to prejudicial judgments by the umpire who is supposed to be impartial. If a pitch crosses the plate in the strike zone, it is a strike, even if the pitcher is a rookie, and the hitter is a veteran; it’s as simple as that, unless you are a major league umpire, apparently….
The Angels offense did basically nothing from the 2nd inning on, until the last batter Penny faced in the 7th inning. He set them down in order in the 2nd, using his curveball to get two strikeouts and a groundout. Hunter singled to right to lead off the 3rd, in a carbon copy of his first hit, but he was erased on a double play by Vernon Wells, after Abreu made the first out. They went down in order again in the 4th, and Izturis walked in the 5th but that was there only base runner. In the bottom of the 6th, Abreu walked to lead off, but Vernon Wells hit into another double play to the 3rd baseman again for two quick outs. Kendrick checked his swing on a 1-2 curveball in the dirt, but Joe West called him out without appealing to the 1st base umpire (another pet peeve of mine). He turned around a stormed away, ignoring Kendrick’s inquiry/argument, only turning his head slightly to say something (probably something dismissive like “yes you did“, with his back toward him, because he was headed off the field, to the bathroom or water fountain. So, because he had to pee or was thirsty, he refused to even ask for help on a play he is supposed to, and disregarded any comment from Kendrick, who rarely complains about anything (he didn’t even flinch on that phantom strike call in his first at-bat).
In the top of the 4th, Joe West tried to give the Tigers the lead, calling ball four on a 3-1 fastball, to Don Kelly for an unearned walk, that shouldn’t have been. Then he did the same thing on a 3-2 fastball, in the same place, to Jackson, to turn a strikeout into a walk, and two runners on with two out. Santiago got the benefit of another call, when West called the 1-0 inside fastball, a ball, instead of strike two. He then singled into left field, but Abreu threw a good one-hop throw to Conger, who caught and tagged out Kelly, sliding into home, for the final out, keeping the lead in tact. Some forget how good of a throwing arm Abreu has, since he doesn’t play in the field much and is viewed as something of a liability because he isn’t very fast, but he leads active players in outfield assists for his career… Chatwood got his first 1-2-3 inning, in the top of the 5th, but Chatwood was already near 100 pitches (no thanks to the invisible strike zone) so his night was close to over. He came out to pitch the 6th and retired Peralta on a fly out, but that was his last batter, and Hisanori Takahashi was brought in to replace him. He walked the first batter he faced, Avila, but struck out Inge and got a fly out from Kelly to end the inning, and keep Chatwood in line for a possible victory with the 3-2 lead.
Unfortunately, it unraveled in the top of the 7th, as Takahashi came back out to pitch, and walked their fastest runner, and leadoff man, Jackson to start the inning, which is always a bad sign. Santiago put down another sacrifice bunt, moving Jackson into scoring position at 2nd base. Left-hand hitter Andy Dirks made contact with an 0-2 outside slider, and broke his bat, but it died a hero, as the ball blooped into right field, and enabled Jackson to score the tying run. Takahashi was then removed from the game, a little late in my opinion; I think allowing the leadoff walk would have been a good reason to pull him right there. Michael Kohn was brought in to face the slugger, Cabrera, but he surrendered the game-winning hit, as Cabrera pulled an inside 93 MPH fastball, muscling it over the left field fence for a two-run homerun and the 5-3 lead. Kohn retired Martinez and Peralta but the damage was done, and it can all be traced back to a leadoff walk in the inning.
The Angels were now down by two, going into the 7th, and Penny was in the midst of mowing through the Angels, so it wasn’t looking too good. He retired Callaspo to lead off the 7th, but the Mark Trumbo snapped the Angels funk, when he smashed a curveball into deep left center for a solo homer to bring them within one run. That was the first hit Penny allowed since the 3rd inning, and turned out to be the last batter he would face. David Purvey came in, and retired the two batters he faced to end the inning.
Rich Thompson came into the game for the Angels in the 8th, and pitched like he did earlier in the year, using his firm fastball and great curveball to dominate hitters and get easy outs. He got ahead of each hitter with fastballs, struck out the first two he faced with his big curveball, and then get Kelly to groundout to end the inning quickly. Benoit came in to pitch for the Tigers in the bottom half, and got Izturis to fly out leading off the inning. Hunter took a 0-1 fastball that was in the exact same place as the ones called a ball by West all game, when Chatwood threw it, but it was called a strike to make the count 0-2 (a big difference from 1-1), to the dismay of Hunter and everyone in the Angels dugout. Hunter grounded out on the next pitch, for the 2nd out, and Abreu drew a two-out walk, but the inning ended when Wells struck out on a high fastball. When an umpire bases his decision on whether a pitch is a strike on who is throwing it, and how long the game has been going on [in the hot weather, because he wants to go home] there is a problem.
Thompson pitched well again in the 9th, even though he walked Jackson (I have no idea why they couldn’t throw a strike to a guy who hits about .250 and is their fastest runner) . He retired Santiago, who popped up a bunt, then Dirks hit a fly out to right. Cabrera was called out by West, on a check swing, which made Cabrera angry and forced Leyland out to complain (he was due for that eventually). Once again he refused to ask for help, and it looked like he needed to catch a plane or something… Jose Valverde came in to close the game out for the Tigers and set the Angels down in order, to continue his perfect record in save opportunities, with his 21st save this season. Of course it had to end on another fraudulent call from Joe West, who called Trumbo out on an outside fastball, which was NEVER called a strike when Chatwood threw it, but became a strike since the game was almost over and it was a veteran pitcher on the mound.
Too many walks (8), and one major defensive miscue cost the Angels a chance at a sweep, but they still came away with the series win, to extend their streak to seven straight series victories as they continue their run to take over the lead in their division. Of course, the final two games could have ended differently, and were shrouded with controversy because of egomaniacal umpires who forgot what their job is. Umpires are getting worse, making bad calls, throwing out people because they dare complain (with just cause in most cases), while acting like fans come to the ballpark to see them, and hopefully these facts will bring on the advent of instant replay, so the game isn’t stained by these conceited, inconsistent, and seemingly biased men who think they are beyond criticism. I can’t wait!!
Wins (5-1 + 1-0), Loss 5-4 Record: 46-42
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Aston’s Angels Report [Game 85 vs LA Dodgers- Win]
AAR: Aston’s Angels Report July 3, 2011
Game 85: Just Enough Again Vol. 1, Issue 87
Win 3-1 Record: 44-41
Sunday’s game between the two LA teams marked the end of the Inter-league series for the remainder of the year, and the Angels were looking to continue their dominance over the National League, and continue its overall streak of series wins. The pitchers duel of the series was supposed to be in the last game, with the matchup of Weaver and Kershaw, but it ended up being in Sunday’s game, between Ervin Santana and Chad Billingsley. One threw a complete game and was nearly perfect through the first 6 innings, and the other allowed just one run, which scored on a hit that went in and out of his fielder’s glove.
The Dodgers changed up their lineup, starting with their SS Rafael Furcal coming off the DL, but he was replaced on the list by Casey Blake, with a back strain (and his third time on the DL this season). Matt Kemp was the DH, so Tony Gwynn Jr played CF, and Trent Oeltjen played in LF. Ervin Santana came in with a dismal 3-8 record, but a relatively low ERA of 4.08, and once he found his shard slider, he kept the Dodgers almost silent in this one, but was still in line for the loss, going into the 7th inning stretch.
Santana allowed a two-out double by RF Andre Ethier, who lined a 1-2 slider down the right field line, that bounced into the crowd near the corner, but he induced a groundout by Kemp to end the top of the 1st inning.
The Angels put Bobby Abreu in RF [in place of Torii Hunter], Howie Kendrick continued his position merry-go-round and played 1B, while Russell Branyan took over the DH spot. The Dodgers starter, Chad Billingsley, had a 7-6 record, with a 4.22 ERA, and he didn’t allow a runner to even reach 2nd base until the bottom of the 7th. The Angels literally had one good inning of offense, but that was still enough to squeak out another victory, thanks, once again, to their fine pitching staff. They went down 1-2-3 in their first at-bat, with three weak groundouts, to send the game into the 2nd.
Ervin Santana faced some major adversity in the top of the 2nd, but he came out unscathed and this proved to be one of the biggest innings of the game. 1B James Loney hit the first pitch of the inning for a line drive single into right, and then 3B Aaron Miles hit a 0-1 hanging slider through the hole on the right side for another single into right, and Loney went into 3rd, barely beating the throw from Abreu with a head-first slide. With runners at 1st and 3rd and on outs, Santana fell behind Trent Oeltjen 3-0, then threw three straight strikes for the strikeout, but the Miles stole 2nd base as Oeltjen swung and missed on strike three. With runners now at 2nd and 3rd, with one out, Santana all of a sudden found the release point on his devastating slider, striking out catcher, AJ Ellis, with two good sliders and two weak swings to end that at bat. He finished off the inning with another strikeout, getting 2B Jamey Carroll, looking on a perfect ‘backdoor’ slider over the outside corner, to get out a major jam and keep the scoreless tie.
From that point on, both pitchers only had one inning with any trouble at all. The Angels managed their first base runner in the 2nd, when Kendrick hit a grounder up the middle for a one-out single, but 3B Alberto Callaspo and Branyan made consecutive outs to end the inning. Catcher Hank Conger walked to lead off the 3rd, but he was erased later in the inning on a double play grounder by 2B Maicer Izturis, to end that inning. They went down in order in the 4th, with two strikeouts, and had one base runner on in the 5th, when Branyan walked with two outs, but the inning ended soon thereafter.
The Dodgers only managed one base runner over the next three innings, as Santana settled down and mowed through their lineup with almost no problem. That lone base runner came when Tony Gwynn struck out to lead off the 3rd, on another good slider in the dirt, and reached 1st base on a silly error by the Angels catcher. Hank Conger tagged Gwynn out when he was near the batter’s box, but the umpire ruled that he didn’t, and for some reason Conger didn’t throw the ball to 1st even though he had plenty of time to do so, which was ruled an error for good reason [someone needs to tell him to just throw the damn ball next time.] Gwynn stole 2nd during Furcal’s at-bat, taking advantage of Conger’s poor percentage of caught stealing, even though he made good throws on most of the attempts in this one (Santana gives up a lot of stolen bases no matter who catches really).Furcal struck out on another good slider, for Santana’s fifth straight strikeout, and Ethier grounded out to 2nd to move the runner over to 3rd with two outs. Kemp hit a low 96 MPH fastball deep into right center, but Bourjos chased it down near the warning track…. Santana retired them in order in the 4th and 5th, using his firm fastball and stealth slider to earn three more strikeouts on the way.
The Dodgers scored the game’s first run in the top of the 6th, started by Furcal, who hit the first pitch fastball, on the ground through the right side for a leadoff single. Ethier slapped a sinking liner into left, and Vernon Wells made a good sliding catch after running in to steal a hit away. Furcal stole 2nd during Kemp’s at bat, before he popped up a 2-2 slider for the 2nd out. Loney lined a slider into right center field, that Bourjos ran over to get, but he went for the dive and the ball went in and out of his glove before he hit the ground, and rolled away for an RBI double. He may have been better off trying to stay on his feet, but he is one of few people who could even get to the ball, so it’s hard to say he did anything wrong; he has saved so many hits and runs already with his good defense, and I bet he would catch that 8 out of 10 times. Unfortunately that one allowed a run, and the offense was doing nothing so far, so a 1-0 score wasn’t too far out of the question. Santana nearly let it unravel, first walking Miles to put two runners on, then making an error on the next play, when he caught a grounder by Oeltjen, but tried a long toss, under hand throw (a common brain fart by pitchers) and Kendrick couldn’t handle the low bouncer, so it loaded the bases. He induced the inning-ending grounder from Ellis with another good slider, so the damage was limited to just one run, thankfully.
The Angels went down in order in the bottom of the 6th, forcing Billingsley to only throw 7 pitches, to send Santana back out there way too quickly after the long previous inning. Santana was back in form in the top of the 7th, and retired the Dodgers 1-2-3 again, to keep the game close… The Angels finally did something on offense in the bottom of the 7th, and it ended up deciding the game. Abreu led off with a double down the right field line, much like Ethier’s double in the Dodgers’ first inning, to put a runner in scoring position for the first time all game, for the Angels. Abreu went to 3rd on a slider in the dirt to Wells, then he hit a 3-1 outside fastball on the ground to 2B Carroll, but they were playing back, so the run scored, to tie the score 1-1. Billingsley got ahead of Kendrick, 1-2, but threw a fastball too far inside and hit him across the chest as Howie turned away. Callaspo popped up into short left for the 2nd out, but Russell Branyan followed with the biggest at bat of the game. He worked the count full, and fouled off a couple of pitches, before scolding a low and away 84 MPH changeup (or really bad slider), deep into right center, over the tall wall, for a two-run homerun. Branyan’s first homer as an Angel was a big one, giving them a 3-1 lead late in the game, and it was the game winning hit, as it turned out. Conger struck out to end the inning, but the Angels found a way to put up a 3-spot on the scoreboard, heading into the last two innings.
Torii Hunter came in as defensive replacement in RF, and Santana stayed in to pitch the 8th, with a pitch count of about 101 pitches to start the inning. Ethier hit a fly out to center on another good Santana slider, and then Kemp was called out on a very rare interference call. He chopped a ball that bounced high near the batter’s area, and looked up at the ball as he crossed over home plate, instead of running to 1st base, and Conger crashed into him as he got up to get to the ball while it was out in front of the plate, and the umpire immediately called him out for interference. It was definitely a rare call, and disputable since Kemp was near the batter’s box, but it looked like he was in between the boxes, standing on home plate, and it could have easily been avoided if he ran to the base like a baseball player is supposed to, instead of standing there gawking at the ball like an idiot, so it’s his own fault either way. After a delay for the customary argument and explanation, Loney hit a double off the wall in right center, and that was the last hitter Santana faced. Scott Downs was brought in, and Aaron Miles made it easy on him, hitting the first pitch for an inning-ending groundout.
The Angels went down in order in the bottom of the 8th, as Billingsley finished off what turned out to be an 8-inning complete game (because the Angels didn’t have to bat in the 9th). Jordan Walden came in to close the game out in the 9th, and used his blazing 97+ MPH fastball and occasional slider to end the game quickly. He faced two pinch-hitters, Juan Uribe and Dioner Navarro, but they were no match for his fastball, and barely made contact as Uribe popped out to shallow center and Navarro grounded out to 2nd. Carroll swung at the first pitch 98 MPH pitch and hit an easy fly out right to Wells, to seal the Angels victory.
The Angels ended their interleague schedule with another win, and they certainly hope for another chance to face one more NL team this season, because that would be in the World Series. They took a step closer to that possibility, moving up into a tie for first place in the AL West division, because the Rangers would lose their game on Sunday. Their pitching has carried them most of the way so far, but they have the opportunity to trade for more offense if they want, since they can’t always rely on winning games with such minimal run support. The Angels have now won six straight series, and have been playing well lately, to make up ground, but they still have nearly half a season to go. They still have a bunch of games left against the division rival Rangers, which will go a long way to deciding the division winner, but they have a great chance to contend for the postseason, as it stands right now.
Game 85: Just Enough Again Vol. 1, Issue 87
Win 3-1 Record: 44-41
Sunday’s game between the two LA teams marked the end of the Inter-league series for the remainder of the year, and the Angels were looking to continue their dominance over the National League, and continue its overall streak of series wins. The pitchers duel of the series was supposed to be in the last game, with the matchup of Weaver and Kershaw, but it ended up being in Sunday’s game, between Ervin Santana and Chad Billingsley. One threw a complete game and was nearly perfect through the first 6 innings, and the other allowed just one run, which scored on a hit that went in and out of his fielder’s glove.
The Dodgers changed up their lineup, starting with their SS Rafael Furcal coming off the DL, but he was replaced on the list by Casey Blake, with a back strain (and his third time on the DL this season). Matt Kemp was the DH, so Tony Gwynn Jr played CF, and Trent Oeltjen played in LF. Ervin Santana came in with a dismal 3-8 record, but a relatively low ERA of 4.08, and once he found his shard slider, he kept the Dodgers almost silent in this one, but was still in line for the loss, going into the 7th inning stretch.
Santana allowed a two-out double by RF Andre Ethier, who lined a 1-2 slider down the right field line, that bounced into the crowd near the corner, but he induced a groundout by Kemp to end the top of the 1st inning.
The Angels put Bobby Abreu in RF [in place of Torii Hunter], Howie Kendrick continued his position merry-go-round and played 1B, while Russell Branyan took over the DH spot. The Dodgers starter, Chad Billingsley, had a 7-6 record, with a 4.22 ERA, and he didn’t allow a runner to even reach 2nd base until the bottom of the 7th. The Angels literally had one good inning of offense, but that was still enough to squeak out another victory, thanks, once again, to their fine pitching staff. They went down 1-2-3 in their first at-bat, with three weak groundouts, to send the game into the 2nd.
Ervin Santana faced some major adversity in the top of the 2nd, but he came out unscathed and this proved to be one of the biggest innings of the game. 1B James Loney hit the first pitch of the inning for a line drive single into right, and then 3B Aaron Miles hit a 0-1 hanging slider through the hole on the right side for another single into right, and Loney went into 3rd, barely beating the throw from Abreu with a head-first slide. With runners at 1st and 3rd and on outs, Santana fell behind Trent Oeltjen 3-0, then threw three straight strikes for the strikeout, but the Miles stole 2nd base as Oeltjen swung and missed on strike three. With runners now at 2nd and 3rd, with one out, Santana all of a sudden found the release point on his devastating slider, striking out catcher, AJ Ellis, with two good sliders and two weak swings to end that at bat. He finished off the inning with another strikeout, getting 2B Jamey Carroll, looking on a perfect ‘backdoor’ slider over the outside corner, to get out a major jam and keep the scoreless tie.
From that point on, both pitchers only had one inning with any trouble at all. The Angels managed their first base runner in the 2nd, when Kendrick hit a grounder up the middle for a one-out single, but 3B Alberto Callaspo and Branyan made consecutive outs to end the inning. Catcher Hank Conger walked to lead off the 3rd, but he was erased later in the inning on a double play grounder by 2B Maicer Izturis, to end that inning. They went down in order in the 4th, with two strikeouts, and had one base runner on in the 5th, when Branyan walked with two outs, but the inning ended soon thereafter.
The Dodgers only managed one base runner over the next three innings, as Santana settled down and mowed through their lineup with almost no problem. That lone base runner came when Tony Gwynn struck out to lead off the 3rd, on another good slider in the dirt, and reached 1st base on a silly error by the Angels catcher. Hank Conger tagged Gwynn out when he was near the batter’s box, but the umpire ruled that he didn’t, and for some reason Conger didn’t throw the ball to 1st even though he had plenty of time to do so, which was ruled an error for good reason [someone needs to tell him to just throw the damn ball next time.] Gwynn stole 2nd during Furcal’s at-bat, taking advantage of Conger’s poor percentage of caught stealing, even though he made good throws on most of the attempts in this one (Santana gives up a lot of stolen bases no matter who catches really).Furcal struck out on another good slider, for Santana’s fifth straight strikeout, and Ethier grounded out to 2nd to move the runner over to 3rd with two outs. Kemp hit a low 96 MPH fastball deep into right center, but Bourjos chased it down near the warning track…. Santana retired them in order in the 4th and 5th, using his firm fastball and stealth slider to earn three more strikeouts on the way.
The Dodgers scored the game’s first run in the top of the 6th, started by Furcal, who hit the first pitch fastball, on the ground through the right side for a leadoff single. Ethier slapped a sinking liner into left, and Vernon Wells made a good sliding catch after running in to steal a hit away. Furcal stole 2nd during Kemp’s at bat, before he popped up a 2-2 slider for the 2nd out. Loney lined a slider into right center field, that Bourjos ran over to get, but he went for the dive and the ball went in and out of his glove before he hit the ground, and rolled away for an RBI double. He may have been better off trying to stay on his feet, but he is one of few people who could even get to the ball, so it’s hard to say he did anything wrong; he has saved so many hits and runs already with his good defense, and I bet he would catch that 8 out of 10 times. Unfortunately that one allowed a run, and the offense was doing nothing so far, so a 1-0 score wasn’t too far out of the question. Santana nearly let it unravel, first walking Miles to put two runners on, then making an error on the next play, when he caught a grounder by Oeltjen, but tried a long toss, under hand throw (a common brain fart by pitchers) and Kendrick couldn’t handle the low bouncer, so it loaded the bases. He induced the inning-ending grounder from Ellis with another good slider, so the damage was limited to just one run, thankfully.
The Angels went down in order in the bottom of the 6th, forcing Billingsley to only throw 7 pitches, to send Santana back out there way too quickly after the long previous inning. Santana was back in form in the top of the 7th, and retired the Dodgers 1-2-3 again, to keep the game close… The Angels finally did something on offense in the bottom of the 7th, and it ended up deciding the game. Abreu led off with a double down the right field line, much like Ethier’s double in the Dodgers’ first inning, to put a runner in scoring position for the first time all game, for the Angels. Abreu went to 3rd on a slider in the dirt to Wells, then he hit a 3-1 outside fastball on the ground to 2B Carroll, but they were playing back, so the run scored, to tie the score 1-1. Billingsley got ahead of Kendrick, 1-2, but threw a fastball too far inside and hit him across the chest as Howie turned away. Callaspo popped up into short left for the 2nd out, but Russell Branyan followed with the biggest at bat of the game. He worked the count full, and fouled off a couple of pitches, before scolding a low and away 84 MPH changeup (or really bad slider), deep into right center, over the tall wall, for a two-run homerun. Branyan’s first homer as an Angel was a big one, giving them a 3-1 lead late in the game, and it was the game winning hit, as it turned out. Conger struck out to end the inning, but the Angels found a way to put up a 3-spot on the scoreboard, heading into the last two innings.
Torii Hunter came in as defensive replacement in RF, and Santana stayed in to pitch the 8th, with a pitch count of about 101 pitches to start the inning. Ethier hit a fly out to center on another good Santana slider, and then Kemp was called out on a very rare interference call. He chopped a ball that bounced high near the batter’s area, and looked up at the ball as he crossed over home plate, instead of running to 1st base, and Conger crashed into him as he got up to get to the ball while it was out in front of the plate, and the umpire immediately called him out for interference. It was definitely a rare call, and disputable since Kemp was near the batter’s box, but it looked like he was in between the boxes, standing on home plate, and it could have easily been avoided if he ran to the base like a baseball player is supposed to, instead of standing there gawking at the ball like an idiot, so it’s his own fault either way. After a delay for the customary argument and explanation, Loney hit a double off the wall in right center, and that was the last hitter Santana faced. Scott Downs was brought in, and Aaron Miles made it easy on him, hitting the first pitch for an inning-ending groundout.
The Angels went down in order in the bottom of the 8th, as Billingsley finished off what turned out to be an 8-inning complete game (because the Angels didn’t have to bat in the 9th). Jordan Walden came in to close the game out in the 9th, and used his blazing 97+ MPH fastball and occasional slider to end the game quickly. He faced two pinch-hitters, Juan Uribe and Dioner Navarro, but they were no match for his fastball, and barely made contact as Uribe popped out to shallow center and Navarro grounded out to 2nd. Carroll swung at the first pitch 98 MPH pitch and hit an easy fly out right to Wells, to seal the Angels victory.
The Angels ended their interleague schedule with another win, and they certainly hope for another chance to face one more NL team this season, because that would be in the World Series. They took a step closer to that possibility, moving up into a tie for first place in the AL West division, because the Rangers would lose their game on Sunday. Their pitching has carried them most of the way so far, but they have the opportunity to trade for more offense if they want, since they can’t always rely on winning games with such minimal run support. The Angels have now won six straight series, and have been playing well lately, to make up ground, but they still have nearly half a season to go. They still have a bunch of games left against the division rival Rangers, which will go a long way to deciding the division winner, but they have a great chance to contend for the postseason, as it stands right now.
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