Aston’s Angels Report [Game 73 @NYM- Win]

                           AAR: Aston’s Angels Report                          June 19, 2011
                           Game 73: Chatwood Does It All                   Vol. 1, Issue 75
                                                      Win 7-3 Record: 35-38

Baseball has brought many fathers and sons closer for decades upon decades, so many people celebrated Father’s Day at the baseball parks on Sunday, for good reason. For many of us, baseball (or sports in general) is one of the few constants that a son can talk about with his father, without any consequence or argument and helps initiate conversation in what has become a distant relationship, and I certainly appreciate that aspect as well. Tyler Chatwood started for the Angels, now with a cemented position in the Angels rotation with the release of Scott Kazmir a few days ago. He pitched brilliantly, throwing seven shutout innings, despite allowing the leadoff man on base in four of them. The Mets had their left handed starter Jonathon Niese on the mound, who had a 6-5 record and 3.46 ERA, and came in with an ERA under 2 in his last 8 starts. I assumed he would give the Angels trouble because of their recent offensive woes against lefties, but you know what happens when you assume, especially in baseball.
　
The Mets used a lineup similar to that of game 1, with Ruben Tejada playing 2^nd base, Justin Turner back at 3B, and Daniel Murphy playing 1^st, but the catcher was Josh Thole instead of Paulino. The Angels took Bobby Abreu out of the lineup, moving Wells back to left, and Bourjos back to his familiar CF position, to bolster the defense significantly. With Chatwood forced to hit in the National League park, Bourjos hit 7^th and the catcher Jeff Mathis hit 8^th as the strategy all changes with the pitchers in a lineup.
　
The Angels didn’t waste any time getting on the board and staked their young pitcher with early run support before he even had to make a pitch. 3B Maicer Izturis blooped a single into shallow center, on a 1-2 belt-high fastball. The CF Angel Pagan didn’t see the ball right away so he got a late start, and the 2B Tejada couldn’t run out there in time, so it dropped between the two for a lucky single. The luck seemed to change, when SS Erick Aybar followed with a terrible bunt, popped up in the air for an easy catch by the 3^rd baseman Turner. Izturis went to 2^nd on a high pitch, missed by the catcher, ruled a passed ball during the at bat of RF Torii Hunter, which at least ruled out another groundball double play. It turned out to be a big play, because Hunter grounded out to 3^rd, and Wells got to hit with the runner on 2^nd, instead of the inning ending, and he came through with a clutch two single, shooting the first pitch fastball the other way into right field, to score Izturis and make it 1-0. 2B Howie Kendrick hit a deep fly out to center, but the ballpark is gigantic so it was just an out.
　
Chatwood didn’t have very many easy innings, but he still didn’t seem to be in significant trouble in any inning, either, if that makes any sense. After getting the speedy SS Jose Reyes on a grounder, Turner pulled an inside fastball into the right field corner for a double. Chatwood missed badly on most of the pitches to Beltran and walked him on five pitches, but it looked like it was planned, as the next hitter, Daniel Murphy, hit a grounder to Aybar, who made a great stop and backhanded glove flip to Izturis to turn the double play, and end the inning.
　
In most games, you can point to one inning that changed the outcome of the game, and the 2^nd inning was it on Sunday. Mark Trumbo led off with a bloop single into center, as he broke his bat on a good 0-2 inside fastball. Peter Bourjos hit another inside fastball, on the ground back up the middle for a single. Normally with runners on 1^st and 2^nd, and no outs, Jeff Mathis would be bunting, but not with the pitcher on deck, so he got the chance to hit instead. After working the count full he struck out on a high fastball that would have been ball four if he hadn’t swung. Chatwood came up and laid down a good sacrifice bunt to advance the two runners. Izturis probably had the biggest at bat of the game even though it doesn’t even show up as one in the box score; he was down 0-2 and fouled off 3 or 4 pitches, before taking a ball, then the 1-2 pitch was an inside fastball that hit him on the hip, putting him on 1^st and loading the bases. As his first at bat showed, where he couldn’t even get a bunt on the ground, Aybar has been slumping for a while, so few would expect him to get the game breaking hit of the game. 1B David Murphy was playing far off the base, with Aybar hitting right handed, but he swung at the first pitch and punched a hard groundball down that line, for a two-out, bases-clearing triple. The score now was 4-0, and even though Aybar got the hit, Izturis staying alive with an 0-2 count to see more pitches and eventually get hit with a pitch, allowed it to happen. Aybar had a pretty bad game in the field and at the plate, on Saturday, so it was good to see him bounce back and contribute in this one, too.
　
Chatwood had a favorable cushion to work with, but he didn’t make things easy on himself in most of the innings. He started the 2^nd by walking CF Angel Pagan, on what has eerily become his trademark, four-pitch walk. LF Jason Bay struck out swinging on a good high fastball, but the catcher, Thole, slapped a single through the hole on the left side to put two men on with one out. Chatwood got out of it, striking out the 8^th place hitter, Tejada, with a great 0-2 fastball that moved inside and off the plate by the time he swung and missed, and then the pitcher Niese was caught looking on a 1-2 fastball over the outer edge, to end the threat.


Both pitchers had 1-2-3 shutdown innings in the 3^rd, but the Mets had a highlight play in the defensive half, as Reyes made all three outs. Vernon Wells led off the inning, hitting a hard grounder into the hole between SS and 3^rd, but Reyes dove for it, got up quickly, and fired the ball from the outfield grass to 1^st, to get Wells out at 1^st on a great play. The other two grounders were more routine, but it didn’t carry any momentum for him on the offensive side, as he led off the bottom of the 3^rd, flying out to left center (after Chatwood fell behind 3-0, but battled back to a full count). Turner grounded out and Beltran struck out swinging at a 95 MPH fastball, to end the inning.


Bourjos led off the 4^th, with a single into right field, using a good short swing to hit an 0-2 curveball the other way (a welcomed sight from a player who strikes out way too often for how fast he is). They couldn’t capitalize though, as Mathis popped out, Chatwood laid down another sacrifice bunt and Izturis struck out. Chatwood threw another shutdown inning, in the bottom of the 4^th, using his heavy fastball to get three easy outs, and send the game into the 5^th, halfway home to a victory.


Erick Aybar hit a groundball to 3^rd and got on board to lead off the 5th, on another error by Turner who overthrew to 1^st (third error of the series) way over the head of Murphy. Hunter was jammed by a good 1-2 inside fastball but he managed to get enough of it to hit a soft liner to center and Aybar aggressively went from 1^st to 3^rd base on the play. Vernon Wells drove home another run, as he stayed back on a 1-0 curveball and went back up the middle with a line drive single, to make it 5-0 Angels. That was the end of the outing for Jonathon Niese, as former Angels manager Terry Collins made his way out to the mound, bringing in DJ Carrasco to finish off the inning. He came into a tough situation, with runners at 1^st and 2^nd, and no outs, but he struck out Kendrick, got Trumbo on a grounder to 1^st, and ended the inning, getting Bourjos to groundout to the SS, to give his team a chance.
　
The Mets got their leadoff man on base again, in the 5^th, when Josh Thole drew a walk, and things got a little scary when Tejada hit a grounder that Aybar went to the ground to stop in plenty of time to get a double play, but he couldn’t get the ball out his glove, and both runners were safe. Chatwood squirmed out of this jam, too, getting three straight easy fly ball outs to end the inning, and keep the 5-0 lead in tact. The Mets changed pitchers again in the 6^th, bringing in Manny Acosta, but he was greeted rudely by Jeff Mathis, who whacked his 2^nd homerun of the year down the left field line, to increase the lead to 6. Chatwood followed that by blooping a 1-0 fastball into center for his first big-league hit, in what was technically his first at-bat (since the first two were sacrifices). Izturis hit into a double play and Aybar struck out to end the inning, but the Angels had a comfortable lead.
　
Chatwood walked another leadoff man, the third one of the game, giving Beltran the free pass to start the bottom of the 6^th. Once again he worked out of it, getting the next three hitters to hit easy fly outs putting their spacious ballpark to use, and send the game into the final stretch… The Angels added one more run, when Vernon Wells yanked a letter-high fastball over the tall wall in left field for a solo homerun. It was his 3^rd hit of the game and 3^rd RBI as well, as he is showing signs of getting on track at the plate. Kendrick struck out and Trumbo grounded out, but it was 7-0 going into the 7^th inning stretch.
　
Chatwood allowed another leadoff man to reach, as Thole hit another opposite field single through the hole on the left side of the infield for a single. Chatwood plowed through the next three hitters once again, getting two groundballs with a fly out in between, to cap off his excellent outing. He went 7 strong innings, allowing only 4 hits, but he had 4 walks to go along with 4 strikeouts, as well as his first major league hit. He allowed too many leadoff men to reach, but he bore down and shut down the Mets offense in each inning.
　
Pedro Beato came in to pitch the top of the 8^th for the Mets, and retired the Angels in order, in an inconsequential inning. Bobby Cassevah was called upon to relieve Chatwood to pitch the 8^th. He walked Beltran with one out, then got Murphy on a fly out, before walking Pagan to put two on with two outs. Bay struck out to end the inning, once again negating the walks in the inning by an Angels pitcher.
　
Izturis walked to leadoff the top of the 9^th, but a double play grounder by Aybar quickly thwarted that threat, and another grounder by Hunter ended the inning. The Angels were looking for 7-0 shutout going into the bottom of the 9^th, but they managed to make it more interesting than it should have been. Cassevah remained in as pitcher, and retired Thole on a flyout to right to lead off the inning. He then allowed three straight singles to Tejada, pinch-hitter Jason Pridie, and Jose Reyes to put the Mets on the scoreboard finally, now down 7-1. After Reyes went to 2^nd on a non-stolen base, putting runners at 2^nd and 3^rd, Turner hit a grounder to 2^nd, scoring another run. Beltran, perhaps sick of walking, followed that by hitting the first pitch he saw into right field for a line drive single, to make it 7-3. Scioscia had to make a move and bring in Scott Downs, and had their closer warm up just in case, but the panic was short-lived. Pinch hitter, Scott Hairston grounded out to Aybar, on a close play at 1^st (if Vernon Wells was out on the play in the 3^rd, then he was out here, so they can’t complain really), to end the game, and secure the series win for the Angels.

With the exception of the final at bat, when the game was basically in the scorebook as a victory already, the Angels pitching silenced the Mets offense (especially with men on base). Chatwood earned his 4^th win of the year, pushing his record to .500, a mark the team hopes to reach soon. Ironically enough, considering his issues getting the other innings’ leadoff men out, Chatwood managed to get their best hitter and leadoff man, Jose Reyes, out leading off in two different innings. It seemed like he just had trouble with his control to start innings, because afterwards he was stellar, often retiring the next three in order to eliminate any chances for a rally. With their 2nd consecutive series win on this road trip, making up for their horrible home stand, and making up ground in the AL West as they edge closer to the Rangers. The road trip now goes to Florida to face the Marlins, who hopefully continue their long losing streak.