Aston’s Angels Report [Game 83 vs LA Dodgers- Loss]

              AAR: Aston’s Angels Report                   July 1, 2011
              Game 83: Offensive No-Show                Vol. 1, Issue 85
                                     Loss 5-0 Record: 42-41

Seeking to extend their three-game winning streak and continue their dominance over the hometown rival LA Dodgers, the Angels looked like they were still on their day off. Their offense did only score one run on Wednesday in the series finale, but rode the coattails of Dan Haren to a 1-0 victory, but they fell behind early and didn’t even come close to notching a tally on the scoreboard in this one. The Angels’ Tyler Chatwood gave up a bunch of hits, even though most of them weren’t hit very hard, while the Angels failed to get more than one runner on base [at the same time] in an inning against the Dodgers’ starter Hiroki Kuroda.
　
The Dodgers scored a run in each of the first four innings, en route to their most lopsided victory over the Angels in a couple of years. Chatwood pitched well in his last start, against the same Dodgers, making his record 5-4, with a 3.64 ERA coming in to Friday’s game. Probably the most well-hit ball of the game against Chatwood, was when LF Tony Gwynn, Jr. led off game with a line drive into right center, that rolled to the wall for a double. 3B Casey Blake laid down a surprise sacrifice bunt, testing Maicer Izturis in his first game in a while at 3B, and he made a good running bare-handed-pick-up-and-throw for the out. RF Andre Ethier hit a high changeup, into left center and Vernon Wells made a good running catch, but Gwynn scored easy on the sacrifice fly. Chatwood jammed CF Matt Kemp with a good fastball, but he blooped one into center for a single, before 1B James Loney hit a fly out to left.
　
Hiroki Huroda pitched well in his last start against the Angels too, but he was hit with the loss, despite only allowing two runs in his outing, which has been a common occurrence, as indicated by his low 3.10 ERA and contradictory 5-9. His offense gave him some early support today and he made it hold up, with a sneaky fast 91-94 MPH fastball and a variety of off-speed pitches. After Izturis led off with a fly out to center, Kuroda hit RF Torii Hunter in the left hand with a fastball. After some time with the trainer, he convinced his manager, Mike Scioscia, to leave him in the game, so he went to 1^st base. They tried a hit-and-run play, with Bobby Abreu at the plate on a 2-1 pitch, but Kuroda threw a cut fastball that darted in under Abreu’s hands so he couldn’t make contact, and Torii Hunter was thrown out at 2^nd by so much that he stopped half way and tried to get into a run down, but it was an easy out. Abreu worked the count full, as usual, and whacked a fastball back up the middle for a single. Wells popped out to the SS to end the inning, so the Angels did have two men on, but not at the same time, and that would be as close as they would come against Kuroda.
　
Dodgers 2^nd baseman, Aaron Miles, led off the 2^nd with a soft liner up the middle, punching the hanging first pitch curveball for another leadoff hit. The DH, Trent Oeltjen swung at his first pitch and hit the fastball for an easy fly out, then the catcher AJ Ellis struck out, swinging on a curveball low and away. SS Dee Gordon, the 9^th place hitter now, reached out and slapped a high 2-2 fastball down the 3^rd base line, for an RBI single, as Wells was guarding the line so Gordon couldn’t stretch it into a double even with his speed, but the important thing was the 2-0 score. Gwynn was jammed by another good inside fastball from Chatwood, but it floated over the jumping attempt by Izturis, into left field for single. Blake hit a fly ball to left, to end the inning, but allowing leadoff men to reach base would be the trend for Chatwood, and the Angels paid for it, in this one.
　
The Angels got their leadoff man on in the bottom of the 2^nd, when 2B Howie Kendrick tapped a fastball off the end of his bat towards 3^rd, that rolled in for an infield single. Aybar swung at the first pitch, trying to pull it, but instead hit another cue shot off the end of the bat, and Kuroda made the throw to 1^st for the out. Kendrick was now at 2^nd and moved to 3^rd on a fly out by 1B Mark Trumbo to center, but the catcher Hank Conger popped out to end the inning. Earlier in the week, the Angels were able to capitalize on a bunch of bloopers and broken-bat base hits in their win over the Nationals, and today they saw the Dodgers do the same to them, while they failed to do anything at all.
　
Torii Hunter didn’t come out to play in the top of the 3^rd, as that fastball off of his hand, must have been too painful (but hopefully doesn’t prove to be debilitating) to stay in the game. Alberto Callaspo came into the game, to hit in his spot, shifting over a bunch of fielder into new positions; Izturis to 2^nd, Kendrick out to LF, and Vernon Wells over to RF. Ethier continued the streak of lead off hitters on base, with a line drive single into right field, then Kemp tried to hit the first pitch curveball and tapped one off the end of his bat back to Chatwood who could only get the out at 1^st. Loney hit a fly out to center on a good low changeup, but Aaron Miles came through with a bloop single to left on a high fastball, for another two-out RBI by the Dodgers and a 3-0 lead. Aybar dropped a strong throw from Conger to attempt to catch Miles trying to steal at 2^nd, which would have been an out if he caught the throw cleanly, so the Angels decided to intentionally walk Oeltjen to put two men on, and face the light-hitting catcher AJ Ellis. After a wild pitch allowed both runners to move up a base, he made the last out of the inning, flying out to right, but once again the leadoff man got on and scored a run....Kuroda threw three straight sliders to CF Peter Bourjos, and he struck out leading off the 3^rd, before Izturis got on base with a one-out walk. Callaspo had his first at-bat since coming in last inning, and popped up a fastball in the infield for the second out. Abreu worked another full count, which is almost a given nowadays, but grounded out to 1^st to end the inning.
　
In the top of the 4^th, the Dodgers didn’t get their leadoff man on for the first time all game, but they still continued their scoring streak anyway. Gordon led off with a groundout to 1^st, the Tony Gwynn laid down a perfect drag bunt down towards 1^st, that rolled past the pitcher and wasn’t even touched until he had already run past the base with an infield single. It was his third hit of the game already, and he ended up with a perfect day from the leadoff position in this one. Blake hit a groundball to 3^rd, and Callaspo went to his left, then spun to make the throw, but threw it low, so it bounced about thirty feet from first base and got away from Trumbo, allowing Gwynn to run to 3^rd on his 10^th error of the year. With runners at 1^st and 3^rd, Chatwood got ahead of Ethier 0-2 but his inside fastball didn’t tail over the inner edge like it was supposed to and instead made a left turn into Ethier’s leg, for a very poorly timed hit-by-pitch, to load the bases. Kemp hit a fly out to right, but Wells did a terrible job of gathering any momentum before he made the throw home, and Gwynn scored on the sacrifice fly, for a 4-0 lead. It looked like he was going to back up and try to run in and make the throw with momentum (like a good outfielder would do) but he took a step forward then caught it and made a flat-footed throw home, instead, so he had no chance at all to make the play. He did make a good play on the very next hitter to save a couple of runs, when James Loney bid for another bloop hit, but Wells ran in and made a sliding catch near the line in shallow left.
　
The Angels offense showed little signs of life, managing only one base runner over the next four innings. In the 4^th, they went down in order, as Wells waived at an 0-2 slider to strikeout, Kendrick flied out to left on another slider, and Aybar hit a lineout to 3^rd … In their 5^th inning Trumbo struck out on a 94 MPH sinker down and in, Conger grounded out to 1^st on a high fastball, but Kuroda made a mistake with a hanging high slider to Bourjos who finally got one to hit and lined one to left, that bounced over the wall for a ground rule double. Izturis popped out to the SS to end the inning, and strand the runner in scoring position, and they didn’t see many of those chances today…. In the 6^th, they went down in order again, as Callaspo grounded out to 3^rd on the first pitch he saw, then Abreu flew out to left, and Wells hit another can of corn to center, to end another quick inning.
　
Meanwhile, the Dodgers weren’t putting together anything on offense either, but they had their chances. In the top of the 5^th, Miles got his third hit of the game hitting an 0-2 fastball past the diving attempt of Izturis into left, and then Oeltjen blooped in a single to left to join the hit parade. Ellis bunted the runners up to the next base, but Gordon hit a shallow fly ball to center on the first pitch curveball so they couldn’t score. Gwynn continued his stellar night, with a walk, taking a 3-2 curveball down low, to load the bases, but Blake grounded out to end the inning and leave them loaded… In the 6^th, Ethier doubled down the RF line on a hanging 1-2 curveball, and that was Chatwood’s last hitter faced. He was replaced by Bobby Cassevah, and he induced a groundout to 3^rd from Matt Kemp, then Loney hit one to 1^st for the second out. Miles had a good day at the plate, too, and this time he drew a four-pitch walk, to put two men on, but Cassevah struck out Oeltjen on a curveball in the dirt, to end the inning.
　
In the top of the 7^th, the Dodgers pushed across their last run of the night, on another rally ignited by a lead off man reaching base. Cassevah made it a painful trot to 1^st base, hitting AJ Ellis with a fastball on the elbow, which the Dodgers would apparently took offense to, according to their actions later in the game (stay tuned). Gordon hit a grounder back to Cassevah and he threw to 2^nd for the out, but Gordon was too fast for the double play, which he would prove later on in the inning. First, he stole 2^nd base during Gwynn’s at bat, before Gwynn drew another walk. With Blake up to hit, Hank Conger tried a pick off throw to 1^st [one of the pet plays for all Angels catchers] but Gordon ran to 3^rd as soon as he saw Conger make the move to throw and slid into 3^rd easily. Then Gwynn ran to 2^nd on a stolen base attempt and stopped to get held up in a rundown, and Gordon ran home and slid in safely ahead of the throw, essentially stealing a run with his speed, to earn the 5-0 lead. It looked like Gwynn was tagged out as he dove [out of the baseline, too] to avoid the tag Aybar tried to apply before he threw home, but he was ruled safe, so it was a broken play all the way around. Blake was still up, and he eventually walked, prompting Scioscia to come out and pull Cassevah, replacing him with Rich Thompson. He struck out both Ethier and Kemp, to get out of the inning, but it was too little too late.
　
Kendrick led off the bottom of the 7^th lining out to right, and then Aybar grounded out to 2^nd for the quick second out. Kuroda’s first pitch to Trumbo nearly hit him on the knee as he backed away from the fastball nearly two feet inside. The next two pitches were sliders away, and then Kuroda threw another fastball, aimed at Trumbo’s legs and nailed him with it this time. Conger struck out to end the inning, but let’s get back to that HBP on Trumbo. [Editorial commentary upcoming; beware]. It certainly looked like a purpose, retaliation-type pitch, which prompted the umpire to warn both sides, and really pissed of Scioscia who was yelling out from the dugout with disgust throughout the rest of the inning. Kuroda didn’t miss that badly throughout the game and it looked like he was aiming both of those balls right at Trumbo’s kneecaps, so it was definitely on purpose. Since they were winning 5-0, I can only conclude that the Dodgers were retaliating for the pitch that hit Ellis on the elbow to lead off the top of the 6^th, because if the HBP by Ethier came on an 0-2 count with two runners on, so to think he wanted to hit Ethier in that situation would be asinine…..

[Complaint time] Players already take offense way too much when a pitcher throws the ball inside, yelling out at the pitcher and threatening to charge the mound like a mad child if someone happens to throw a few fastballs inside, which I find ridiculous and uncalled for, like I complained about the last time the Dodgers played the Angels, when Blake took offense to a fastball that was inside and high [how dare he!!]. Some of these players either didn’t watch baseball growing up, forgot how baseball is supposed to be played, or think they’re somehow above it all and should be treated differently because they want to be able to dive across the plate without the threat of a pitch buzzing by their shoulder. Retaliation has been part of the game since its inception, as it has been a part of human nature, but I think baseball teams like the Dodgers need to learn how and when to institute their retaliation tactics a little better. First off [assuming they aren’t dumb enough to retaliate for the HBP to Ethier], it was, in all likelihood, an accidental hit-by-pitch to Ellis because Cassevah isn’t a pinpoint pitcher (like Kuroda, for example), and his elbow dropped as he threw it which made the ball tail into the hitter. In some case, there is bad blood between teams, and some of those hit-batsmen are on purpose to retaliate for previous issues, but I don’t understand this desire to hit another player just because one of your players was, especially when there is nothing to suggest that is was on purpose. Retaliation is supposed to be a counteraction when the other team is purposefully trying to hurt your teammate (like on a slide into a base, if not a pitch), or if a when a hitter flips his bat like an ass or does a little dance when he hits a homer or something like that to show up the other team, which reeks of unprofessionalism and isn‘t tolerated by most. Secondly, the Angels’ Torii Hunter was hit by a pitch in the 1^st and removed from the game with a possible serious injury, so if anyone felt the need to retaliate, it should have been the Angels. In other words, even if the Dodgers want to think that HBP to Ellis was intentional, that one just evened up the theoretical score (one hit-batter each). I don’t think Ellis’ HBP was on purpose, even though it came after Hunter was removed with his injury, because the Angels coaches don’t typically teach that kind of mentality. I think the Dodgers acted like punks for no reason, and quite frankly, their childish and unprofessional actions deserve some retaliation from the Angels in the next game, to teach them a lesson, but I bet they won’t stoop down to that level even though it would be warranted in some players’ minds…..
　
Anyway, on to the rest of the game. Trevor Bell came in to pitch the 8^th, and stayed in for the rest of the game for the Angels. He allowed a one-out single to Miles- his 4^th hit of the game, but retired Oeltjen and Ellis on grounders to end the end the inning… Mike MacDougal replaced Kuroda on the mound for the Dodgers, which was a welcomed sight for the Angels. Bourjos led off and hit a line drive back up the middle, but it hit MacDougal’s legs and didn’t bounce far away so he picked it up and threw him out at 1^st. Izturis hit a soft liner into left for a single, and \Callaspo hit a grounder through the left side to finally get two men on base at the same time, with just one out. Abreu worked the count full, after being down 0-2, but he grounded out to 1st, and then Wells grounded out to SS to end the inning….After Gordon grounded out for the first out, Gwynn walked in the top of the 9^th, for his 6^th time on base (3 hits, 3 walks in 6 at bats), but Blake and Ethier both flied out to end that inning… Javy Guerra came in to pitch the bottom of the 9^th, and allowed a lead off single by Kendrick on a line drive to right. Aybar popped out, Trumbo grounded out, and Conger struck out, to complete the shutout loss.
　
The Angels had little to no chance in this one, because their offense just didn’t do much, but that is sometimes the way it goes. Sometimes those hits fall in, like they did for the Dodgers today, and like they did for the Angels against the Nationals in the first game of their recent series, and sometimes they just don’t. In the last two games, their offense has reverted back to their poor-hitting, low-scoring ways at home, that led to a below-.500 mark and terrible hitting stats at home for most of this season, but luckily they did win one of those games so it doesn’t look so bad. They need to snap out of it to get back into the winning ways, winning 8 of the last 10 games coming into this series. Saturday’s game rekindles the great pitching match-up between two of the best starters in baseball, Jared Weaver and Clayton Kershaw, so the both teams will have to pass a tough test to win.