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.
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