Just want to start with the fact that the Canucks will be battling the Blues in round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs starting on April 15 at 7:00 pm on Versus. Can't wait.
Meanwhile, the Angels stepped up to the plate on Easter Sunday, and busted the Red Sox with another narrow win 5-4. This game had it all. A bench clearing non-brawl that got multiple players ejected (all from the Angels, by the way), a Vlad home run for insurance, and even a Brain Fuentes allowed run in the ninth before earning the tight save #2 on the year. In the end, it was a big series win that would get our boys back to the .500 mark after a six game home stand.
With Dustin Moseley hitting the bump against Josh Beckett, most Angels fans felt pretty hopeless about this rubber match. When J.D. Drew and Kevin Youkilis hit back to back jacks in the second inning, it seemed like that sentiment would be correct. However, it didn't take long for the Halos to get back into the game, as the bottom of the third was an inning they made good on. After getting a couple of speedsters on base, HK-47 got a base knock scoring Ma$e followed up by a base knock by Bobby Abreu that scored both Chone Figgins and Howie. A nice 3-2 lead would get even better in the fifth when Howie would push Izzy home again with another single (he got tossed at second, but let's not focus on that). With all this offense going on, Du-Mo was actually pitching pretty well, finishing with 5.67 innings of 3 run ball (2 earned) with 3 punch outs and just 2 walks. The Sox would get a third run in the sixth on some weird throwing mishap, but Vlad's jack in the eighth against Lopez helped Angels fans feel pretty secure. Of course, Brian Fuentes being the new Frankie also means that he likes to make things pretty damned exciting. David Ortiz earned himself a RBI on a single scoring Nick Green, and with two outs the Red Sox had two on and a chance to pull off a comeback. Luckily, our lefty save machine was able to shut the door, and earn his second save in the 5-4 win.
Time for the LSF "Plums & Bums" segment of the post. First off, the Hitting Plums: Howie went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI, Vlad went 2 for 4 with a jack, and Ma$e went 2 for 3 while scoring twice. The Pitching Plums: Dustin Moseley's 5.67 innings of 2 earned run ball had to give him some happiness and Jose Arredondo went 1.3 innings of shutout ball to get his fourth hold of the year. Next is the Hitting Bums: Kendry Morales finished the afternoon 0 for 4, Nap went 0 for 3, and good ol' JR went 0 for 3. Pitching bums: Scot Shields and Brian Fuentes may have gotten away with their bad pitching, but Shields walked the bases loaded before getting out of his jam and Brian Fuentes proved that we really needed that Vlad insurance jack with his tough ninth inning work. Huge bum awards goes out to Ed Rapuano, who did not really handle the non-brawl very well. After Beckett threw at the head of Abreu, Rapuano ejected Mike Scioscia, Mickey Hatcher, Torii Hunter, and Justin Speier. Wait, none of the Red Sox got tossed? Oh, Rapuano is a native of New Haven, Connecticut. No wonder. New England bastards!
The Angels have the day off on Monday before getting back to action on Tuesday against the hated Seattle Mariners. After a 1-0 win against the A's on Sunday, the Mariners raised their division lead with their 5-2 record to 1.5 games, and they are buzzing with a +10 run differential. Meanwhile, at 3-3 our Angels are 1.5 games back of those hot Moosers with a run differential of just +2. This time the Angels will throw Shane Loux, finally getting his first start of the year. Loux hasn't started a game in the bigs since 2003 with the Tigers, but he has clearly had a resergence with the Red Hats organization to leave behind hid 1-4, 6.41 career mark. The M's counter with Carlos Silva, who is 0-1 with a 10.80 ERA thus far. The Twins really got to Silva in his season opener, as he only went 5 innings and allowed a .348 BAA. The Angels sluggers hope to take advantage, as Abreu hits .643 in his career off of Silva, Aybar hits .667, Figgy hits .355, Napoli hits .500, and my man Howie Kendrick has a .714 mark against the Mariners hurler. The question is, will the sinker ball of Shane Loux be able to dominate the red hot Mariners lineup? Let's hope so.
Just to give love to the LSF's hockey teams that made the playoffs, J's Blackhawks will be taking on the Calgary Flames in round one, Tommy's Canucks will be opening the playoffs against the St. Louis Blues, and Karen's Sharks are hopefully going to be able to bounce the Formerly Mighty Ducks. We did much better than last year, eh? The Eastern love is silent, but Tommy's cousin Daniel is fired up about the Rangers and their matchup against the Caps (which they'll probably lose). This will be some fun man.
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