Seasons that start like this make you really appreciate the off day coming up this Monday. The Angels ended their three game series against the Twins with a less than exciting 1-3 loss that helped the Twins complete the weekend sweep of the Red Hats, and push the Angels further into the depths of the AL West early on. This time, however, it was the offense and not the bullpen that earned the big L.
Rapid City, SD native Shane Loux was on the mound for the Halos, filling in for a rotation that now has 5 starters absent from the roster (Lackey, Esco, Ervin, Moseley all on the DL, and Nick Adenhart watching from above). Loux Dawg has really been a bright spot for the Angels rotation this year, even though the rotation has been doing much better than most realize (it's the bullpen dragging Angels Nation down, and losing Darren Oliver to the rotation doesn't help). Loux may have ended with the loss in the game, but he had a quality outing with his 7 innings of 3 run ball. He punched out 2 and walked a big doughnut, while somehow keeping the runs at 3 despite allowing 10 hits. Unfortunately for Loux, the Twins' hometown boy Glen Perkins was on point for the home team. Perkins finished 8 innings of 1 run ball, making the Angels bats look foolish at times with 4 strikeouts. Loux got good bullpen help from major league debuter and Panama City, FL native Daniel Davidson (1 inning of shutout ball) to keep the game within reach, but the offense just wasn't connecting.
Of course, I guess we can count this one as just another game where the Angels blew the lead. Kendry "Fans Think I Haven't Done Anything" Morales earned a RBI with a ground out scoring Abreu in the second inning. That was the end of that. Only 4 hits connected for the Angels, all as singles (including one infield bunt), with Bobby Abreu earning the only pancake at 2 for 3 with a walk. Let's make it really clear that Abreu has been a serious bright spot this season, and was well worth the pick up. T-Hunt and Erick Aybar (the bunt) were the only other Halos to reach with a hit, and in fact, were the only other Halos to even reach base. 1 run on 4 hits is unusually low for the Angels this season, and hopefully the offense can do a little more once they get home. Thank God this road trip is over, I couldn't take much more after the 1-5 run.
Today's nominees for "blame of the game" are as follows: 1) Howie Kendrick and his 0 for 4 afternoon with 3 strikeouts, 2) Chone Figgins going 0 for 4 as the all-important lead off man, and 3) Juan Rivera's 0 for 3 afternoon. The Angels left 8 on base as a team, and it was just plain weak sauce. Place your votes in the comments section as you see fit.
At 4-8, Los Halos are now 4 games back of Seattle's 8-4 start with a -12 run differential (getting worse by the day). The sweep caps off a 1-5 road trip, and has all of Angels Nation ready for the boys to get home and turn things around. Hopefully they'll be able to do that against the 6-5 Detroit Tigers (who are playing their rubber match against the Mariners as I type). The Angels will send actual starter Jered Weaver (1-1, 3.09) to the mound to start the home stand, and the Tigers will counter with Venezuelan Armando Galarraga (2-0, 0.68). Galarraga may not be the easiest guy to turn things around against, as he has pitched in a 15-2 win and a 9-0 with, going 13.3 innings of 1 run ball overall. He's tough stuff, but you'd have to figure the second year baller from Cumana is due to give up some runs. And after the last two games against the Twinkies, God knows we're due to score some. Let's focus on the home stand getting us back to .500, eh?
Just about 2 hours until the Canucks' game 3 gets underway. Oh, baby.
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