What an opening day in Anaheim! The Angels sent Joe Saunders to the mound as the opening day starter, and he excelled better than we all expected. The Angels got some solid pitching, some timely hitting, and walked away with a 3-0 win on game 1 of 162.
What can you say about the mound work when the Red Hats only allowed three hits to our biggest rivals? Joey "Colonel" Saunders was electric, going 6.67 innings of 3 hit shutout ball, with 2 punch outs and 2 free passes. Joe continues his amazing streak of never losing a MLB game in the month of April. I think most of us where sad to see him get yanked with a shutout going in the 7th inning, but I think the Halos are looking out for his "dead arm" problems, keeping him on the 90+ pitch count. He was backed up well, though, with Arredondo (1 batter/1 K), Scot "Karen's Favorite" Shields (1 inning of perfect ball), and Brian "I'm The New Frankie" Fuentes (his first save on a perfect 13 pitch inning). Extra love to Saunders for beaning the newly gray bearded Jason Giambi.
The bats may not have been as on fire as they were in Spring Training, but they were certainly enough to beat the run-less A's. It didn't hurt that my new "current favorite Halo" put on a performance to earn him the brand new "LSF Stick of the Game" award. Howie Kendrick was playing up to his HK47 nickname with a 2 for 4 night in the #2 spot with 2 RBI, including the first Angel homerun of the spring. Does anyone else smell batting title? His blast to left center was pretty exciting to go along with his dump RBI single in the 2 run third. Vlad The Impaler got the other RBI in that pull away third on his 2 for 4 night. Joining the two triumphant hitters was Juan Rivera (2 for 4), Big Game Hunter (1 for 4), and Jeff "Mathis-ma-tician" Mathis (1 for 3, and off to a better start than Napoli). The Angels left 7 runners on base total, and it should be mentioned that Aybar was the biggest offender (0 for 3, 3 LOB).
Time for my "Take That!" of the post: Kurt Suzuki went 0 for 3. TAKE THAT!
I know it's premature, but the Angels 1-0 record has my Red Hats tied with Texas and Seattle for first place in the AL West, with the A's bringing up the rear, 1 huge game back. Game two of the series will be a bigger test of the Angels offense than tonight, with Dustin Moseley coming to the mound at the Stadium. The Texarkana, TX native was 2-4 with a 6.79 ERA in 2008. We all know the story with Moseley: the Angels franchise seem to think that he's better than most fans think he is. He's pretty hit or miss, either going 5 innings of 2 run ball or 2 innings of 5 run ball. Lucky for him, he's opposed by Trevor Cahill from Oceanside, CA. Cahill is a 21 year old hurler making the leap from Double-A to the majors. He's an elite talent, and we all know that rookies seem to do well in their first game because of the not knowing factor (save Adenhart), but you'd have to hope that the Halos offense can get to this bozo. Bring it Cahill. And bring it Moseley...please.
Is there any better time of year than the hockey playoffs and start to the baseball season? Well, maybe the baseball playoffs and the start of hockey season. Hm...I'd have to think long and hard on that one.
Finally, it's time for the LSFISP (LSF Irish Slang of the Post). Today's Irish slang is savage, which is slang for "an expression of satisfaction." Example: "Joe's outing was feckin' savage tonight!" Feel free to use it.
1 comments:
I'd just like to point out that this recap was up on the internet before ESPN or Angels.com had their recaps up. LSF Pride!
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