Jays have Angels singing the Blues.

How do you spell dive bomb? A-N-G-E-L-S. A 4-6 loss to the Blues Jays (that I only recently realized it was a replay from earlier in the day, that I was watching) is just the latest in a 3-6 stretch for my boys in the Red Hats. I guess Roy Halladay is kind of a throw away game, but Joe Saunders would have had a quality outing if it wasn't for a couple of bad pitches and a costly error. No matter how you make excuses for it, though, the Halos need to figure something out quick. 

Torii Hunter kind of summed up the pitching battle pretty well, "He was a doctor today. You have got to give it to him. He had surgery on all of us." If only Big Game would have thrown a literally into that quote it would have been priceless. The 32 year old Denver, CO native (who is actually named Harry Leroy Halladay...I think Harry Halladay is way better) was straight dominant against my boys. Roy, as he is known to all of you, was madness with an extra day of rest, going 9 full and complete innings of 4 run ball with 14 strikeouts (career high). Are you kidding me? 14!? Elvis!? That's a Fountain Valley reference, that I hope at least Andrew enjoys. Halladay was most pleased facing Torii Hunter, oddly enough, who got punched in the face 3 times, and the Most Valuable Junior north of the boarder (who would also finish with 3 strikeouts on an 0 for 3 afternoon). He was just pure magic. Meanwhile, Joe Saunders was just trying to keep his head above water. He would end up with the loss, going 5.3 innings of 6 run ball (initially they ruled that only 3 runs were earned, but they recently changed that, idiots). Joey socked out 4 and gave up a jack to Alex Rios. The Jays were up 3-0 after four innings, and were able to double that production in the sixth with three more runs (thanks in part to a two out error by Gary Matthews Jr. that kind of opened the doors against Saunders). The bullpen was tough as it gets tonight, which would really be the lone bright spot (outside of the too little too late offensive burst). Hornsby, Australia native Rich Thompson did his best to keep his stats fresh since his call up with 1.67 innings of shutout ball (he's holding down a 1.80 ERA here in '09). He was followed by the increasingly impressive Jason Bulger and his perfect relief inning. 

The 54.1% full Rogers Centre didn't get to see much offensive punch from the road team. As stated, the Angels finished with 14 strikeouts, with nary a player escaping without getting 3 strikes. That's pretty unusual, right? The largest offenders in the game were Torii (pretty weird, eh?) and GMJ. In the seventh, the Angels finally got to "Doc." Kendry "Nurse Practitioner" Morales came up with the bases loaded and no outs and nailed a single to open the scoring. Vlad would score from third on a wild pitch with Izzy at the plate, and that was followed up by sac flies from Ma$e and Napoli to give us all hope by pulling the California crew within two. That's all we would get, though. The only hitter to get more than one hit in the game for the Angels was Kendry (2 for 4 with a RBI to raise his BA to .285), and hopefully that helps fans to realize that he's legit. I know he made an error at first base in the fifth, but that didn't end up hurting the team. Two questions about the lineup that you won't be able to answer for me. First, why is Maicer Izturis hitting behind Kendry (in the #6 spot) with "home run hitting" Napoli and GMJ going behind him? That doesn't really make sense. Second, why is Howie hitting 9th? I've already complained about him hitting eighth, and now this? Can we flip HK and Ma$e in this order? I'd surely hope so. 

As I foreshadowed bluntly, the Angels are in the middle of a little tail spin. Back at .500 with the 25-25 record, my boys are now running at a -13 run differential. That's not a good sign, boys. Thanks to a Yankee blowout against the Rangers, we maintain a 4.5 game gap in second place, but Seattle is close at 2 back of the Angels and Oakland is still interesting just 5 back from the Angels. I think my reference to "Elvis?!" may bring the Angels luck against another Fountain Valley product in tomorrow's game. FVHS class of 2000 pitcher Casey Jansen (1-1, 4.15) will be on the mound for Andrew's Blue Jays. He'll be facing another local product, Northridge native Jered "Big Baby" Weaver. Weav is going at a 4-2, 2.36 clip here in 2009 and had a solid outing last time against the White Sox with 8 strong innings of 1 run ball. Over the last three years, Jered holds a 3-1 record against the Blue Jays with a 4.30 ERA, giving up just 2 jacks in 23 innings against Toronto. In that three year period, he has somehow managed to avoid pitching in Toronto, which is always a difficult place for the Halos to win, so tomorrow may be a different beast. However, recent history, and the unpredictable nature of Jansen has to has us somewhat hopeful. Loss stopper!

Today's underrated Angels minor leaguer of the day goes to my Rancho love affair 2B Sean Rodriguez. The Miami, FL native has been wowing fans ever since he was swinging the bats out there on the 91. Now, moving up one level per year, he is bashing the SLC with his .279/18/55 numbers. He's made a couple of plays with the big club (remember '08?), but 55 RBI in 50 games at AAA? That is really solid. Just to put it in perspective. Brandon Wood (the guy who every Angel fan thinks should be playing with the big club right now...right??) is hitting .297/10/23 in his 34 games with the Bees. Forget calling up Wood, can I start the HR-Rod campaign? Ah, it's nice to bring back that nickname.