What a damned exciting finish! The Angels were able to load the bases in the bottom of the eighth, with Bobby Abreu bringing home the go ahead runs, and the Angels capped off a thrilling comeback with a 4-3 win over the red hot Colorado Rockies. Our boys did just enough to hang around with some solid bullpen work to allow the offense the chance to make something happen, and the offense actually came through! Pair that with a fifth consecutive Rangers loss, and we had a pretty nice night.
Sean "SOS" O'Sullivan got a hair cut and beard trim, and he was ready to rock and roll tonight with Ervin getting tossed to the DL. SOS was solid in his first career start, and didn't do much worse tonight. Outside of his start lacking length, it was pretty good. Sully finished with 5 innings of 3 run ball, giving up 6 hits. He was actually pretty golden outside of two jacks given up to Santa Clara, CA native Troy Tulowitzki. T-Squared bombed a solo shot in the fourth and a two run homer in the sixth to power the Colorado offense. Despite only going 5+ tonight, I give my tip of the hat to SOS for doing a pretty decent job in his second career start. I see big things for the big guy. Meanwhile, the bullpen what they needed to do to keep the Angels in the game (surprisingly), with Oliver, Bulger, and Jepsen shutting Colorado out after Sully's exit. Let's not understate the fun time we had watching our boy Brian Fuentes dismantling his old team in his shutout ninth. He has now worked his way to an AL best 20 saves, which is putting him well ahead of his season average of 29.
The offense wasn't really doing much until the eighth, getting 2 runs on 5 hits prior to that, but they surely put the pressure on the Colorado starter at the right time. Juan Rivera was there to power the big squad against with a fourth inning jack that temporarily gave the Angels a 2-1 lead. JR is clipping at a nice .311/11/38 mark, and continues to lead this team like we all know he can. Not that it matters, but he has jumped up in the ESPN Fantasy Ownership stat +27.2% over the last week. People around baseball are finally starting to recognize what kind of stud this guy is. The big news, however, was the Angels loading the bases without a single hit in the eighth before getting one out, and then having Bobby Abreu come through with a two run single to make some excitement happen. Everything just kind of came together in the bottom of the Angels last offensive inning, thanks to some poor defensive play from Colorado, some purely beautiful speed by Halo base runners, and the power of the Rally Monkey (of course). Tonight's VIP Club was attended surprisingly by Jeff Mathis (2 for 2 with 2 runs and a really important walk) on the day that they gave out his road jersey to all kids 18 and under. The "Mathis-Matician" has only had one other multi-hit game this year, and he needs it, as my favorite catcher is going at just a .212 mark these days. Tonight's game just goes to show that if you give the Angels offense a chance to make a fun comeback, they can do it. Like I said in an earlier comeback post, this team is really starting to remind me of our beloved 2002 squad.
At 37-32, the Angels are officially tied for the AL West lead with the tail spinning Texas Rangers. We all knew that the Rangers would stop playing over their head eventually, but who knew it would start happening so soon? I can't even remember the last time that the Angels were this high up in the standings. All those doubters have all of the sudden become fans. The A's dropped their game, falling to 6.5 games back of the two teams leading, and the Mariners are about to drop to 2.5 back thanks to an eventual loss at the hands of San Diego. Tomorrow night we have the thrilling conclusion to this AL/NL West series, and our boy Joey Saunders (7-4, 3.80) will try to out duel Jason Marquis (9-4, 3.71). Marquis has been straight solid this year, with the Rockies winning 6 of his last 7 games, and he has only allowed 6 runs over the last 22.3 innings. The Angels may be starting to learn how to hit home runs, but Marquis has only allowed 3 jacks in his last 8 games. He ranks first in the National League in wins. It'll be tough, but if Joe is on, we can pull off the series win. The Springfield, VA native has been hit or miss this season, but the Angels have won in his last two starts. He is hoping that he has turned the page with those two wins, including a nice 8.3 inning 1 run effort against the Padres. Will Saunders continue his recent success? All of Angels Nation hopes so.
Remember how excited we all were about the idea of Kelvim Escobar coming off his most recent DL trip to power our bullpen? Well, the latest news is that he may be out for the rest of the season, again. Not too good in a contract year, eh?
P.S. I'm sure you can tell this wasn't proofread, but at least it was posted well before any of the major sports news outlets had their recaps of the game up. LSF Pride!
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