If only I could have called out sick and gone to this game! The Angels came out in the final game of a 3 games series with Cleveland, with one comeback win and one emotional loss behind them, and put together a game where they wouldn't even need the surprisingly weak Brian Fuentes with a giant 9-3 win.
Is Gigantic John Lackey just completely proving that he is the #1 we always knew he could be? John improved to 5-1 this July after 7 innings of fantastic work, allowing just 1 run on 3 hits with 8 strikeouts. He walked four, but put things together nicely for the big win. A J-Honny Peralta sac fly was the only run allowed by our tall and mighty starter. Lack Daddy is now 7-4 on the year, with his recent resurgence, and has dropped his ERA to 4.00. The Angels have won 6 out of Lackey's last 7 starts, and he has only allowed 5 runs in his last 30.67 innings of work. Are you kidding me? He's stoked, stating, "I feel like my strength, stamina, and command are all coming together." I would tend to agree. On the day when the Indians made a trade involving Cliff Lee and the Phillies, the Angels saw their bullpen perform good enough too. Darren Oliver went 1 innning of perfect work with 2 punch outs, Robert "I Go By Bobby Now" Mosebach went just 0.3 innings of 2 run ball (but he's young, give him a chance), and Shane "Lou Dog" Loux mopped things up with 0.67 innings of perfect work on just 8 pitches. Overall, Lackey was the hero earlier today, and that allowed the Angels offense to command things.
Our mighty Halos put up 9 runs on 10 hits in the game, and got helped out by 2 Indian errors as well. My boys jumped on things in the first inning thanks to Kendry and Howie RBIs, then got another frenzy inning thanks to a 5 run fifth, and capped off the beat down with a Howie Kendrick two run bomb with JR on base. It was good stuff. The VIP club featured Bobby Abreu (2 for 4 with 2 runs and 1 RBI), Kendry "The Streak Is Back" Morales (2 for 4 with 2 RBI), and my main man Howie "The Pinball Wizard" Kendrick (3 for 4 with an amazing 5 RBI). Notable no no's were Least Valuable Junior (0 for 3, BB), Mathis (0 for 3, BB), and Willits (0 for 4, .214). After a thrilling game like that, how can I not put the spotlight on Tommy's favorite Howie Kendrick? HK came through with 5 RBI in the game, and that is no surprise, since he has been straight fabulous since getting called back up. In his last 11 games, Howie is hitting .421 (16 for 38). In the last 7 days, he's up to .450 with a .650 slugging mark. Since the call up back from AAA SLC, Howie is smashing a .351 average with 9 RBI and 5 extra base hits out of his 20 total. Keep your cool, Howie, and keep it up.
The Angels are a full 20 games over .500! At 60-40, my boys are rolling along in the AL West. Texas is still holding tight at 3 back, but Seattle and Oakland are continuing to fall back (7.5 and 17.5 respectively). We be rollin'...they hating... The Angels now have an impressive +58 run differential, and their record is #2 in the AL (Damn Yankees) and #3 in the MLB (Damn Dodgers). If we keep this up, I'm sure we can best those two New York idiot squads and capture the President's Trophy. After a much deserved day off, my boys are going to be taking on the Twinkies in Minnie over the weekend. After winning 3 out of 4 last weekend against the Hankie Crew, you all have to be pretty confident about our chances this upcoming weekend. Let's spank these AL Central losers. Wait, slam on the breaks, we've got Ervin Santana (3-6, 7.29) going in the series opener against Nick Blackburn (8-5, 3.75). Blackie dropped his last outing against the Angels by giving up 6 runs in just 3.67 innings, sot hat's nice, but Minnie is 2-2 over his last 4. He does have the ability to do well, but he just hasn't shown it lately (17 runs in the last 15.67 innings). Someone who could be good but isn't reminds me of someone...oh yeah, our boy Ervin. Big Daddy has been inconsistent lately. In his last outing, Erv went just 3.67 innings of 6 run ball (Blackburn wannabe?), earning the Angels the only loss in the series. The Halos are 2-4 in El Rosario's last 6 starts, including giving up 5+ runs 5 of those times. He did have a nice start three games ago against Oakland, and that got everyone pumped up, but it turns out it was just the A's and it didn't mean squat. Can Black Magic give us something? I'm still always going to be his fan, but he is going to need to find himself soon so that Angels Nation doesn't turn their back on him. Again.
Sean O'Sullivan. Are you freaking kidding me!??!?!? We have this guy as our #5 starter for one game after the All-Star break, and he bumped up his numbers to 3-0 with a 3.72 ERA. The Angels went 5-0 in his 5 starts in the bigs, and then they sent him down to AAA after his third win (a 5.3 inning/2 run affair with KC) and put Matt Palmer in his place. I'll admit that I always thought Palm Tree should have held the 5 spot, despite Sully's start, but then I see what he did at AAA and I wonder. SOS was nearly perfect. Dedicating his Bees' start to his recently passed grandmother, O'Sullivan pitched the first no hitter in SLC history and was one walk away from perfection. Sully retired the first 18 batters he faced, gave up a walk, and then promptly set down the last 9. It was amazing. I think he's proven himself worthy to get called back up. Big up yourself Sully, we love you around Angels Nation.
In case you're wondering, I don't care about trade rumors. I like the team the way it is. You want bullpen help? Arredondo will be getting called back up soon. You want a big bat? Torii Hunter will be coming off the DL any day now. F trades. For real.
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