Damn Yankees. I got so excited by the Angels breaking out to a series opening victory that I set my self up for disappointment when the Angels dropped the next 2 games and the series as a whole. The final edition of the final series between the East's #1 and the West's #1 finished 2-3 in favor of the bad guys.
Let me just say that Scott Kazmir has gotten no love since coming over to the Angels from Tampa. He has pitched his brains out, and he doesn't have much to show for it. Kaz walked off the field with a loss to drop to 9-9 on the year after pushing for 6 innings of 3 run ball, getting 4 punch outs and 3 walks. 112 pitches, 77 strikes. It wasn't a perfect outing, but it was nearly spot on, and Scottie deserves all the credit in the world. He simply hasn't gotten any run support. The Houston native has given up earned runs thusly since coming over from the Rays: 1, 1, 2, 0, and 3 (this game). Out of that, his record is 1-2, despite the Angels going 3-2 in his start. He deserves much, much better considering those earned runs allowed. Right now, I think Scott definitely should be in the playoff rotation, even if it is only 3 deep, but the bats just need to power up. Keep in mind, the offense has never scored more than 3 runs in a Kaz start. The bullpen was on, with Bulger (2 innings of shutout ball) and Darren Oliver (1 inning of shutout ball), but it wouldn't be enough to counter the lack of bat work from my Mighty Red Hats.
2 runs on 10 hits in the loss shows that we just couldn't get the guy home. As a team, the Halos left 13 runners on base in the match. The biggest offenders were Abreu, Aybar, and Hunter (all going 0 for 2 with RISP). The biggest stud with the wood was Chone Figgins, going 3 for 4 with a walk (however, not meant to score). Think about it: Figgy got on base 4 freaking times, and was never brought around to score. What's up with the middle of the order? This isn't going to cut it when it comes to mid-October. Honorable mention goes to Gary Matthews Jr. (did you even remember he was on the team) and his 1 for 2 with 2 walks and a RBI day, JR (1 for 4 with a walk and a run), and Naps (1 for 2 with 1 BB and 1 run). Looking up and down the box score, you see gigantic zeroes in the RBI column for Hunter, Morales, JR, and Howie (who went 0 for 3 with 3 strikeouts). Not going to get the job done. You're just not going to make your fans confident in your postseason abilities unless you beat the good teams.
The Angels are now at 90-62 with just 10 games to go! Thanks to a Rangers loss to the A's today (which blew my Streak for the Ca$h), the Halos lead the division by 7 games with just 10 to go. Seattle trails by 10.5 and Oakland has climbed back within 17.5. Speaking of the A's, the Angels open up a nice three game series against those jokers tomorrow at home, and we're going need to clean up all three games. From here on out, the Angels don't play anyone but the A's (6 games) or the Rangers (4 games). The final 10 opens with Jered "Caveman" Weaver (15-7, 3.87) going against some punk ass gold chain wearing weakling, Gio Gonzalez (5-6, 6.15). The A's are 5-5 over Gio's last 10 starts, and he's allowed more than 3 runs in 4 of those 10 games (including a 7 run 3 innings romp against Minnie). He's only made it 6.67 innings in his last 2 outings. The Angels can get to this guy, I know they can...he's nothing. The Angels, however, are the same 5-5 in Weaver's last 10 starts. Weav has really only had one bad start in his last 4 games, and is going to definitely be one of our top 3 heading into October. But, to be sure, J has to be spot on from here on out to gain some confidence. Otherwise, we won't have confidence!
So, let's beat these monkey fighting A's.
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