Angels, thy name is clinch.

The Angels came into their four game series against the Rangers needing only a single win to clinch the AL West. It didn't take long. An 11-0 shutout win, with Ervin Santana getting the complete game shutout on the mound, helped the Angels bang out the division victory for the third year in a row. With ESPN pointing out that the Angels have lost in the ALDS in '04, '07, and '08 and lost in the ALCS in 2005, I'm wondering what we can expect with this latest edition of the post season. I'm also wondering where this season will rank among successful Angel seasons all-time.

First of all, I'd like to say huge props to Ervin for being the first pitcher since 2001 to toss a complete game shutout in a division clinching game. He was huge. Second, I'd like to point out that I thought it was inappropriate to douse Adenhart's jersey in beer and champagne in the clubhouse after the game. Just really eerie.

As we sit at the moment, the Halos have a 92-64 record. With 6 games left on the schedule, I guess we'll have to put the Angels final record somewhere around 95-67. So, how does that season rank among all time playoff run seasons for the Red Hats. Obviously, last year's 100-62 team was the best Angels team of all-time (when we're talking about regular season records). The Angels have only earned 95 or more wins three times: 2008's 100-62 record, 2005's 95-67 record, and 2002's 99-63 record. So, if we presuppose that the Angels complete this season with a 3-3 split, and thus a 95-67 record, this would rank as tied for the third best Halo team in history (again, when we're talking about regular season records). I think that most around Angels Nation would be surprised by that fact, given the ups and downs that the Angels have seemed to have faced here in 2009. Of course, they could end up finishing 98-64, which would be the stand alone third best record of all time, and that would be pretty sweet. However, I think the 95-67 finish is a little more realistic. Looking beyond the records, though, we may be looking at something even more special. The Angels currently have a team batting average of .285. The all time team record is .282 (set in '04, '02, and '79), which means that the Angels have a chance to have the best offensive year in the history of the team. Again, probably surprising to most Halo fans. The most runs ever scored by an Angels team is 866 (that special 1979 squad), and the Angels currently sit at 856 with 6 games remaining. Again, more proof that this could be the best offensive year in Halo history. All this, and most idiot fans still think we need a big bat. This is the best offensive Angels team ever! You morons. The Angels pitching on the other hand, has no chance of being among the elite Angels team of all time (the all time ERA is 2.91 in 1964, with the fewest earned runs being 469 in '72 and '64; we're currently at 4.52 on the ERA and 741 on the runs...eek.).

So what do we expect from the Angels in the second season here in 2009? Well, we will be matching up with those bastards from Boston again, and you all know the history. It has been well documented on this blog that the history between these two teams in the postseason goes well beyond 2004. The Angels lost to the Red Sox in the 2008 ALDS 3 games to 1, lost to the Red Sox in the 2007 ALDS 3 games to 0, lost to the Red Sox in the 2004 ALDS 3 games to 0, and (get ready) lost to the Red Sox in the 1986 ALCS 4 games to 3. The history is so deep, and so painful, that I almost don't want to watch. Obviously, the Angels have been beat by the Red Sox in the playoffs more than any other team. Out of our 8 trips to the post season, we have been eliminated by Boston on four occasions. Unbelievable. They are our nemesis. In the regular season series, the Angels went 4-4 against the Red Sox, which doesn't really give us any hints at what to look for. Out of the 8 games, 6 were decided by 1 run. Are you kidding me? Both teams went big, with the Sox winning 9-8 in one game and the Angels winning 8-4 in another. Both teams were held back, with the Sox losing 3-6 in one game and the Angels losing 1-4 in another. Both teams thrive on their deep pitching and large offenses. You can cut this series down any way you want to, but it all comes down to who will be the hottest team coming into things. As I type, the Sox have a 5 game losing streak and are 3-7 over their last 10 games. Meanwhile, my boys have a 2 game winning streak and a 5-5 record over the last ten. Neither is hot, in any stretch of the word, but the Halos are certainly hotter lately. When it all comes down to it, next week the Angels will embark on a mission that they haven't been able to accomplish in their history. This time around, it is truly a must win. Mostly because I feel like I might pull a Donnie Moore if we go down the same path for the fifth time.

Right now, the Salt Lake Bees are up on the Ranger 5-2 in the seventh inning of play. I sure hope our big boys are getting the rest they need to be amazing come next week.

Weekly football post #54.

Hi friend and fans. Let's get right down to business.

Fountain Valley High School stepped up in their penultimate non-league game over the weekend, and walked out the field with a 38-19 win against Long Beach Millikan High. With two double digit quarters, the Barons were high flying, and blew the lid off the season to improve to 4-0-0. Kyle Middlebrooks was once again the hero, rushing his brains out for 111 yards, including a fourth quarter rushing TD. It was QB Dominic Ragland tossing the pig for 142 yards, with KM also grabbing 37 yards of that through the air. The Barons seem to be gearing up for a huge season here in 2009, and their non-league work finishes up next week against Scripps Ranch before starting League play against Marina on October 16.

Can I say that this last Notre Dame game was the most exciting sporting even in the month of September? I believe that I just did. It was a party at Silky's for the night time match against Purdue, and the Irish really played to represent all of us Irish Catholics around the Nation. Walking into the locker room with a 17-7 halftime lead, most of us felt pretty confident. Sadly, the Boilermakers made a stunning comeback with 14 fourth quarter points that left the Irish marching down the field for an attempt with a thrilling finale. Jimmy Clausen came back on the field after succumbing to injury and led ND to an amazing finish. On fourth down, Clausen connected on a two yard TD pass to the second best #9 in Notre Dame history, Kyle Rudolph, to win the game with 24.8 seconds to play. The game finished with a 24-21 tally, and the Irish walked off the away turf with a 3-1 record. If only Weis could have managed the Michigan game better, I'd have to say we'd be in the top 15. Important things to take away from this game are 1) the injuries we've suffered (Clausen, Allen, Floyd, and Aldridge) are far more debilitating than the media is making them out to be, 2) Dayne Crist (5/10 for 45) was really able to show that he can lead this team with JC on the sideline, including making some really nice physical plays, and 3) Kyle Rudolph is the true #2 receiver on this team, not Golden Tate. All I can say is that when Clausen connected to Rudolph, we all jumped out of our seats and went completely crazy. I don't think I've ever seen Silky's go any more nuts over a sporting event. Beautiful. The Irish are now 3-1, as I stated, and go up against the upset specials from Washington next weekend before getting a bye week to prepare for the USC game on 10/17. The Huskies are 2-2, and are a very dangerous team.

I'm not interested in wasting much time on the 17-36 Rams loss to Green Bay. The Rams dropped to 0-3 on the year, continuing to be the worst team in the NFC West, and continuing to not show us very much positive. My Boys in Horns have now lost 30 of the last 35 since the start of the 2007 season, giving them the longest losing streak (13) actively running in the NFL. Pathetic. Kyle Boller got the majority of the work on the field, going 16/31 for 164 yards with 2 TDs and 1 INT to take over for Marc Bulger's 3/4 23 yard game. Rumors are swirling that Bulger's rotator cuff is injured in his throwing arm, which could put him out for a while. Will Boller finally take the chance to take this team over and lead us to getting some wins? God, I hope so. The Rams probably won't have any luck next week, though, with the 49'ers welcoming them to SF. The Niners are 2-1 on the year, nearly 3-0, and should be able to put my Rams away pretty easily.

Finally, the BC Lions lost 18-27 to Calgary. Buck Pierce was in the pocket all game long, finishing 17/27 with 230 yards, 1 TD, and 1 INT. Pine Bluff, AK native Martell Mallett (the same home town asTorii Hunter) was against the amazing rusher with 136 hash marks on the ground in the loss. At 5-7, the hopes to turn this season around are dwindling. Friday is a match against the Rough Riders...bring it Jon!

In soccer, it was Celtic grabbing a 2-0 win over St. Mirren in their latest SPL match. It wasn't a really perfect performance, but the Hoops fought through in their highlighter jerseys to get the big win. Paddy McCourt delivered with a huge goal in the 27th minute, dancing around about 5 bad guys before getting the ball into the twine. Maloney earned the 78th minute goal that put Celtic away for good, but St. Mirren never really had much of a chance against my boys in the match. It was Pollack Artur Boruc earning himself another clean sheet in the match, as the Bhoys got a really big 3 points to maintain their 4 points grasp over the Prottie Rangers in the SPL table. With a Thursday afternoon match against Rapid Vienna in the UEFA Europa League competition, before getting to Saturday's gigantic match against Rangers. You hear that Andrew? Bring it on!!!!

How about Newcastle? Man, what a different season being down in the Championship! The Barcodes beat up on Ipswich 4-0 in their latest match thanks to a Kevin Nolan hat trick (30, 32, and 51). 'Castle scored three goals within 4 minutes, with 2 Nolan goals and a Ryan Taylor netting in a free kick at the 34th minute. It was just insane how quickly the Mags put this game away. All of the sudden, there was nothing for Ipswich to do but pray for the 90th minute to come. How about Steve Harper earning the clean sheet as well? Who gets the game ball? Gotta give it to Nolan, my friends. What a game! Newcastle now sits at the summit of the Championship table with their 7-1-1 record and 22 points (2 points up on West Brom). How much longer do I have to go on being assured of a promotion? Am I really jumping the gun, just 9 games in? A mid week Championship match goes off Wednesday against Queens Park (3-1-5) before the weekend match against Bristol City (3-2-4) gets going. Toon Army rise up! Let's keep the good times rolling around St. James.

Chivas was rolling on to victory in their weekend match against New York, thanks to a 64th minute goal from Anaheim native and FIFA '10 cover boy Sacha Kljestan. Unfortunately, New York evened things in the 84th minute, forcing Chivas to split the game and go ahead with just one point. Kljestan had a chance to put the game back to the Red and White with a stoppage time penalty shot, but his low shot skipped off the pole and Chivas was denied. No! Zach Thorton really wishes that he could have the one that got passed him again, but really Kljestan is the one who was reeling after the game for his missed penalty. Are you kidding me, bro? Sacha failed to stick around for post game interviews. Chivas now sits at 11-9-5 (38 points), good enough for fourth in the West. Colorado is +1, LA is +3, and Houston is +5 up ahead of our boys from Carson. The Goats go against DC (8-7-12, 36 points) next weekend, as they continue to try and secure a spot in the MLS playoffs to get retribution for the last early playoffs exits. Come on boys.

In short: 1) Chivas de Guadalajara drew with UNAM 1-1 to go to 2-3-4 on the year. Still a pretty disappointing start for the Red & White. Next up is a Saturday match with Monterrey. 2) Sligo has their game this week tomorrow against #4 Cork City. A win would pull the Bit O' Red even with St. Patrick's for the #7 spot, and could potentially make it a lock for Sligo to stay away from relegation. Can it be true? Let's beat Cork! 3) Lazio drew Palermo 1-1 over the weekend to pull to 2-2-2 on the year, and set their sites on a UEFA Europa League match Thursday against Levski Sofia before returning to Serie A action Sunday against Florentina.

The Angels are up 11-0 on the Rangers in the sixth inning, just 9 outs away from clinching their third straight AL West Championship. I'm bubbling.

Angels get burned, drop series.

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.

Our first baseman is better than theirs.

It's a good thing, beating the Yankees, and even better when our one bagger goes far and beyond the one that we let prance off to New York. Take it! The Angels brought the heat at home against the AL East's top team with a 5-2 win that kept NYY just barely out of the playoffs and pulled the Angels magic number to 6.

The Halos have won five straight games at home against the Yankees, and boosted their record to 18-5 since 2005 at the Stadium against the Pinstripes. In the latest edition, it was Joe Saunders coming out and pitching very well against Andy Pettitte and New York. Big Joe was fantastic through six innings, shutting out the best the AL East has to offer, and ended with 8.3 innings of 2 run ball. He allowed 7 hits, but gave up zero free passes and punched out three. It was a modestly solid 8.3 innings of work for Big Joe Saundo that wasn't going to turn any Cy Young voters, bit it definitely got the job done. Saunders pitched into the ninth, but the game was finished by 0.67 innings of Brian Fuentes hurling for his 44th save of the year. That's right, Tito still leads the MLB in saves (+1 on Joe Nathan). Saunders, meanwhile, is now at 14-7, and is getting hot as we march toward the playoffs (7-3 over his last 10).

The Red Hat offense was solid with 5 runs on 9 hits, with Big Vlad Guerrero leading the way (2 for 4 with 1 RBI and 2 runs). VAG started the boys off with a RBI double in the top frame, got doubled in by Torii in the same inning, and even came around to score late in the eighth thanks to Good Ol' JR. Guerrero was the only Angel to have a multi-hit game, but honorable mention has to go to Figgins (1 for 3, 1 BB) and Kendry Morales (a pinch hit jack in the seventh). Howie Kendrick was the only Angel starter to go without a hit in the match, finishing 0 for 4 (still hitting .298 for the season). I'd like to shine the spotlight on the battle between Bam Bam Morales and Mark "My Wife Forced Me To" Teixeira.

BA: Kendry (.300) vs. Teixeira (.293)

HR: Teixeira (37) vs. Kendry (31)

OPS: Teixeira (.951) vs. Kendry (.904)

XBH: Teixeira (82) vs. Kendry (74)

Salary: Morales ($1.1 million) vs. Teixeira ($20.625 million).

With stats that close, we win.

The win puts the Angels at 90-60 for the year, holding a 7.5 game lead on Texas with just 12 games to go. Just 12 games to go!!! Seattle is 11.5 back, and the A's trail by 19. According to ESPN, the Halos magic number to clinch another AL West Championship is just 6 (the combination of Angels win and Rangers losses, of course). Tonight, it's Ervin Santana (7-8, 5.50) taking on Chad Gaudin (5-10, 4.71). Gaudin is a NOLA native, and he's been humming along a little better than his stats indicate. The Yanks are 6-2 in his 8 starts since coming over from San Diego, despite him not earning a decision. Meanwhile, Ervin hasn't been getting amazing results lately. The Halos are 1-4 in his last 5 starts, after ripping off 5 wins in his previous 5 starts before this nasty stretch. El Rosario is going to have to get hot before the playoffs if he has any hope of being in the starting rotation, in my opinion.

Update: After 3.5 innings, the Angels trail 0-4 thanks to A-Rod and Jorge Posada homers (and a BS catcher's interference call ) in the third. Can my boys come back? In other news, the A's lead the Rangers 3-0 through 5.

Go keep up on the NHL preseason at the LSF Twitter page, puck heads.

Weekly football post #53.

I may have been in San Jose for the football weekend, but I kept myself in the loop, kept you in the loop via the LSF Twitter page, and am all ready to rock this party.

Fountain Valley High School Football rocks! The Mighty Barons rolled their way to their third straight win this season, busting Temescal Canyon 34-10 on the road. FV busted the game open with a 13 point second quarter, and a ton of defense to earn the victory. For some reason, the Register doesn't hook us up with Kyle Middlebrooks final numbers, but he did bust out for a 58 yards TD run on the opening kickoff and a 1 yard TD run in the fourth to seal the deal. KM also finished with 22 through the air, with Dominic Ragland going nuts by passing for 269 yards. Fountain Valley finished with 470 total offensive yards, and leave the game ranked #7 in the County. Is this the year we go all the way? The battle continues next week against Long Beach Milikan.

I got to see the very beginning of the Notre Dame/MSU game before going to my brother in law's wedding, and I may have missed an exciting finish, but I'm pleasantly happy with the results. Kyle McCarthy snagged an interception on the 4 yard line with 57 seconds left as the Spartans were about to win the game. The pick saved the game for the Irish, and secure the first home win against Michigan State since 1993. A couple of really nice notes coming from the 33-30 Irish win, including Jimmy Clausen lifting the ball up for 301 passing yards and 2 TDs despite injuring his foot in the first half along with Clausen tying Rick Mirer for third most TDs in school history with 41 in his collegiate career. Besides the late defensive heroics, Irish Nation has to be pleased with Armando Allen nailing a 13 yard TD run to start the game (the end of the strongest drive of the season, in my opinion), Michael Floyd coming back from a mild injury to pull in a 22 yard TD pass, and Golden Tate hooking up a 33 yard TD pass that put the Irish ahead for good. Allen finished with 115 yards rushing, with Tate leading the way with 127 receiving yards. Thank God Allen is a Junior. In fact, most of the best players on our team are underclassmen, which has me stoked. The win may not have pulled Notre Dame back into the Top 25, but a win against Purdue next Saturday evening may. Despite being 1-2 and losing to Northern Illinois last week, the Boilermakers still seem like a serious team to me, and my Irish should get pumped up to play them, and get mad respect for beating them.

I was so happy that my brother in law had the NFL package on DirecTV, and that he let me watch the Rams game. Unfortunately, the Rams suck ass, and I wasted 3 hours of my Sunday watching my favorite team lose. After pulling a huge goal line stand late in the game, the Rams got the ball back with a chance to march down the field for a huge comeback win. Instead, Bulger threw four straight incomplete passes to seal the deal, and the Rams lost to the Skins 7-9. The Rams have now lost 12 straight games overall. Laurent Robinson caught the lone TD pass, a 2 yarder from Mr. Fantasy, and the Horns were busted outside of that. Bulger finished with a 15/28 games for a measly 125 yards. Robinson led the poor receiving core (should we try and trade for the hold out Crabtree?) with 54 yards. Steven Jackson tried his best to carry the team with 104 yards on the ground, including a 58 yarder, but it just couldn't save the poor effort. Warning, there were no bright spots in this loss. The 0-2 Rams line up next week to go against the Packers. After losing the the Bengals (barely), the Packers will travel to the STL to take on my Rams, and I can only hope and pray for a positive outcome.

Just so you know, the BC Lions finally won a game, beating Toronto 23-17 over the weekend. Jarious Jackson sat on the bench as Buck Pierce went 20/28 with 171. Martell Mallett ran for 55 yards and Geroy Simon led the wide outs with 46 in the air. It was three unanswered field goals to end the game in favor of the Orange and Black. My boys are still in last place at 5-6, but the top three in the conference are only 6-5, so we're not actually that bad off. Next up is a throw down against Calgary.

Over in the soccer world, Celtic came away with a nice 2-1 win against Hearts, thanks to a 90th minute tally my Glenn Loovens. It was a dramatic finish to snag 3 points. Hearts took the lead just 5 minutes into the game, only to see the Hoops storm back with goals in the 55th (Chris Killen) and 90th (the aforementioned Loovens). After the first goal, the Bhoys really put the pressure on, and the man who didn't get love in the stat sheet was Aiden McGeady, who really pushed things forward for Celtic. This win came with Gorgeous Georgios Samaras out to injury and Stephen McManus getting relegated to the bench. But, Killen and Loovens were able to supply all the offense that we needed, and Artur Boruc was able to hook up a solid finish after a sloppy start. The Sligo side moved 2 clear of Rangers with a 4-0-1 (13 points) mark, and get ready for a CIS insurance cup midweek match against Falkirk on Wednesday before getting back to basics in an SPL battle against St. Mirren (1-2-2) next weekend.

Over in the Championship, the Barcodes cruised to a 3-1 win against Plymouth Argyle Socks to continue the hope for promotion at the end of the season. 'Castle put 8 shots on target compared to the Pilgrims 7, but clearly Steve Harper was on point between the pipes for the Mags, leading onward to victory. It took just 6 minutes for Newcastle to find the back of the net, with Steven Taylor smashing a ball home up against the far post. The Boys in Bars saw an opposing goal come home in the 50th, but got a clear benefit from strikers Kevin Nolan (61st) and Andrew Carroll (84th) to seal the f'ing deal. The Magpies seems to be completely unstoppable right now. Should I keep in mind that this is a lower division? Nope. At 6-1-1 (19 points), Newcastle are -1 of West Brom Albion, but 3 clear of #3 Middlesbrough, and they are showing no signs of letting up here in 09/10. Tomorrow we get some Carling Cup action against Peterborough United before getting back to business on Saturday against Ipswich (0-4-4). Um, I'm betting on my boys come Saturday.

Finally, Chivas went head to head with the hated Seattle Sounders this weekend, and came away with a hard fought draw 0-0. The Goats were down to a 10 man squad, but All-Star keeper Zach "The Beast" Thorton was off the chain, making stop after amazing stop. With the disadvantage, there wasn't much Chivas could do to keep the pressure on the Green Monsters, but Thorton was able to keep the door shut and help his boys fight it out for one point. Keep in mind that Thorton was about to be held out of the game due to his lingering quad injury, but he sucked it up and looked like a stud. Thorton dropped jaws with point blank save after point blank save, and Paulo Nagamura was the lone Chivas player to put a ball on goal in the match. 32,719 coffee drinking morons went home feeling so so, and most of Chivas Nation is pretty happy with the result. The draw puts Chivas as 11-9-4 (37 points) on the campaign, tied with Colorado, -1 of Seattle, -4 of LA, and -6 of first place Houston. Next week is a drop dead battle against New York (4-17-5), the last place team in the East, and every Chivas Fighter around the nation is going to be expecting a huge victory from Preki and the boys. In case you've heard, it is true that Chivas USA will be going head to head for Chivas de Guadalajara on the 23rd of the month. It is going to be a packed house at the HDC, and I can't wait to see what happens!

In short: 1) Chivas de Guadalajara finally won, 1-0, over Chiapas. Our boys Sergio Amaury Ponce got the golden goal in the 45th minute to pull to 2-4-2. Still back by 13 points from first place Toluca, and they go against UNAM next weekend. 2) The Sligo Rovers can take a big step away from relegation in a game tomorrow against #4 Cork City, and hopefully they can. The Bit O' Red are just 3 points away from safety. 3) Lazio drew with Catania 1-1 thanks to a 57th minute goal from Julio Cruz to go to 2-1-1, and go against Parma (2-1-1) on Wednesday.

It has been 69 days since the last time you read a Jon/Brandon/Andrew post. I really feel for you.

Red Sox providing playoff preview?

I told someone at work today, "If the Angels and the Red Sox play in this year's playoffs, I don't think I'm going to be able to watch." I'm watching here as the regular season winds down, and I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to be able to take another divisional series bow out against the boys from Bean Town. The latest precursor is tonight's 8-9 loss to Boston after a ninth inning blow out.

Come on Saunders? The Colonel was solid in the opening frames of his work day, going through over 5 innings of shutout work before letting Boston get to him. It was looking like his best outing of the year until the wheels kind of fell off, leading to Big Joe Saundo finishing with 5.67 innings of 5 run ball (2 earned!) with 5 punch outs and 3 walks. I guess his shutout was looking a lot better than it actually was, but it was really frustrating to see our beloved starter come in and let those bastards get to him, leading to them completely controlling the game. Of course, the offense was able to make a march back to the lead, only to have Brian Fuentes blow his 7th save of the year (which, I know, really isn't that bad) by allowing two runs in the ninth to lead the Angels to a loss. To be fair, Jason Bulger (0.3 innings of perfect work) and Darren Oliver (0.67 innings of shutout ball) were on, while Kevin Jepsen (1.3 innings of 2 run ball) and Fuentes (0.67 innings of 2 run ball) were completely off. In the end, the Red Sox were too much for our pitching staff, and most around Angels Nation feel a little concerned about the obvious eventual playoff matchup. We can't go down like this again!

The offense was prolific in the loss, with 8 runs on 17 hits, but it just was enough. The top of the order was on, with Figgins (2 for 6), EA (4 for 6, 1 RBI), and Bobby Abreu (3 for 5, 2 RBI) setting things up, with Big Game (2 for 4, HR), Howie (2 for 5, 1 RBI), and Good Ol' JR (3 for 5, 2 RBI) bringing them home. I mean, the "O" was clicking, ripping former Halo favorite Paul Byrd (5.3 innings of 3 run ball), and Ramon Ramirez (0.3 innings of 3 run ball), but when the hurlers can't hold various leads supplied by the bats, you're doomed as a team. I think it's pretty obvious that if we want to beat these pricks in the playoffs, we are going to need Torii Hunter to just be crazy. T Hunt did his best, going 2 for 4, but he never came up with runners in scoring position, and thus really couldn't deliver outside of his jack. In the playoffs, not only is the top half of the order going to need to get on base for Big Game, but he is really going to need to deliver. He is the heart and soul of our bats, and he has to completely lead us onward to victory. This year, despite some injury time, the Pine Bluff, AR native is hitting .313/22/83 with a .383 on base percentage. That is no joke. He's 100% owned in ESPN Fantasy leagues. In Hunter's postseason exploits, he holds a .316/.352/.510 stat line with 3 jacks and 13 RBI in 25 games (98 ABs). The RBI are definitely going to need to rise if the Angels have any hope against the Red Sox, and Hunter is going to need to play good enough to earn MVP of the series. Man, I'm already starting the prayers for my boys to pull this series out come October, if need be.

With consecutive loss #3, the Angels are sputtering at the wrong time. Luckily, the Rangers aren't doing much either. At 86-59, Los Halos are still 6 up on Texas, 12 up on Seattle, and 19 up on Oakland. Despite our recent problems, the Rangers aren't making a move, and that makes me feel pretty nice. Boston is leading the Wild Card by 6.5 over Texas as well, which is why it is looking like our fate may be sealed when it comes to the divisional series. Can you hear me screaming in anguish? Luckily, the final game of this series comes tomorrow evening. Unluckily, we seem to be overmatched on the mound. Ervin "El Rosario" Santana (7-8, 5.52) will try and be the stopper against Josh Beckett (15-6, 3.82). Beckett hasn't been out of control good lately, which is really nice, as the Sox have gone 2-3 over his last 5 starts, and he had back to back starts where he gave up 7 and then 8 runs (to the Jays and Spankees. So, Becks is beatable. The bad news, though, is that when he's on, he's on, and there is nothing you can do. The Angels are countering with Erv Daddy, who has been flat out spanked lately thanks to a lack of offense. The Angels have lost Santana's last 4 starts (despite allowing 3, 4, 1, and 2 earned runs in those games), after winning with him in his 5 starts prior to that. He's been hot and cold, like a shower with people flushing toilets like crazy all over the house. Come on Ervin, pull one out for your son!

After tomorrow's Sox game, we head to Texas to go for a huge 3 game series that could either make things really interesting, or put them away for good. I'll be hitting up San Jose for the weekend, so keep an eye on the LSF Twitter page for updates while I'm gone.

Suckers.

Weekly football post #52.

Hi. The Brandon/Jon/Andrew post strike has risen to the level of 61 amazing days. That's more than 2 months of nothing but Tommy. What the heck is this blog coming to? I hope you have all been seriously checking out the LSF Twitter page (see the link to the left), which has now been bringing you a continuous stream of LSF attitude 24/7 since June 6, 2009!

This was the first full week of football action, and we'll get started with some good ol' American high school pigskin. We're back to following my Mighty Barons of Fountain Valley High School. FV opened up the season with a nice 44-21 pounding of Foothill. LSF favorite Kyle Middlebrooks rushed for 99 yards, picking up right where he left off, and last year's stud QB Dominic Ragland came out of nowhere with 233 yards in the air, as my boys beat the heck of of the Foot. This week was a tough task against Tesoro, and my Barons were equal to the task. FV improved to 2-0 with a 35-14 victory, including a thrilling 14 point final quarter to seal the deal. Kyle Middlebrooks outdid himself, rushing for collegiate level 116 yards and 3 big boy TDs. He is so amazing, I can't get over it. Ragland wasn't equal to his passing styles from week one, but he did top 100 (101) again, leading FVHS to just another Baron victory. Next up are some jokers from Temescal Canyon (Temescal sounds like a drug from the mid '60s). Let's keep it rolling, here in '09.

It's going to be a little difficult for me to sum up the Notre Dame/Michigan game without getting so angry that I toss the laptop across the living room. I can easily recap the 34-38 loss by saying that Charlie Weis' play calling blew the game. Can anyone argue with me? The Irish marched back after having a horrible 3rd quarter, and took the lead with just 5 minutes remaining. After getting the ball back, Weis decided to pass on second and third down with about 2 minutes remaining. Both passes were incomplete, which gave Michigan free stoppages of the clock. The Wolverines got the ball back, marched down the field and scored the game winning mark with 11 seconds to go. Honestly, if you want me to be serious, I will go on the record with saying that this game would have been the definitive game of Jimmy Clausen's collegiate career if the Irish would have held on for the win. Instead, Charlie Weis coached the Golden Domers out of a win they should have had, despite all the penalties (9 for 75 yards) and mistakes (1 fumble, and poor clock management). This game proved a couple of things to me: 1) Jimmy Clausen is better than I thought, 2) When Michael Floyd gets hurt, we are in trouble, and 3) Charlie Weis really isn't a good coach. I want to make sure that I don't just say this when they lose, so I hope that you keep me honest, readers. I'm really ready to compare Weis to Mike Scioscia, a horrible coach on a team I love. The game was the tail of different quarters. Notre Dame got outplayed in the opening frame, falling behind 14-3, including freshman Nick Tausch missing a field goal opportunity and Michigan burning a kickoff return for a TD. In the second, the Irish came out looking like the team that crushed Nevada. Golden "It's insane, the size of this guy's" Tate scored a TD early on, and was followed by Michael Floyd easily going up for a TD to help my boys take the lead. Clausen was solid in the second quarter, and we walked into the tunnel with a 20-17 halftime lead. The third quarter was all Michigan. The may have only scored 1 TD, to take the lead 24-20, but they clearly and soundly outplayed the Domers. The Wolverines scored early in the fourth quarter, only to see Notre Dame march back. Tate scored again on a 21 yard pass (with a missed 2 point conversion), and after the ND defense tallied an INT, Armando Allen Jr. became our MVJ (despite Andrew's earlier nomination) by running wild on a drive resulting in the go ahead touchdown 34-31 (the 2 pointer was good, after an amazing statue of liberty play from Clausen to Allen that reminded me of the Boise State/Oklahoma play that got so much Sports Center love a couple of years ago). It was sweet, and it set the whole thing up for one needed defensive stand and then a little bit of running out the clock. Sadly, Charlie Weis (who has no excuse, since he is the offensive coordinator) decided to pass twice when trying to a) run out the clock and b) force Michigan to take their final two timeouts while still on defense. The two passes, which were both kind of deep (with no reason, and no Floyd), both fell to the turf along with the chances of winning the game. It was easy work for Michigan, with the ND defense being tired thanks to the lack of offensive clock management, and the Wolverines marched onward to victory. Just like that, ND lost, I went on ND's Facebook page to voice my displeasure over the play calling, and I image the Irish are going to easily drop out of the top 25. The coach may have made some bonehead calls directly resulting in the loss, but I still love this team, still feel confident about my 9-3 prediction, and am still excited about next week's home game against Michigan State. MSU was downed by Central Michigan last week, sending them to 1-1 as well. Hopefully, this will be an epic rebound for Jimmy and the gang.

Week 1 of the NFL season usually brings about the same kind of feelings of the opening day of a baseball season. I was feeling confident about the Rams chances this year, and boy was I stupid. At least it was former Notre Dame standouts Julius Jones and John Carlson that burned my boys. St. Louis began another long, long season with a 0-28 loss to division rivals from Seattle. And to think, the Rams picked off two out of Hasselbeck's first three passes. The Boys in Horns doomed themselves with 10 penalties in the game, including two personal fouls from offensive lineman Richie Incognito (not so incognito, eh?). The Qwest Field crowd was treated to two TDs in the second quarter and two TDs in the third quarter by their beloved Seahawks. Meanwhile. Marc "I Grew Up Catholic" Bulger went 17/36 for 191 ineffective yards, getting 0 TDs and 0 INTs. Laurent Robinson led a fairly silent receiving core with 5 catches and 87 yards, including an exciting 45 yarder. Steven Jackson, who is really supposed to carry this team, took the ball 16 times for 67 yards (a 4.2 average and a long of 22), but the lack of anything in the end zone is what the fans around Rams Nation will focus on. Bright spot? The defense earned 3 turnovers against the Hawks, and defended well most of the game with rookie James Laurinaitis leading the way with 14 tackles. The Rams nearly scored, after returning a blocked field goal at the end of the first half for a touchdown. As the Blue & Gold prepared to snap the extra point, the refs reviewed the play and noted that St. Louis had 12 men on the field. The TD was overturned, and that was really the end of the Rams motivation to play solid football. At 0-1, the Rams turn their eyes to next week's game against 0-1 Washington. In an early battle of winless teams, you'd have to imagine that newbie coach Steve Spagnuolo and company are going to really want to turn things around. It's now or never.

In CFL news, the BC Lions allowed Montreal to score a game winning touchdowns in the dying seconds of this week's game to lose 24-28. The Als put together a pretty solid fourth quarter comeback after basically trying to give the game away early on. Jarious Jackson went 16/32 for 228 yards with 1 INT and 2 TDs and Martell Mallett rushed for 66 yards on 14 carries, but it wouldn't be enough. The Lions continue to flounder in the West at 4-5 (still just 2 games back from first place Calgary), and hope to make this season slightly more successful next week against Toronto (3-7). If we can do it against anyone, it may be Toronto.

The rest of the world calls soccer football, did you know that. We'll start my tour of the soccer world with Celtic and their 1-1 draw against Dundee United. The Green & White saw Rangers draw earlier in the day, which meant a win could put us 2 points clear. Unfortunately, the Dundee Crocs came away with an early tally just 6 minutes in to push the Celts to the brink. The Sligo side looked slugish until a 17th minute goal from my main man Aussie Scott McDonald after a sweet header from close range. Throughout the rest of the game, both keepers remained strong and kept things level. Celtic really owned the rest of the match, but just couldn't get the ball into the back of the next, and this game ended just like three of last season's four matches (in a draw). I'm pretty sure if Aiden McGeady wouldn't have been suspended, the Celts would have dropped a little more shock and awe to win the game. Too bad it wasn't to be. At least a tie game helped Tony Mowbray's side to keep pace in the SPL, despite being down on goal differential by 1. With 10 points in 4 games, Celtic and Rangers are tied atop the the division table, with Dundee pushing hard with 8 points in their 4. The Hoops play a UEFA Europa League match against Hapoel Tel-Aviv on Thursday before getting back to SPL action against Heart of Midlothian (0-2-1).

This morning it was the Scrambled Eggs of Newcastle United continuing their assault on the Coca Cola Championship League with a 1-0 victory on the road against Cardiff City. It was ultra Argentine Fabricio Coloccini getting the golden goal just 18 minutes deep with a pretty header from a Ryan Taylor cross just 6 yards out. It was the first goal for Coloccini, and a win that put the Boys in Bars 2 points clear at the top of the table. Cardiff City challenged with 14 shots on target, but Steve Harper held so damned strong to earn a clean sheet and help my relegated boys continue the dream of promotion for Magpie Nation. Coach and former Ireland footballer Chris Hughton is continuing to be a pretty nice "in the mean time" manager, leading us on and on to a perfect start. At 5-0-1, the Mags are really getting all of us pretty excited about the opportunity to win the ELC title here in 09/10 and get back to the EPL ASAP. Talk about acronyms! Next up for 'Castle is a midweek battle against Blackpool (1-1-4) on Wednesday before getting back to Championship weekend action Saturday against Plymouth Argyle (0-4-2).

Finally, it was Chivas USA trying to right their ship against New England this weekend, and they sure as heck did. The Goats pulled out a 2-0 victory over the Revs. It was a darned valuable three points for a Sunday afternoon, and it was Maicon Santos getting his first MLS goal and FIFA '10 cover stud and Anaheim native Sacha Kljestan making the difference in the match. The win pushes Chivas into a tie for the final Western Conference playoff spot. The Red & White came out hard, and it paid off with a Santos goal at the 10 minute mark and the Kljestan penalty kick in injury time that did it. With 10 shots on goal, Chivas' offense was humming, and the defense was doing well too, holding the Revs to 2 total shots and zero shots on goal. 11,334 screaming Chivas fans went home happy, and Goat Nation let out a collective sigh as we realize we actually can still win games. And, are you wondering why we got a clean sheet? It was the return of Zach "The Beast" Thorton, who came back on the field and stopped New England in their tracks. The Revs were so scared of ZBT that they didn't even dare to shoot at him. Booyah. Chivas' 36 points in 23 games (11-9-3) are tied for fourth in the West with Colorado (36 points) and are really close to the top (-1 on Seattle, -2 on LA, and -4 on first place Houston). Can we keep the hope alive? Next week is a true test of strength as we go up against #3 Seattle in a game that could catapult us all the way to #2. Oh man, if only we could make this season as solid as it felt it would be at the start of the season. Let's bust those Sounders.

In short: Chivas de Guadalajara lost to San Luis 0-4 this weekend, embarrassing all of us fans, and dropping the record to 1-4-2 on the year. What the heck? Next week is Chiapas. Sligo Rovers drew with Bohemians this weekend 0-0, which is pretty amazing considering that Bohemians are the top team in the Irish Premier table. This tie brings the Bit O' Red to the #8 spot in the league, three points away from staying in the division with no worries, and holding tight in a spot where they would play Drogheda United in a battle for relegation. Next Tuesday, the boys in red go up against Cork City (#4), looking for a surprising win. Lastly, Lazio lost their first Serie A game of the year to Juventus 0-2. The loss to the #1 Serie A squad drops Lazio to 2-1-0 on the year with 6 points in 3 games, good enough for #6 in the division (better than AC Milan!). Next up is a midweek match against SV Salzburg in UEFA Europa League action before getting back to Serie A play against bottom of the table Catania (0-3-0) next weekend.

Have a nice week, babies.

Angels beat Black Sox, win 4th in a row.

After taking three out of four from Kansas City and sweeping Seattle, the Angels continued their late season push with a series opening win against the hated Chicago White Sox with a 7-1 blowout. The win helped push the Halos to a 5.5 game lead over the Rangers, continued our stranglehold on a playoff spot, and put a big block in the White Sox post season dreams. It was a beautiful big bang kind of Friday night.

Isn't is just great to see Joe Saunders kicking butt since coming off the injured ego DL? Big Joe stepped up to the rubber and pitched another solid game to get his fourth straight outing since coming off the DL, and his timely resurgence couldn't be any better. The Colonel went 7 strong innings of 1 run ball, allowing just 3 hits, while punching out 3 in his winning effort. He boosts his record to 13-7, despite most realizing that he's had a tough go of things in 2009, and all of Angels Nation knows that he needs to be spot on if we want to move on through the post season. The bullpen effort was nearly perfect. Jason Bulger didn't get much of a chance to do anything, getting an out and giving up a hit before being lifted in favor of Darren Oliver. Everyone's favorite KC native came in to finish the inning, and gave way to Jose Arredondo in the ninth. 'Dondo pitched a perfect inning, showing that he still has something in the tank from his amazing break out season last year. All in all, the Black Sox were only able to muster up 1 run on 5 hits (coming on a Nix jack in the third), and the Angels offense was able to step it up and bring the Red Hats the win.

7 runs on 10 hits, including a nice three run 5th, and the Angels waltzed their way to a series opening win. The offense was sparked by Mighty Maicer Izturis and his 3 for 4 evening with 2 RBI and 2 runs. Ma$e was electric in the two hole, chipping in a two run double in the fifth that really broke the game open. Izzy was joined by Vlad (by the way, I laughed out loud when I saw a sign in the crowd that said, "Vladdy The Daddy"- must have been an ESL student) who went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI and Juan Rivera who went 2 for 4 with 1 RBI. Honorable mention has to go to Figgy (0 for 2 with 2 walks and 2 runs), and Bobby "El Comedulce" Abreu (who got 2 RBI without a hit on a RBI ground out and a sac fly). Let's take a quick look at the middle infield battle that we have had going on all season. Between Erick Aybar, Maicer Izturis, and Howie Kendrick, only two can play each night. So, once we get to the playoffs, should we continue the carousel or make a decision and run with it? Well, EA Sports is hitting .306 this season (.350 OBP) and has 63 runs and 53 RBI. He will primarily be the shortstop, but can be swapped out with Izzy if it is needed. Izzy is ripping .297 this year (.358 OBP) with 66 runs and 57 RBI. The numbers are pretty damned close if you are trying to pick who is better. Maybe the fact that Aybar has played in 119 games to Ma$e's 99, and that leads you to think that Izturis is quietly having the better year. My main man HK-47 has really turned up the heat since returning from his AAA trip earlier in the year. Howie is going .292 in this campaign (.335 OBP) with 54 runs and 52 RBI in 89 games. Despite the fact that HK is my favorite Angels, I think on behalf of Angels Nation, I would have to put out a call to Mike "Lorii" Scioscia to have Aybar start at SS and Izzy start at 2B throughout the playoffs, with Howie spelling if needed and coming in off the bench for pop later in the game (he has 8 jacks, which is equal to Ma$e and +3 on EA). Who would have thought that I would have decided that, right?

The win has boosted the Angels to 30 games over .500 with an 85-55 record. The lead in the AL West improves to 5.5 games over Texas, with the Rangers raining out. Seattle is now back by 13.5, with Choke-land sitting 21.5 in the rear. We still hold the 2nd best record in the MLB (behind the Yankees and well ahead of the Cards/Dodgers). Plus, we have improved out run differential to +107, which is ridiculous if you look back on my posts to see where we've been. That is the fourth best run differential in the bigs, behind LA (+146), New York (+142), and Boston (+109). The Angels will look to keep the good times rolling today (actually the game is already underway) against the Sox with Ervin "Black Magic" Santana (7-8, 5.69) going against John Danks (12-9, 3.84). Danks, the Austin native, has seen the Sox go 5-5 over his last 10 outings, but he has only allowed more than 4 runs in a game just once over those last 10. So, if the Chicago bats can swing, Danks is in business. However, he is 1-1 with a 6.57 ERA against the Halos this year (allowing 10 runs in 12.3 innings), and hopefully he'll get touched up again. Ervin, meanwhile, has hit a rough patch all of the sudden. After seeing the Angels win 5 straight El Rosario starts, we've now witnessed 3 straight losses. However, two of those games saw Erv give up just 2 and 1 run respectively. This time around, the Red Hat bats are swinging a little more effectively, and the run support should be there if Erv pitches well.

Since the game already started, I can tell you that Chicago leads 3-0 in the bottom of the third, despite the Angels looking pretty solid on offense so far (Chone is 2 for 2, Abreu & HK are 1 for 1). Scott Podsednik hit an inside the park jack, and that's really why we're down. Those hurt. A comeback seems to be in store.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame is up 20-14 on Michigan with 24 seconds to go in the first half. Can't wait for the finish!

Aybar wins the game Kaz should have won.

Another Scott Kazmir start, another game where he pitched well enough to win and got no decision. It was another duel against King Felix Hernandez, and it lived up to the first one in every way, in the end requiring a walk off Aybar hit after BFF blew the save (and game for Kaz). In the end, the Halos walked away with a 10th inning 3-2 win over the Mariners, that somewhat lessened the blow of another Rangers double header sweep.

Just another Scott Kazmir tough luck start. Why is it that we can't hook this guy up with a couple of runs? At least he didn't get the loss! The Kazmanian Devil went out in his first Halo start and tossed 6.3 innings of 1 earned run ball against the M's, only to lose. This time around he pitched even better, going 7 innings of 1 run ball (again, just allowing 3 hits, and now only 3 walks over both games). This cat is crazy. I mean, most around Angels Nation are going to look at his results and say that he isn't paying off, but it doesn't take a very deep dive into the stats (or by just watching his starts) to realize that this guy has found a new home. In the first start, it was a lack of offense and a strong Felix outing that did Kaz wrong, this time around it was a combination of very little offense and a Tito Fuentes blown save that factored him out of the decision. By the way, I really like calling BFF Tito Fuentes. So, after Jepsen continued his recent success (1 perfect inning), Fuentes came in and gave up a lead off jack in the ninth to erase the possibility of the Angels leaving the field with an easy finish. Fuentes then walked two, and was lifted in favor of Jason Bulger. After things were settled down, Mattie Palmer came in and shut the M's down in the 10th to set up the big win. Bottom line: I want you to all believe that Kazmir is legit, even if I am sad about losing Sean Rodriguez.

King Felix did it to the Angels yet again, though. The Halos grabbed 3 runs on 6 hits, including that thrilling Aybar walk off single. Despite that exciting moment, Bobby Abreu was the main man with the bat, going 2 for 4 with 1 RBI. El Comedulce was the lone Halo with a multi-hit game, but honorable mention has to go to Figgy (2 walks), Ma$e (1 walk/1 hit), and GMJ (2 walks). The Halo three runs were scored on a BA sac fly for a run, a BA fielder's choice for a run, and that thrilling Aybar single (which scored Abreu, in fact). Watching Aybar get that hit makes me think that he really should have swung away in the Red Sox game in the playoffs, rather than bricking that attempted suicide squeeze. Eh, Scioscia? Tool. I want to touch on the callups that the Angels made when the rosters expanded, and let you know my opinion (like you really want it): Sean O'Sullivan (Mr. Near Perfect deserves to be here), Brandon Wood (Will we see anything from his this trip up to set up his next year as our starting 3B?), Reggie Willits (It's almost weird that he hasn't been here the whole time), Bobby Wilson (I think Bobby should stay up and have Napoli walk away), Rich Thompson (This is one bad ass Aussie, who really deserves to be up), Ryan Budde (Okay, I spoke too soon, I actually like Budde better than Wilson), Freddy Sandoval (With .300/6/46 numbers, he is one of our corner IFs who is severely underrated thanks to Wood- see the former Halo Sean Rodriguez and Bellevue, WA native Matt Brown), Raffy Rodriguez (He really hasn't show that much in his time up, so I wonder what he has), Terry Evans (Honestly, Terry Evans is so legit, and if he gets his fair shot he'll be considered one of the best trades in Angels history- straight up for Jeff Weaver; .291/26/90/28 bags), Chris Pettit (Just another LSF favorite who has been held back because of our star studded MLB outfield; .321/8/58 and graduated from Loyola Marymount). I love having the young studs called up.

Thanks to another Rangers win (10-0 over the Tribe), the 82-55 Angels are now just 4 games up. Again, why won't these guys go away? I guess my only hope would be that they knock the Red Sox off of the Wild Card to spare us having to play Bean Town in the second season. The M's are now 11 back after the loss, and Oak Town sits 20.5 away from my boys. The series with the Mariners continues tonight (actually in 11 minutes) with our Boy Wonder Jered Weaver (14-5, 3.79) going against former P-Rats Golden Boy Ian Snell (6-9, 5.21). In general, I would say that Snell sucks (although I used to be high on him), but he has won his last 4 starts, and is 4-3 since coming over from Pitt. Keep in mind, though, that he hasn't gone longer than 6 innings since coming over, and his recent success can't last much longer. Meanwhile, Big Baby Caveman came out and beat the lights out of KC in his last start (7 innings of 1 run ball, despite allowing 9 hits). The Angels are 7-3 in Weav's last 10 starts, and that includes a loss to Oakland where he pitched 6 innings of 4 hit shutout ball, only to earn the loss. Weaver should be able to rock and roll over Settle tonight, and set us up for a seriously important sweep, with the Rangers breathing down our necks.

Let's keep Texas 4.5 back, boys.

Vancouver '09/'10 season preview.

With the weekly football post out of the way, the Angels trying to start a comeback against the Royals in the 8th to go 10-0 versus KC this season, and the first game of the NHL preseason on the radar for 9/14 against the Isles, I figured it was about time for the very special LSF Vancouver Canucks season preview. After getting beat by the Blackhawks in the Western Conference Semifinals back in 2008/2009, Vancouver is looking to push things even further forward here in 2009/2010. We all have held onto the pain of the 5-7 Game 6 loss in Chicago after sweeping the St. Louis Blues in the quarters. Now, the Orca and their fans are looking for redemption. Is this finally going to be the year where the Blue & Green bring home Lord Stanley's Cup? This preview will focus on players that we've lost since last year, players that we've gained since last year, the LSF's expected line combinations for the upcoming season, and everyone's favorite...predictions. Let's get it on.

We'll start by taking a look at the newest former Canuck players. First out the door was one our most beloved defenders of all time, Mattias Ohlund. Ohlund signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning on July 1, and it is going to be quite weird to see him playing for an East Coast team. Mattie was the first pick for the Canucks in the '94 entry draft (13th overall), and has been with the team ever since. He made the all-rookie team in 1998, when he started to stay up full time, making his career season in 2001/2002 with an astounding 36 points (10 goals and 26 assists). The Swedish Bomber may have saw his numbers dwindle a little bit in his most recent seasons, but stayed strong with 6 goals and 19 assists in his most recent Vancouver campaign, and he'll be pretty seriously missed. Jason LaBarbera is just the next in a long line of recent backup goaltenders to go 1 and out with the Canucks. I'll miss calling him "La Barbarian," but other than that, his 3-2 record with 2 shutouts will fade away like a warm summer day. Two Jason's make our list of departed players next, with Jason Krog and Jason Jaffray each making their way out. Krog seemed to be coming into his own late in his career with Manitoba and briefly with the 'Nucks, but figured the Thrashers would give him a better chance to get NHL time. Jaffray, meanwhile, appeared in 14 games with Vancouver last season (19 the year before that), and really pumped it up with 48 points in 43 games for Manitoba on 07/08. Hopefully he stinks, now that he's on the Flamers. Not too surprising that Curtis Sanford is off to go and play with another team. He lost all steam once LaBarbera did fairly well in the backup slot, and hopefully Montreal can use him more often. Slightly surprising, however, that Rob Davison is gone off to New Jersey keeping in mind the departure of Ohlund. Davison got some serious time thanks to the blue line injuries that have almost become an annual occurrence for the Canucks. But, then when you look at his numbers (2 assists and -4 in his 23 games), he won't be missed that much. Jeff Cowan went by the nickname "Bra-Barian" after becoming the only Canuck to get bras thrown on the ice after scoring. He's off to play with Brandon's Sabres after getting 11 points in 2 seasons with the Canucks, and being named the player who most looks like the Sedin's triplet. The final really surprising departure is Taylor Pyatt. After losing his fiance in that Jamaican car crash, he became Vancouver's sentimental favorite during the playoffs. The Thunder Bay native scored 49 goals and 44 assists in his three years with Vancouver, and was one of the guys who really benefited from being on the line with the Twins. He'll be with Phoenix, which will be weird, and he'll be missed by this guy as much as Ohlund. Others off from Vancouver are Patrick White and Daniel Rahimi (traded to SJ), Ossi Vaananen (signed with HC Dynamo Minsk), Zach Fitzgerald (signed with the Canes), and Mark Cullen (off to Chicago).

Now we'll peer into the world of the recently signed/acquired players, and see where we sit. First the nice Gillis extensions and how I feel about them: Steve Bernier (so glad to have Bernie for 2 more years; he's quality and severely underrated), Rick Rypien (the Ryper didn't get much time to prove himself last year, but he's a solid 4th line center to keep around), Hank & Daniel Sedin (I can't even picture the Canucks without these two guys on the team, and I won't have to for five more years), Shane O'Brien (if this SOB can keep him PIM down, then I'll love him a lot more), Kyle Wellwood (I think you all know how much I love Welly; 18 goals and 9 assists last year helped me like him a lot more), Jannik Hansen (I think the Great Dane is going to get better and better, starting here in '09), Nolan Baumgartner (I was so excited when we got him last year, but he didn't play, with Ohlund and Davis leaving, maybe he'll get his shot again), Lawrence Nycholat (Lo Lo got an assist in his 14 games w/ Vancouver last season, and is back after a brief 5 game stint with Colorado), and Roberto Luongo (so nice to just put this whole problem behind us forever; our loyal captain will retire as the greatest Canuck goalie off all time in 2021...if he wins us a Cup). So, that's who we kept, how about our acquisitions? Right winger Mikael Samuelsson is a big one that I lot of people have already forgotten about. Sams may be from the Red Army, but it'll be nice to add his 19 goals/21 assists kind of numbers to the offense next year. He had back to back 40 points seasons the last to years, and has a total of 159 points his last 4 seasons with the Red Wings. Ding. Our newest Sanford/LaBarbera is Andrew Raycroft. Andrew leads me to believe that Raycroft sucks, but it shouldn't be a huge deal unless Luongo goes down to injury for the whole season (Dear Lord, please don't let that happen). In 31 games for the Avs last year, Ray Ray went 12-16 with a 3.14 GAA. Eeps. The recent big moves involved trading with the Sharks for two top notch defenders and signing a third from free agency. Christian Ehrhoff brings his 27 year old defending body to Vancouver this year, knocking out a 42 points season in '08/'09 with Karen's Sharks. He's been consistently 21+ assists for the last three years, and gives you are least 77 strong games. I think I'm going to be about him. His friend Brad Lukowich also comes over. The Cranbrook, BC native comes home at 33 , and brings 8 assists and a +5 rating from 58 games with the Sharks last year. His last "full season" was 2006/2007 with the Devils when he played 75 gaems and earned himself 12 points. Clearly not as big as Ehrhoff, but still someone to make some plays with a big stick. 40 year old Mathieu Schneider has hopped from team to team and finally found himself in Vancouver. One of the few US natives (New York, however) to play on the Orca, Schneider carries over 23 points from his 67 games last season (split between Atlanta and Montreal). He's not going to be a huge difference maker on the blue line, but he's a nice fit as a #6 kind of guy, right? Also acquired to play more of a minor role: Matt Pope, Aaron Rome, Tanner Glass, Guillaume Desbiens, Mike Funk, Kellan Tochkin, and Nathan McIver. Most likely all Manitoba Moose, except McIver for a little bit.

Just so you know, the unrestricted free agents include Micehl Ouellet (keep him, right?), Julien Ellis (eh), Patrick Coulombe (I think they'll keep him), and of course Mats Sundin (are you going to retire?). And, just so you know, the big Canuckleheads with contracts expiring in 2010 are: Pavol Demitra, Ryan Johnson, Willie Mitchell, Ryan Kesler, and Mason Raymond.

I'm just going to quickly break down the Canucks lines, as predicted by me, and see what I come up with. Vancouver and Coachie V have a long history of switching lines like mad during the season (and even during games), so this is what I think the starting rotation will look like (three points for the cross sports reference!):

Line One: Daniel Sedin-Henrik Sedin-Mikael Samuelson

Line Two: Alex Burrows-Ryan Kesler-Steve Bernier

Line Three: Ma$on Raymond-Cody Hodgson (his time has come)-Pavol Demitra

Line Four: Rick Rypien-Ryan Johnson-Jannik Hansen

Important backups: Darcy Hordichuk and Alex Bolduc

Defense One: Christian Ehrhoff (left)-Sami Salo (right)

Defense Two: Willie Mitchell (left)-Kevin Bieksa (right)

Defense Three: Shane O'Brien (left)-Alex Edler (left) or Mathieu Schneider (left)

Important backups: Nolan Baumgartner, Brad Lukowich, and Lawrence Nycholat.

Goalie: Roberto Luongo

Backup goalie: The battle between Andrew Raycroft and according to him Moose star Cory Schneider.

Predictions: The 'Nucks finished last season with an impressive 45-27-10 record, finishing with 100 gigantic points to win the Northwest Division (+2 on Calgary). Despite that fantastic regular season, and the sweep in the Quarterfinals against the Blues, the Vannies bowed out against Jon's Chicago Blackhawks. So, will 2009/2010 be better, worse, or more of the same? I think the regular season will be about the same, somewhere around 100 points or so. I can only hope that the 100 or so points will against be enough to hold off the rest of the idiots in our division. Let's go with a season of 44-29-9 (97 points) and a trip to the Western Conference Finals. I would love to see Vancouver hoist Lord Stanley, and I think adding Samuelson may make us that kind of team, but I feel like I'll stick with my prediction as more realistic.

Go Canucks Go!

A fun duel, Bam Bam, and keeping Lackey.

Michigan v. Ohio State. Muhammad Ali v. Joe Frazier. North Carolina v. Duke.

John Lackey v. Zach Greinke.

It was a much anticipated pitching duel on the bump in Kansas City this weekend, and it sure lived up to the hype. Both hurlers convinced their respective coaches to let them stay in longer than better judgment would have, and it made for an exciting finish. In the end, each would give up a single run, pushing the game into extra innings where Kansas City's bullpen would lay another egg that the Halos took advantage of. John Lackey allowed his only run in the first inning, and then put the clamps down, going into the bottom of the 9th inning with less than 90 pitches. He would finish his above average day with 9 innings of 1 run ball, allowing 6 to reach base (6 hits and NO walks), and punching out 4 from KC. Everyone's favorite Cy Young contender, Greinke, finished 8 innings of 1 run ball, giving up 8 hits and getting 8 strikeouts, while walking 2. The Royals ace didn't give up a run until the eighth inning, when he allowed a two out runners on the corners RBI single to Torii Hunter that tied the game, and sent it into extras. The Angels had runners on the corners with 0 outs in the 8th, down by one, and the Royals manager came out to remove Greinke. ZG convinced his coach to let him finish, and it looked like a genius move. The pitcher got Abreu and Vlad out before Torii Hunter ripped a pitch into left center to tie the game. The rest of the game was a bullpen battle, and the combination of Kevin "I'm all the sudden good" Jepsen and Brian Fuentes was better than Soria (although, he was really good), Yabuta (earning the loss and the best name of the game award), and Jamey Wright (who allowed the game winning hit by EA Sports). It was Erick Aybar delivering the game winning single in the eleventh to score (guess who?) Big Game that would win the game. BFF earned his MLB leading 39th save of the year (Frankie has 29!). EA was the offensive hero, going 3 for 4 with a walk and the big RBI, and was joined in the VIP club by Hunter (2 for 5 with a RBI and run) and Kendry "Bam Bam" Morales (2 for 5, despite 2 Ks).

The Rangers lost, so the 80-54 Angels are now 4.5 games up on the AL West's second best. Seattle sits 9 back, with Oakland back 21.5. The four game series with the Royals continues tomorrow morning as Joey Saunders (11-7, 5.02) goes up against Luke Hochevar (6-8, 5.74). Hochevar would love to get a win, with his birthday coming up on 9/15, but recent history hasn't been kind to the Royals Colorado native. The Royals have dropped the last 7 starts by Luke, and they are just 2-8 in his last 10 starts. Ouch. Meanwhile, Big Joe Saundo has been turning things around, going 3-1 in his last 4 starts, including his most recent outing being a gem (7 innings of 3 hit shutout ball against Seattle). Hopefully our favorite V Tech native can set us up for a sweep.

Am I the only one around Angels Nation who didn't know that Kendry Morales' nickname is "Bam Bam?" Evidently the nickname was started by Rex Hudler (hm, maybe that's why I haven't been using it), but it was made based on a translation error. Hudler noticed that K-Mo was listening to his iPod and asked him who he was listening to. Morales responded by naming his favorite Cuban band, "Van Van." Hudler, most likely due to being tore up on weed, thought that he said "Bam Bam," and decided that it was the perfect nickname for the Cuban slugger. Going .312/30/94 so far this season, and (BAM!) the name sticks. I think I can officially say that "I told you so" when it comes to the success of Morales this season, and it sure is fun watching it happen. Keep it up, Bam Bam.

After the game today, and due to most of his season, I just want to make my quick pitch for the Angels needing to keep John Lackey beyond this season. A lost of Angels Nation saw the Kazmir move as proof that the Angels were going to let John Lackey walk after his $10 million season here in 2009, but I really saw it more as making our rotation one of the most incredible starting 5 in all of baseball here in '09 and '10, and it includes John Lackey. This season, another slightly injury plagued one, has seen Gigantic John go 9-7 with a 3.74 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP. The Angels have gone 6-4 over his last two, including winning his last two starts where he's gone a combined 17 innings of 2 run ball (1 earned). Most wouldn't agree, but I feel that Lackey is easily the strongest pitcher in the starting 5. In the post-All Star break part of the season, John has his BAA at a nice .218, and had his best month in July (.186). How about day games? He's holding a 4-1 record and a 1.39 ERA. The guy is a stud, just admit it. Letting Lackey go would be a sin. A mortal sin. The fact that the Angels exercised Lackey's '09 option, rather than signing the contract extension back in October has me a little worried that they aren't going to sign the guy. But, look at the guy's records for us since 2002: 9-4, 10-16 (okay, 2003 was tough), 14-13, 14-5, 13-11, 19-9 (gotta love '07), 12-5, and 9-7 (this year). Plus, he's a stud with the ladies. Sign him, I made my point.

Farewell doofus.

Weekly football post #51.

Just like the good ol' days, we are 53 days into a Brandon/Jon/Andrew LSF post strike. Time just flies by.

Here's a quick run down on everything in my football world that isn't Notre Dame this week:

Celtic played a friendly against Benfica in Canada 1-3, and barely had a single starter in. They're all resting up for next weekend's SPL clash against Dundee.

Newcastle took the entire week off from play after their 1-0 win against Leicester City last weekend. Next up is a 9/13 battle against Cardiff City.

After their 0-1 loss to the Galaxy last weekend, Chivas USA took the week off to allow USA players to hit the road, and they try to save the season next weekend against New England.

The BC Lions lit up the CFL with a 19-12 late comeback win against the Als yesterday. Jarious Jackson went 17/30 for 217 yards with 2 TDs and 0 INTs and Martell Mallet went 21 rushes for a gigantic 213 yards (averaging 10.14). He even ripped of a 54 yarder. At 4-5, the Lions are still in last place in the West, but aren't too far off from first place Edmonton (5-3). The next game is against Montreal against (this time on the road) next Sunday.

The Rams completed their preseason with another win, getting the best of Kansas City 17-9. The offense saw a 6 yard TD pass from Brock Berlin and the defense was able to return a pick for a 28 yard TD from Quincy Butler. Boller also went 3/4 in the game with Ronald Curry trying to step to the front of the receiving core with 3 catches for 40 yards. Once again, they dominated the turnovers, winning the battle 3-1. They start the real battle on 9/13 against the hated Seahawks.

But, the most important football event of the weekend was by far the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish season opener. I showed up with my Dad at Silky Sullivan's, sat with the UND alumni, pounded wings, poppers, and a tuna melt, and watched the Irish confidently beat Nevada 35-0 to start the '09 campaign off right. I know what the ND haters will say, "It was Nevada, you shouldn't get too excited." I slightly agree, however, Nevada is pretty much a legit WAC offense. They were preseason ranked as the #2 WAC team by coaches, after Boise State. Their pistol offense has been talked up like crazy heading into the game. As impressed as I was with the well oiled offense, I was more impressed (since we were playing Nevada) by the Irish defenders. While the D may have allowed some short stuff, they came together when the needed to and made big stops in the red zone, including getting a turnover when it appeared that the Pack would get out of the doughnut hole.

The first drive out the gate, the Domers were pushing things forward, making solid things happen, including converting a nice fourth down conversion. On a 3rd and 16 at the Nevada 19, I told my Dad that I wanted ND to run to the right to set up a nice field goal. Boy, was I wrong. Clausen stepped back and fired a perfect pass to TE Kyle Rudolph in the back of the end zone. One foot in, Silky's goes wild, and the Irish were off to a nice start. Nevada was able to give it a nice march down the field early in the drive against ND, but they bricked a field goal, and the pendulum swung back in our favor. ND's second drive would go from the first and into the second quarter, and included a nice 36 yard toss to Golden Tate. The drive ended with a Clausen pass to Michael Floyd for 24 yards and 6 points, and it would be the first of 3 for Floyd. After getting Nevada to go three and out (go defense!), Clausen passed straight across to Michael Floyd, and the MF'er took the ball 70 crazy yards for his second TD. Floyd was just too fast for the Pack defenders. By the way, Nick Tausch, the true freshman getting the kicking honors, was perfect on extra points but really just so so on kickoffs. Props to Dayne Crist for going 1 for 1 in the first half, getting a random snap on a drive that ended in a three & out. After another solid defensive stop, busting a 4th and 1 try for Nevada, the Irish marched again with Armando Allen as the star. AA caught a 26 yard pass, and followed that up with a tough 1 yard TD run to put the Irish up 28-0. Nevada started marching pretty well as the first half was coming to an end, but a Colin "Pistol Whip" Kaepernick huck up as the clock expired resulted in a ND interception & touchback to send us into the second half with smiles on our face.

The offense would slow down in the second half, and Charlie Weis took the blame, however, the defense kept things going to keep their shutout running along smoothly. The final good guys' TD came on the Irish first drive. After three Armando Allen rushes (4, 5, 2 yards respectively), Jimmy Clausen connected with Michael Floyd again. This time it was for a record 88 yards TD reception that gave ND the touchdown. Damn, Mike Floyd is off the charts so far. The defense continue to baffle Nevada, including recovering a fumble on the ND 5 yard line as Nevada neared getting their big 0 off the board. It was Kapron Lewis-Moore falling on the pigskin to seal the deal through 3. The fourth quarter was pretty quiet, but allowed the youngsters to shine. Sophomore Dayne Crist came in and went 2 for 2 for 17 yards, freshman Theo Riddick showed off his amazing speed at half back going 5 attempts for 19 yards, and freshman Manti Te'o showed off his solid defending skills (and homage for Armando Allen, as he rocked the #5 jersey). Robert Hughes ran out the clock with 6 rushes for 20 yards on the final, time expiring drive of the game. Just like that, the Irish raised their helmets in celebration.

The Irish are happy to be sitting at 1-0 to start things, but the real proof comes next weekend against the University of Michigan in Michigan. The Wolverines ran up the score on Western Michigan 31-7 with freshman Tate Forcier leading the way as QB, going 13/20 with 179 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INTs.

Here is the LSF Notre Dame awards for week 1: Offensive Player of the Game (aka, the Brady Quinn Award) = Michael Floyd (4 receptions for 189 yards and 3 TDs...that's an average of 47.3 yards per catch). Defensive Player of the Game (aka, the Tom Zbikowski Award) = Kyle McCarthy (9 tackles and an interception). The Underrated Player of the Game (aka, the John Carlson award) = Jonas Gray (9 rushes for 50 yards as the #2 rusher. An average of 5.6 and a long of 19).

Now, who else is with me in thinking that the Angels are going to beat up on Greinke this afternoon?

Let's assess Kaz after one start.

What better way to assess the latest Tony Reagins deal than to talk about what we think about Scott Kazmir after his first Halo start. For it is only by basing very strong opinions on very little evidence that we truly become the average American baseball fan. Let's get to work.

In the Kazmanian Devil's first start, the Angels dropped their game to the Mariners 0-3, with Scottie K earning the loss. So, off with his head! Oh wait, I guess I should further examine how things went down for our newest lefty. Unfortunately, he was going up against the Mariners current best pitcher, King Felix Hernandez, and the young Felix was on his game. The King went a thrilling 8 innings of 4 run shutout ball, with 6 punch outs to crush the Angels powerful offense and improve to 14-5 on the season, with a miniscule 2.65 ERA. This kid is still good. The sweet outing of the young Venezuelan completely overshadowed the semi-day game Angel debut of the newest Halo southpaw. And, that stinks, because Kaz pitched well enough to win. Scottie went 6.3 strong innings of 2 run ball (only 1 earned) with 8 crazy Ks and allowing just 4 on (3 hits/1 walk). That is a pretty good time in a debut, in my humble opinion. Out of 106 pitches, Kazmir nailed down 71 strikes, and I think made Angel fans around the Nation as happy as they could be despite losing in a shutout. The bullpen featured Jepsen (0.67 innings of shutout ball), Fuentes (a completely pile of goo in 0.67 innings of 1 run ball), and Matt Palmer (saving the day with one punch out in one AB after BFF blew up). If only the Angels could have strung together a couple of hits with runners on base, Kazmir would have started his latest career change off with a win, and would have been a big hit on Sports Center. So, my assessment: An outing that shows promise that Kazmir may be the perfect back end fit in this 5 man rotation.

So what happened with out offense? Well, getting just 4 hits and striking out 7 times helped to make King Felix look even better than he is...and he's pretty good. Figgins led the way, going 2 for 3 with a walk, which usually spells success for the Red Hats, but he was the only Angel with a multi-hit game, and when that happens, we are destined to lose. And lose we did! Honorable mention for the crappy offense goes to Bobby Abreu, who went 0 for 2 with 2 walks. That is so BA. Big poops go out to Hunter (0 for 4) and Vlad (0 for 4), who just rolled over against Hernandez, and left the RBI hits vacant. Boom; loss.

Can I point something out that I hate about ESPN before I move forward? They had a poll question on their website that actually featured the Angels, which got me excited, but the excitement would quickly fade. The question was, "Who is the Angels best starting pitcher?" The answer selections: Scott Kazmir, "John Lacker" (no joke), Jered Weaver, Joe Saunders, and Ervin Santana. I picked John Lacker, mostly because I think he is literally the best starter on the team despite what this season's results would tell us. Of course, winning the pole was Scott Kazmir with 30% of the vote. 30% of people picked Kazmir, who only pitched one game in his career for the Angels...and lost?! Pathetic.

After dropping 2 of 3 from the fading Mariners, the Angels lead over Texas in the AL West has now dropped to just 3.5 games. Texas is not only sticking around, but they are actually making a run at us. At 78-54, the Angels are starting to drop from the sky, and the Rangers are hoping to reap the benefits. What we need is an easy series to turn things around. Hey, it's time for a road trip to Kansas City. Sweet! Tonight's series opener pits Jered Weaver (13-5, 3.89) against Gil Meche (6-10, 5.09). The Royals are 4-6 over Meche's last 10 starts, and Gil has allowed 4 or more runs in 7 of his last 10 outings. Bing.com...this game is already looking in our favor. How does this guy make $11.4 million this year? No wonder the Royals are a stupid franchise. Oh wait, didn't everyone pick the Royals to make the playoffs this season? Idiots. Meanwhile, the caveman-iest thing to come out of Northridge, CA has helped the Angels go 7-3 over his last ten starts, including wins against Texas, two against Minnie, a win over Oakland, and a big one over the Yankees. J Weav is the AL's #6 in win, #10 in WHIP, #3 in complete games, and #11 in punch outs. The Angels, however, have lost his last two starts (despite him going 6 innings of shutout ball in his last outing against Oakland). Can the Big Baby get things going again to put the Angels back on the straight and narrow?

Sports Pickle kept their record of making me laugh out loud with this one.

10 runs, a shutout, and a player to be named later.

Honestly, beating the Mariners is almost as sweet as beating the A's. The Angels pulled a huge 10-0 shutout win over the M's in their series opener, with Joey Saunders going big, and Vlad going yard (which, interestingly enough, was my old AIM screen name).

Continuing his triumphant return from the "hurt pride DL," Big Joe Saundo went 7 big time innings of 3 hit shutout ball against the hated Mariners, and led the way for a big Halo victory. He was backed up on the back end by Trevor Bell's first relief appearance, as he went 2 innings of near perfect ball (0 hits/runs, 3 Ks, and 1 BB). Joe Saunders, however, is the focus of the hurling after this 9 innings, and he has now gone 12 innings of 2 run ball in his last two starts, placing his hope squarely in getting into that all important playoff rotation. What do you think? At 11-7 with a 5.02 ERA, Saunders isn't having nearly the season he had in '08, but he is somehow hanging in there lately, and has a pretty solid shot at getting in there in the second season, right? Meanwhile, the offense was dead on last night, getting 10 runs on 13 hits.

Vladdy was once again the solid force in the lineup, going 3 for 4 with 4 RBI, hitting 2 jacks to continue his blistering pace since coming off of the DL. Big Baby G was helped out by Chone Figgins (2 for 5), Magic Juan'd (2 for 5 with 3 RBI on his fifth inning jack), Kendry Morales (3 for 4), and even Howie Kendrick (2 for 4 with 2 RBI). This lineup is rolling, with 19 runs in the last 2 games. This was the largest blowout of Seattle since 1997, when the Halos won 18-3 at home. That game featured Chuck "Fin To Win" Finley as the winning pitcher, and Gary DiSarcina leading the way with a 4 for 6 game, including 4 RBI. Would you believe that our starting outfield back then was GA, Jim Edmonds, and Tony Phillips? All that, and we went 10 for 24 with runners in scoring position. Take it M's!

As I type, Ervin is engaged in a pitching duel with rookie Doug Fister (don't even get me started on coming up with a nickname for this guy). The Angels and M's are tied at 1 going into the seventh inning stretch, and it is really anyone's game. Tonight's result notwithstanding, the Angels are 78-52, with a 5 game lead over the Rangers. The Rangers somehow won both games of a double header against the Blue Jays, which has them back into things, but if the Angels can pull things together in the last couple of innings tonight, we'll be up by 5.5 heading into bedtime. Tomorrow's game is going to be pretty damned exciting. Scott Kazmir (8-7, 5.92) will be making his Halo debut against King Felix (13-5, 2.77). Our newest Houston native Kaz is turning things around lately, with his former team going 4-2 over his last 6 games, and has only allowed 7 runs in his last 19.67 innings. Can he bring the Angels the extra pitching we need to make our playoff push? Meanwhile, the M's are 4-2 in King Felix's last 6 starts as well. He's allowed 10 runs in his last 27 innings, and you never know when he's going to have a sweet game. Hopefully Kaz can out duel him to make us all proud.

However, a new addition to the Kazmir deal has this Angel fan questioning this whole thing. You can read here to find out how I felt about the deal when it got pulled off. There, of course, was the lovely "player to be named later." Well, they named the player to be named later today, and it was none other than my former Rancho man crush Sean "HR Rod" Rodriguez. Really guys? I've been pulling for this guy for years, he's been getting his shot lately and making good use of it, and now he's gone. I still feel that Rod is going to be bigger than Brandon Wood, and stand by that assessment, so it will be interesting to see who has the better Major League numbers come 2011 or so. Kazmir is going to have to be nuts, heads above where he has been this season so far, to make me forget about Seanie, and I hope he does it. Meanwhile, if I'm watching Sports Center in 2011 and I see HR Rod going 4 for 5 against the Red Sox to lead the Rays to victory, I might start crying.

As usual, when a player I love departs a team I love, here is the You Tube tribute video. Love the pink.