Back to back losses to the Twinkies, and just like that we're 1-2 on the new season. The latest version was last night's 2-4 loss at home to Minnie. Ervin Santana came out and had a better outing than the mainstream media is giving him credit for. 6 innings of 4 run ball in the loss, getting himself 4 Ks and only allowing 1 BB. Sure he took the loss, and sure he allowed homers to Morneau and Hardy, but overall it was a decent enough outing. On the downside, the offense was flat outside of Matsui. Sure, JR got a nice infield single (on what was really more of an error on the second baseman) for our first run, and Naps knocked an RBI single after HK47 got into scoring position in the 9th, but the overall lack of timely hitting kept us off the mark.
So, after this 1-2 start, I thought we'd explore what we know for sure so far:
-- Hideki Matsui is an extreme stud. Feck all the haters who assumed that he was just another eldery slugger with bad knees (Vlad is hitting .571 with a jack for Texas this year). Matsui put the God in Godzilla again last night, going 3 for 4 with a run scored, and set the table up for the JR 2 out RBI. Overall this season, Hideki has a very decent grouping of numbers: .455/1/2. He seems like a very solid DH signing for our boys, and is really doing all he can to convert The Big A into "Matsui-land."
-- This bullpen is firing on all levels. Once again, the 'pen was electric last night, with Jason Bulger going 2 innings of 1 hit/shutout ball and Scottie 2 Hottie finishing up with a 1 hit/shutout inning and 2 Ks. This just adds to the rest of the pen so far, starting the season off with 10 innings of 5 hit, shutout ball. Inspirational! Especially because no reliever has pitched more than one outing so far.
-- Brandon Wood is going to be riden by the idiot fans all the way to his demotion back to the minor leagues. Whoa, whoa, maybe I just went a little to far. Slow down, Tommy. Listening to "Angels On Air," all I hear is stupid fans complaining about how he sucks. On and on. Three games, you morons. These are the same fans who have been complaining for 2 years about how he never gets a long enoug shot. Pick an argument, fools. 1 for 12 over the first three games (.083) is clearly a tough start, but Bobby Abreu is only hitting .182 over the same 3 games, and there isn't a single fan complaining about his start. Two things on my view about Brandon Wood: 1) Calm down and give him time. Let's save judgment for after 1 month (at the earliest) and 2) Maicer Izturis is a VERY capable backup 3B. Even if he simply gets platooned over there, Ma$e is going to put up good numbers. By the way, jerks, Brandon Wood was our #9 hitter last night, so RBI will be low, and expectations for a high average out of that slot aren't ever that high. Best of luck Woody, I'll stand by your side...for a while.
Tonight, the Halos try to salvage a split against Minnesota. Joel Piñeiro gets his first real chance to start for the Angels against Kevin Slowey. JP went 4-0 in 6 starts over Spring training, and looks to follow up last season's comeback in St. Louis here in So Cal. Also tonight, Hideki Matsui will get his first game in the field, plaing left.
Let's give extra love to Scot Shields, by the way, as he in the lone surviving Angel from the 2002 World Championship squad.
Let's go get us that split!
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
0 comments:
Post a Comment