What a game last night. The Blue Jays outhomered the Angels 3-1, and the Angels walked away with an 8-3 win and another complete game from Ervin Santana. Who would have thought? After Erick Aybar led the game off with an infield single, Bobby Abreu drove him home to start the game of right. See what I'm saying, Aybar? Then, the Halos had a hit parade in the second. Willits, Aybar, Kendrick, and Abreu drove in runs seemingly consecutively, making Ricky Romero's family so disappointed in him. Ha! The Jays fought back with three solo homeruns, but only had 4 total hits in the game, and a Napoli solo bomb led the charge to keep the Angels ahead for good. What got into Napoli?
The mound was where the real action was, though. El Rosario pitched his second complete game of the year, both against Toronto. He put in 9 innings of work, allowing 4 hits (3 of them solo jacks), and punching out an incredible 10. Way to keep a good lineup down. I was even more impressed by Mike Scioscia's decision to leave him in. Finally a quality call.
My favorite part of the game was either A) The fans dressed like garden gnomes even though they didn't get given out because they couldn't get them into the county or B) Juan Rivera getting out on a dropped third strike, where he couldn't run to first because of where the ball went and then he kind of danced with the Jays catcher in a "cat and mouse game," (Victor Rojas' words, not mine) before getting tagged out.
The best part of this game, and many of Ervin's good games this year is the fact that he seems to be kicking it old school! 2 complete games in 10 starts. Leading the team in innings pitched with 69. Throwing hard and holding down the second best K/9 among Halo starters at 8.09. And, rocking 6 quality starts over his 10 starts this year. He's looking more and more like a pitcher from the days of yore, and I like it. Wouldn't it be cool if the Angels answered their bullpen problems this season by just converting their starters into "back in the day" starters who just always went the distance? That would be a dream for me, and Ervin is leading the way.
At 22-26, the Angels go for a series win against Andrew's Blue Jays this afternoon at the Stadium, as Joel Piñero (3-5, 5.00) tries to keep the ball down against Brandon Morrow (3-4, 6.80). In Morrow's last game, he gave up 6 runs in 4 innings to Arizona, and hopefully Napoli and the Angels can pounce on him early and often. Meanwhile, La Piñata has been a complete bum lately, allowing 9 runs in 3 innings to the Cards (including the grand salami to Brad Penny). Why won't the sinker sink?! Maybe tonight.
Series win, on tap.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
0 comments:
Post a Comment