It looks like it's the Rockies who will be eating our nuts, eh Brandon? The Angels ran their last ten mark to 7-3 with another series win over the weekend. My boys showed no hangover after the Freeway Series win, and no set of nerves heading into this week's big three with Los Rangers. I enjoyed the baseball weekend.
Friday: The 11 inning Rockies win in game one was the exception to the fun this weekend. The media loves to play up how the Colorado players showed up at 3:00 am on Friday morning. However, I don't see how 16 hours isn't enough time to sleep and prepare for the game. Clearly, it wasn't a problem for them. It was another waste of a nice Weaver outing, as he banged out 7 innings of 2 run ball with 11 Ks. The bullpen was not spot on, as Fernando Rodney coughed up a RBI single to Gonzalez in the 8th to let the game get knotted up. The game continued that way until the new Francisco Rodriguez (still needing a good nickname) allowed a double to the COL catcher, a walk to Mora, and a eventual game losing single to Jon Herrera. The Angels had a chance in the bottom half of the 11th to make something happen, getting a Abreu single and a JR walk to start things, but Napoli and Mathis promptly grounded out to end the threat. Only Napoli and Fransden had multihit efforts in the game that saw Mathis, Hunter, and Reggie gets RBI in the losing match. How about "The 'Cisco Kid?" Maybe something about how his hat is always so low...
Saturday: Godzilla smash!!! It was Hideki-son Matsui going grand-a-band-a-ding-dong in the first inning that carried the Angels to a 4-2 win in the middle test of the series. It was Matsui's 150th jack in the MLB (which doesn't seem like a lot, right?), and his 482nd career jack across both Japan and the States (there, that sounds like a lot). After giving up the slam, Rockies' starter Aaron Cook got the next 17 Halos out in order. Ba-dow! Luckily, Joey Joe Joe was putting forth some good work on the hill for the Red Hats. 7 innings of 2 run ball with 8 Ks had Joe saying he hopes this win is the turning point in his season. Um, how many of those have we had this year? Fernando Rodney redeemed himself with a scoreless inning, and BFF earned himself another (not scary) save. Including the Mats grand slam, the Angels had just 4 hits. Good enough me.
Sunday: Ah, they were saving their hits for the finale. 10 runson 9 hits did the job in game 3, as the Angels busted the Rockies 10-3. This game featured a fourth inning Napolini three run job that gave us the lead early on, and a Brandon Wood eighth inning insurance grand slam that pushed us way ahead for good. Maybe this can be the turning point for Wood. After the game, Wood said, "I wasn't worried about this or that. I was just being me." What a fag. One thing that got overlooked in the homer happy game was Erv Daddy going 6.67 innings of 3 run/7 K work, making his Hooters baby mamma proud. Shields, Jepsen, and 'Cisco combined to finish the game out in shutout fashion. Don't get to excited about Gas Can not allowing a run. It was just 0.3 innings and he gave up a hit. He's just a shell of his former self. It was also nice to see Erick Aybar (2 for 5) back at the top. And, I wouldn't be fair unless I pointed out Jeff Mathis' 0 for 4 with 4 Ks night. Happy, Nap fans?
With the winning weekend, we're 43-35. Sadly, the Rangers are putting down a streak similar to the '02 A's. But, we overcame that impressive streak from Oakland, and we'll overcome anything the Nolan Ryan's squad can throw at us. We're 4.5 back currently, with the A's running 10 back, and ESPN's back-to-back AL West Champions (Seattle) a whopping 15 shy of the lead.
We have our big chance to cut into Tejas' lead starting tomorrow as we share a three game test with our division leaders. Did you know the top two RBI producers for June are Josh Hamilton and Torii Hunter? Did you know Vlad is leading the Rangers with 60 brilliant RBI? Did you know Joel Piñero may have quite a good chance to win the opener against vulnerable 80's heartthrob Scott Feldman? Did yu know Mike Napoli is leading the Angels in jacks despite coming up in trade rumor after internet trade rumor? Did you know Vlad simply owns the Rangers? Wait... Am I buliding this series up enough? It's huge.
By the way, the Mariners have signed Russell Branyan, so expect ESPN to start predicting a comeback from 15 back.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
0 comments:
Post a Comment