I'll start by giving huge love to LSF squad, the Chicago Blackhawks, for winning the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1961. Rest assured, the side of the blog was updated seconds after the win to reflect the accomplishment. With either Boston or LA winning the NBA, Chi Town ending their drought, and soccer titles aplenty, can we dub this the Year of Champions for us here at LSF?
Yesterday, the Halos took another step toward giving us another title this year by popping the A's a good way. A 7-1 win for the Red Hats has lifted our spirits right back up, kept us snug with the Rangers in the division race, and proven that last night may have been a case of the AL's most underrated pitcher beating the AL's most overrated pitcher.
We'll start with the bats. How about Erick Aybar? You replace him for a couple of games with Mighty Maicer, and BOOM; he wakes up. EA led the order off with a 4 for 5 game with 2 RBI, including a RBI triple. The middle of the order was on point as well. Hunter (3 for 5), Matsui (2 for 5), Napoli (2 for 5), and JR (2 for 4) combined for 4 RBI and 3 runs scored, and included the "Coors Cold Hard Blast" from JR in the eighth. Classy. The underrated player of the game on the offensive side goes to Kevin Frandsen, who despite bein picked off, scored 2 runs on a 1 for 4 night.
Joe Saunders has taken a lot of well deserved crap this season. He had a God awful start to the campaign. However, he has completely turned things around. After a complete game, allowing just 1 run and pitching out of jam after jam (2 DPs and 5 LOB for the A's), Joey Joe Joe is now 5-6 with a 4.35 ERA. 2-0 in June with just 2 runs allowed in 17 innings, he allowed 3 or less runs in 4 of his 6 starts in May. No one, outside of a handful of Angel fans have gotten behind the Colonel yet, but they should. At 4-1 in his last 5 decisions, Joe has turned the corner, and is back to being the Saunders we all know and love.
Dallas Braden, on the other hand, has to be the ALs most overrated pitcher. He tossed the perfect game (which isn't even that unique anymore) on May 9th against the Rays. He was the delight of Sports Center. He read the "Top 10" list on Letterman. He became a national figure. Has anyone talked about him since then? How about going 0-4 with a 4.75 ERA in his six starts since that gem? How about getting smoked by the Angels twice since that gem? How about we stop pretending this guy is a Cy calliber pitcher just because of one gem? Maybe my dislike for the A's in general is creeping into this a little bit.
At 33-29, we sit just 0.5 games back of the division leading Rangers. Oakland and Seattle are 2 and 9 back of the lead respectively. Today is a lunch time dandy where Ervin Santana (6-3, 3.29) looks to send Trevor Cahill (4-2, 3.21) and the A's back to the .500 mark. Cahill lost for the first time since May 16 in his last outing, and even then only allowed 3 runs in 6 innings. Prior to that he held down 3 runs in 19 innings. Dangerously crafty. Guess what? That May 16 loss was a 0-4 gaff to the Halos. Nice. Meanwhile, Erv Gotti is 5-0 with a 1.80 ERA since May 9. He's been so on point it's out of control. 11-2 with a 1.54 ERA in his career against Oakland. This should be a great series ending battle.
Is another series win on tap for the Halos?
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
1 comments:
About the USC thing: do we now absolve the 2004 Championship from their record? If so, does Andrew get any extra suffering? Do we count the 2003 AP Poll Championship, or does LSU, the winner of the actual National Championship game, get the 2003 title? If that is the case, do we go back to the 78 Coaches Poll, or the 72 outright? And does Andrew get all those years?
Post a Comment