What a crazy weekend in Halo Nation! It started on Thursday when I declared the slump start to the season as officially over, despite ESPN LA's Mark Saxon and his warnings of being so smug. He may have seemed right after Friday's 3-8 loss to Seattle, but I'm fairly certain that when historians look at my call, they'll declare me correct. Let's take a look at a weekend that had incredible highs and unbelievable lows.
Friday: Kazmir against Cliff Lee, and guess what? We got spanked by 5. Kaz worked 5.3 innings of 5 run ball, Scottie 2 Hottie allowed 2 earned in his later mop up inning, and the offense got just 5 hits. Aybar, Hunter, Matsui, Napoli, and good ol' JR all went without a hit. Kevin Fransden was a bright spot (2 for 3 with a run scored), but Lee just baffled our bats (10 Ks in his 8 innings). Saxon grinned smugly in his lonely studio apartment.
Saturday: Talk about a day of ups and downs. Jered Weaver and Felix Hernandez turned out to live up to the expectations. The Mariners scored a run in the fourth on a throwing error, and the Angels had their prayers answered when Bobby Abreu hit a game tying solo shot in the eighth. Weav finished 7 innings of shutout ball with 6 Ks, while Felix went 8 innings of 1 run ball punching out 7. You be the judge on who won that battle (cough...Weaver). Torii Hunter left the game to get x-rays after gettin beaned on the hand (don't worry, he came back Monday, and a worse injury is on the way). After drawing even through 9, we headed to the tenth (props to Fernando Rodney and BFF for shuting the M's out in the final 3 inning). Ma$e led the tenth off with a double, El Comedulce was intentionally walked, Reggie Willits hit a grounder to Chone Figgins at second base that he bobbled (probably trying to help out his former club...I think I saw a red undershirt on #9), and Kendry Morales blasted the first Brandon League pitch out of the park for a walk off grand slam. It was his first career grand slam and it sent us into a frenzy. He rounded the bases, spiked his helmet on the way from third to home, and jumped into the dog pile. What a joy! But wait, why isn't Kendry getting up? Joy turned to concern. They zoom in on Mo Mo's face, and he is in pure agony. No!!!!! Kendry jumped up, slipped on home plate, and broke his leg. Our mighty first baseman was down for count. Horror. What a roller coaster of a game.
Sunday: You need a hell of a game after a ending like Saturday, and boy did we get one. Down 2-7 after the top of the 5th, I don't think we had high hopes. Joey Joe Joe went just 4.3 innings of 7 run ball, allowing 10 hits and 3 walks. The Colonel of earlier in the season was back. Luckily for him, the bullpen meant business to keep our boys in the mix. Bozo Bell, Jason Bulger, Big Country Jepsen, and Fernando Rodney combined for 4.67 innings of shutout ball, and that would go down as the mega underrated story of the game. Meanwhile, the bats started chipping away at Ian Snell and the Boat Captains. Juan Rivera walked with the bases loaded in the 5th, Abreu walked with the bases loaded in the 6th, Hideki reached base on a catcher's interference call after that in the inning (thank you catcher's glove), and Howie bombed a solo job in the 7th. Still down 6-7, Howie came up again in the 9th with two on and one out. Here's the pitch...KABOOM! A walk off three run jack for Howie over the right field scoreboard to end the game. This time, the Angels didn't gather around homeplate while the walk off star came home. It was a subdued celebration in light of the Kendry injury the game before, but it still had the team and the fan base pumped up with a really exciting (albeit costly weekend series). How about Napoli at first base?
Monday: Off on the road to the former home of Mark Gubicza. The Halos went against KC in the series opener of a four game tilt, and they meant business. Ervin Santana stepped it up with 7 innings of 1 run ball with 6 Ks to power the team toward victory. He got help from another impressive offensive day. Napoli goes 3 for 3 with a two run jack, Howie goes 2 for 4 with 2 RBI, both JR and Maicer hit homeruns to show Jose Guillen how much we don't really miss him (one word...be careful), and every starter outside of Godzilla (0 for 5) got at least one hit. Michael Ryan got his first start at 1B, but Robbbbbbb eventually got in, and hopefully is ready to get the bulk of the starts for the foreseeable future (as Kendry is out at least until August/September, but more realistically for the rest of the year). A nice and easy 7-1 win was just what the doctor ordered for the Red Hats on Memorial Day against Hochevar (on my last place "bad players" fantasy team...is last place really first place in that league?) and Los Royals.
Now we're 26-27, just 1 game under .500!! Can you believe it? I guess I was right to declare the slump over on Thursday, eh Saxy boy? 2.5 back of the Rangers, we continue our series with the Royals in about 45 minutes. It's J-Balls Piñata (3-5, 4.95) trying to keep his sinker low and lively against B-Squared Brian Bannister (4-3, 4.70). Banny has won his last 3 starts, including a quality win against the Red Sox in his last outing. Meanwhile, Piñero has 0-3, 14.59 numbers in his last 3 road outings. He is aso 0-3 in his career against KC with a 6.31 earned run mark. I guess we can say that he's due for a nice start? It has been made official that Q will get the start in place on the DL'd Kendry and hit 9th. Aybar is still batting first with Ma$e second...is anyone else frustrated by this?
We miss you, Bam Bam.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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