Back in 1999, I feel like we all remember, Mo Vaughn came into the season as a highly touted Halo acquistion. On opening day, his first game as an Angel, he fell into the dugout going for a foul ball (hence the dugouts got those guard rails) and was injured with a sprained ankle. Sure he would eventually contribute to the team, but he would be most remembered for that fall in game 1 of his Angel career. Last night, new Halo Dan Haren tried to pull off his best tribute to Vaughn, getting injured in his first game as an Angels, a game that finished 3-6 in favor of the bad guys.
Before getting to the injury and my pathetic rant about how we traded four pitchers, including Joe Saunders, for an forearm contusion (kidding), let's talk about how rad Dan Haren was last night. Wow. I was impressed. I started thinking about how cool it would be if he threw a no no in his first game, although hopes were dashed early on, and then came to realize he would have pretty much needed to throw a no no to be able to get the win with our offense backing him up. Haren had some good heat, some solid split action, and despite the injury finished with a very good line. 4.67 innings of 2 run ball with a big 8/0 K/BB ratio (we like that). He allowed 7 hits in the game, and has allowed 6+ hits in 20 of 22 starts this year (or something like that), but as long as he gets out of jams, we won't worry about that (I hate pitch count anyway). 8 Ks and 0 walks was the key in Haren's homecoming, and he left the game down 1-2 after going 4.67 innings of pretty good ball. A Martinez RBI single and the first David Ortiz HR of the game was all that Haren allowed.
Of course, you've all seen it by now, Dan took a hard line drive from "Bald Beard" Youkilis in the fifth, and was removed from the game. Reports were conflicting post game, with Haren saying he'd be fine in time to go against Texas and Scioscia hinting that these injuries can take a while to heal. In all comes down to his exam later this morning, when we really find out what the prognosis will be (keep one eye on the LSF Tweets to see the news...LSF Tweets needs to be renamed something cooler, by the way. Any ideas?). Keep your fingers crossed that it's no big deal.
Now, the "real" media, and even my favorite Angels blog ("Halo Heaven") are banging on the bullpen for their lack of door shutting after Haren went out. Really? After the Ortiz homer in the third, the Sox were shutout until the 8th, when Ortiz homered again. What the hell are you expecting? If we would have cashed in on our numerous opporunities (bases loaded with no outs and you get nothing?) offensively, you wouldn't even have noticed the bullpen missteps. Hat-cisco Rodriguez and Kevin Jespen go 2.3 innings of perfect ball. Can we get behind that a little? Fernando Rodney was looking good until that Ortiz at bat. Rodney was sweating like a dog, Ortiz was fouling off pitches like a champ, and you just kind of knew it was coming. After that, you kind of felt that the Halos had no hope of coming back. AAA standout (and often nicknamed "The Bullpen Savior") Mike Kohn got a chance, and despite humping up his fastie, he allowed a meaningless two run double to JD Drew (which is what he does, right?), leaving Aussie Rich Thompson to finish it off. Again, if the offense would have come through, the two run bomb to Ortiz in the 8th wouldn't have mattered. Our bullpen just isn't as bad as you think.
Our offense, on the other hand, you are ompletely right about. 7 runners left on base, including the aforementioned bases loaded with no outs followed by three straight pop outs (two to the infield), with Erick Aybar stranding 4 runners in scoring position with 2 outs. EA Sports finished 0 for 5 in the game. He was joined by Hunter and Mathis in the 0'fer club (again, guys?), which cancelled out any goodness brought on by their teammates. Did anyone notice how we seemed to be just waiting for the long ball to carry us home? Abreu and Matsui hitting jacks was all the offense we had. What about a 3 run double with the bases loaded and no outs? How about stringing some hits together? Why are we sitting around waiting for bombs? I guess you can tell I'm not a fan of that style of play. I don't want to sound like "typical Angels fan," but I really enjoy watching the cluster hitting, first to third, stealing bases, double power kind of baseball. I think we have the ability to go back to that style of play in this organization, but it would take a shift away from certain players, and I doubt it'll happen. We just seem destined to play a style that isn't going to cut it, until we're on the golf course in early October wondering what happened.
What happened is that we are now tied for second place in the AL West with the soon-to-be San Jose A's at 7.5 games back of Texas (who I recently heard referred to as the "Cocaine Cowboys," which I loved). At 52-50, I think we are technically better than the A's (50-48), but it's just a technicality. The Rangers and A's start their three game series tonight, and Angel fans can only hope that it's the start of a 6 game Rangers losing streak. Imagine! We could walk off the field on Sunday afternoon with a deficit of just 2 games! See? There are reasons to be an optimist after all.
I can't really remember the last Angels/Red Sox regular season game that I was as pumped up for as I am for tonight's test. It can all be summed up in 5 words (4 proper nouns and 1 adverb, for those keeping score at home): Jered Weaver versus John Lackey. Is there any scenario that could get the Halo fan base more fired up. It's the return of Gigantic John (known around these parts as Benadict Lackey) to The Stadium. His first match with his former sqad; the squad he turned his back on for a couple of extra bills to go to one of our most hated rivals (playoff rivals, that is). I know, I know, Scioscia pulled him in a crucial spot in last season's playoffs, but come on John! We thought you were a gamer. A true member of the Angels. We never thought you would have done this. But, we have moved on (I didn't say moved on well, just that we've moved on), and we're ready to show you. Jered Weaver is a solid #1, and he has been well before this season (that's right, you weren't the ace last year). I forget, were you an All Star this year, Lack? Oh well, maybe next time. Okay (Uncle Buck reference!).
Wow, I really got lost in my little rant there. So, John "L'il Juan" Lackey (9-5, 4.36) returns to take on Jered "So Easy A Caveman Can Do It" Weaver (9-6, 3.22) in a battle to see who can win ten games first. Mr. 5 year/$82.5 isn't sure how he'll be treated tonight, "I'm not sure what's going to happen. We'll find out." ESPN is reporting that he isn't anticipating boos. Big mistake. I'll be booing from my living room, and I hope you can hear me. An even bigger story may be that John is implicating himself in a gambling situation, "It's going to be fun going up against (Weaver). We'll probably have something on it, for sure." Okay, Pete Rose. Weaver doesn't roll that way. It's posted in every MLB clubhouse. I wish there was no DH so we could bean this guy.
Can the offense please show up tonight? We must beat Lackey!
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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