*Man, I wish we had these guys helping us out.
Well, the dream is over. A twelve inning loss to the Rangers by the score of 1-2 is a clear signal that the mathematical end of the season is coming ever closer. The Rangers scored on an error by Kevin Frandsen and a passed ball thanks to Jeff Mathis, while the Angels only mustered a Mike Napoli solo home run to back up a masterful outing by Dan Haren, in a loss that pushes us to the brink. Is it hockey season yet?
The minuses:
-A lack of offense prevented Dan Haren from even sniffing a win, despite an impressive outing.
-Jeff Mathis may have blown the easy play leading to the game losing run, but Matt Palmer kind of let the Rangers touch him up in the 12th, which set things up to be ended.
-The Halos left 7 runners standing on base, wishing they'd made it home.
-The game's 0'fer rundown: Torii, Franny, Mathis, Abreu, Wood, Matsui, and Bourjos went a combined 0 for 22. Man, that's awful.
-Allowing the only runs in a loss on an error and a passed ball almost brings me to tears.
The pluses:
+Haren is first and foremost our biggest positive from last night's contest. 7 innings, just 3 hits, 2 Ks, and zero runs. This poor bastard goes out and pitches a darn good game over and over and over, and just has nothing to show for it. TLSF loves you, Big Dan.
+The bullpen, in between Haren and Palmer, was straight amazing. Walden, Rodney, Jepsen, and Kohn combined for 4 no-hit innings, and continued to keep us right there with a chance to win the game.
+Haren threw 70 strikes on his 114 pitches, which is pretty fun. Throw strikes and make them prove they can beat you, that's what I like in a starting pitcher.
+Big Mike's 26th jack of the year was our lone run, and surely got us fans overly excited in the 7th inning when he tied things up.
+Juan Rivera needs to get a player of the game nomination for his evening. Good ol' JR went 2 for 3 WITH 2 walks. Sure, his being on base four times didn't amount to anything under the big "R" on the scoreboard, but he was the offensive leader on the team.
+Reggie Willits (again at leadoff), Howie, and Napoli also each had 2 hits. Talk about a lopsided offense.
+Vlad went 0 for 5! But I thought he was so good against the Angels...
Well, we're not going to make it, friends. At 75-77, the Halos trail the jerk Rangers by 9.5 games with 10 games remaining on the schedule. The official magic number to eliminate us from the postseason is 1 (although for some reason, MLB.com is saying it's 2). To win the AL West by eliminating the A's, the Rangers' magic number is 4. Bummer.
If you like to keep track of things such as run differential, like I do, the Halos now have a -19 disparity between runs scored and runs allowed. That actually doesn't seem too bad based on the way our season has felt. To put it in perspective, last year our run differential was an amazing +122 (4th best in baseball), and in the 2003 season when we coughed up a pathetic follow up to our World Championship season we were just a -4. Hm. Maybe our -19 is really bad. Just for a larger 2010 comparison, at 53-99, the Pirates currently have the MLB's worst run differential at a mind blowing -281. Okay, -19 isn't that bad.
We now have just 10 games left in this let down of a campaign, six at home, and four on the road. The final 10 starts off Friday night against the Chicago White Sox, welcomes Oakland into town for three starting Monday, and wraps up with four "I wish they were meaningful" games against Texas out in Arlington on Thursday. That's right, today is our last day off!
Keep your heads up boys. Let's finish strong.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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