Angels, Umps Get The Best Of The Jays.

The Halos should be pretty happy with getting two out of three from the Jays this weekend. They didn't really deserve it. After watching Friday's game, I kind of had that feeling that the Jays were going to dominate the weekend. You know the feeling. The "we just don't have it this weekend" feeling? Thanks to some late night umpire assistance on Saturday and some very solid pitching from Big Baby on Sunday, my feeling was shown to be wrong. 

We'll start with Friday's action. Every time Ervin has started a game this season, he has kind of proven my prediction for him to be wrong. His entire career, he has gone good year, bad year, good year, bad year, etc. The 2011 season is scheduled to be a bad one. And while it's still early, he's not looking bad so far. Rather, he's having a Dan Haren 2010-esque season. He's pitching pretty darn well, and getting nothing to show for it. Will he finish something like 11-13 with a 2.90 ERA? He finished 8 innings of 3 run ball on Friday, striking out 7, but giving up a big jack in that eighth inning to Jayson Nix that cost the Halos the game.

This would usually be the spot where I'd critique Scioscia for his bad managing of our staff. However, would any of us done anything different? Usually Scioscia takes the starter out too early, especially when they have been rolling, only to have the bullpen blow things. If we're going to go down the way we did on Friday, I'd rather have it be the starter getting jacked late after a fairly dominating performance. It was a good coaching decision that ended up being the wrong choice. I'm not going to hate on Scioscia, or Ervin, for that one.

The offense was kind of lackluster in this one, with Torii Hunter really getting the only action early, but there were some bright spots that have gone unmentioned. How about Maicer and El Comedulce both working two walks? How about HK-47 picking up two hits to raise his soon-to-win-a-batting-title average to .429. Get ready to share the spotlight, Alex Johnson.

I would have preferred to see Vernon Wells turn his early season struggles around against his former team, but he really stunk it up out there. Am I worried though? Not really. I predicted before the season that Vernon would have somewhat of a down year, you can go check it out on the blog archives, but I also predicted he'd have a big year in 2012. Patience, my friends.

Then there was Saturday. 5 hours and 3 minutes, 16 Halo hits, 3 ridiculous errors, and a Dan Haren win in a game he didn't start. What a weird one. Mattie Palmer, now in the rotation for the Scott Kazmir, who is on the DL with "injured baseball talents," went 4.67 innings with 10 hits, 5 runs, and only getting 2 Ks. I hope we're not expecting very much out of Palm Tree this time around, as I think I've documented the fact that he's not going to be what he was the first time around with the Angels ever again. That being said, he's not going to be any worse than Kaz. 

The cool thing about the 14 inning win was the bullpen. Richie, Jeps, Takahashi, Fraud-ney, Waldo, Wrath of Kohn, and Danny Boy all went shutout style against the Jays, going a total of 9.3 some odd innings of solid hurling. Haren looked especially cool coming out of the pen, getting himself his second win of the year with a perfect little inning. He had to be stoked on that.

Sure, the Angels scored some runs. Sure, Izturis singled home Peter Bourjos with two outs for the 6-5 walk off win. Sure, Izzy, Abreu, and Hunter all had three hits. The Halos even almost scored in their half of the 13th, but handed the Jays a chance after some stupid baserunning decisions (I'm looking at you, Torii...and that double steal was kind of silly as well). However, the true story of this game concerns the blown call in the Toronto half of the 13th that cost the Jays the game. I texted Andrew, "I have been watching this game for almost 5 hours, and it's still tied." Just after I sent that text, the Blue Jays scored. But did they? Yunel Escobar got called for interfering with Callaspo on a grounder that appeared to plate a run. I'll be honest, it wasn't interference. Escobar didn't touch Callaspo, and was just running from second to third. Callaspo didn't step up for the grounder, but hesitated, and that led to Escobar crossing Alberto's path just before the ball got there. Horrible, horrible call, and I'll be the first to admit it. 

Too bad, though. Speedy Pete is just too fast from second to home, and we won. Let's take the win, and never talk about it again.

Then it was Jered Weaver's time to shine, and boy did he. Man, he's awesome. I think he had a legit shot at the Cy Young last season, with Felix stealing it at the end. This season, in a very small sample size (I understand), Big Baby is showing that he's out to get that trophy this time around. I mean, he's pitching better than he ever has, and yesterday is the prime example. 7.67 innings of 1 run ball with 15 punchouts. What more can you want? He's 3-0 with a 0.87 ERA. Nobody wants to face this guy, and this could easily become the best season of his career. And hey, Fernando got the save with a perfect inning. Did we have heaven sent angels on the mound yesterday, or what?

Though, I am wondering why Fraud-ney got the save opportunity when Jordan Walden is our "official" closer. Make up your mind, Scioscia, and stop making promises you aren't going to keep.

The offense was semi-silent, as they usually are when Weaver takes the mound. However, Peter Bourjos has to be handed a ton of love for his two run triple. This guy is the real deal. Are people on board with me yet? Brandon Wood also got a hit, on a 1 for 3 day, and that's a huge accomplishment in and of itself. Way to go Woody!

After an enjoyable weekend, with the bullpen completely pulling themselves together (though the media only likes to talk about the 'pen when they suck), the Halos are 5-4. Somehow, the Rangers are still crazy hot, 8-1, and lead the Halos by 3 games (actually, they won again today, to move up to 9-1). Oakland iis 1 game back of the Angels, and the 2-7 Mariners are 3 back of my boys. Funny how a 2-7 start in Boston makes tons of news, but the same start in Seattle doesn't matter to anyone. Adam Kennedy really needs to help those guys out.

Big roster stuff was announced after the game yesterday. Kevin Jepsen and Mike Kohn were optioned to AAA Salt Lake to make room for Scott Downs' return from the DL and Tyler Chatwood's callup. I'm so happy that the Halos were able to recognize that Jeps was the biggest liability in the pen, and send him down. I'm guessing Kohn went down because he has the most options. It's going to be great to see what Downs will add to the relief squad and I'm still kind of scratching my head on the Chatwood decision. Chats is getting called up to start today's game against the Cleveland Indians in place of Dan Haren. Haren is being pushed back a day because of his inning of relief work on Saturday. Is that really necessary, though? Do we really need to run our minor leaguer out there because The Chessmaster threw 13 pitches two days ago? Come on!

We all know that Erick Aybar has joined the Kazmanian Devil on the DL. I, like Brandon, am hopeful that Kaz never comes off. But Aybar is another story. How are we going to survive with EA on the DL and Brandon Wood taking over at shortstop? Dear God, the rest of the offense is really going to need to pick it up with this chump going down 4 times per game to a punchout.

Today is the start of a three gamer with the Indians. The Tribe are off to a surprising 7-2 start, and seem to be getting some pub in the press. They've played Chicago, Boston, and Seattle so far, sweeping the sad Sox, and now turn their sights on Los Halos. Cedar City, UT native Mitch Talbot (0-0, 4.15) gets the ball for Cleveland, and he'll be facing aforementioned callup Tyler Chatwood (0-0, 0.00). Chatwood is from Fontana, not Chatwood, and will look to show how his 2.84 ERA from A, AA, and AAA (combined) makes him deserving of this callup shot.

Did anyone else just feel weird about seeing good ol' JR in a Jays uni? At least he can kick it with José Molina.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē