The Angels losing to the Red Sox in extra innings on the same night that the Canucks got crushed by the Blackhawks in the playoffs pushed me to the brink. Thank God I didn't have a rope lying around, or it may have all been over.
We'll start by lamenting the action on the diamond. After a strong start by Tyler Chatwood (are you impressed yet?), the Sox finally got up 2-0 in the 6th. Impressively, Torii Hunter bombed a two run job in the very next inning, and we were headed down the stretch all tied up. Once the game entered extras, however, my boy Rich Thompson blew the game by allowing a double to Adrian Gonzalez and a sac fly to put us down 2-4. It stayed that way, as we dropped our game to a way down Red Sox squad.
Chatty Kathy went 6 innings of 2 run ball, despite walking 5, and had a supreme bullpen effort to back his up, until the Aussie took the mound. Takahashi, Rodney, and Walden all pitched shutout innings, despite combining for 5 walks over their 3. After pitching the 10th, Richie came back out for the 11th, when the wheels came off and the game slipped away. As a supporter, though, I want to focus on the positive, and that's Fontana native Tyler Chatwood. I don't think anyone expected him to be anywhere near this club in April, and now he's 1-1 with a 3.50 ERA in three starts (averaging 6 innings per start). I hope Kazmir is watching, because I don't see anyway that he should come back and start over Chats.
The offense was just awful last night. Maicer Izturis, Bobby Abreu, Hank Conger, Vernon Wells, and Mark Trumbo all went without a hit. In fact, we finished with only 4 hits overall (2 to Aybar). I did leave one name off that list of 0'fers, and it's because he needs to be pointed out for being the worst bat on the team last night. I'm speaking, of course, about my favorite Halo Howie Kendrick. HK-47 went 0 for 5 in the game, left two runners in scoring position with two outs. He got punched out three times, and this game was just a microcosm for just how bad he has gotten all of the sudden. Despite being a dominate force when the season kicked off, our homerun leader has fallen off the map.
Howie started the season on an eight game hitting streak where he averaged .412 with a .487 OBP. During that span, he only struck out 6 times, walked 5, and hit 3 jacks. After the streak ended, he spent the next 8 games kind of hitting in a middle of the road fashion, but kept his average up at a very respectable .318 with a .392 OBP. During that middle of the road period, he also picked up another jack and 4 RBI. He was still rolling along, and I was still running my mouth about how I was right when I predicted Howie winning the batting title this year.
That was all before April 19. Over the last three games, Howie has hit a slump. Now, look, I understand that everyone is going to hit a little slump here and there. And slumping for three game certainly doesn't mean very much. But, the small sample size shouldn't keep us away from looking at it. When you don't get a single hit in six ABs, in a game where your team puts a 15 spot on the bad guys, that's a bad sign.
So, in these most recent three games, Howie is hitting .077 with 1 RBI, 2 walks, and 6 punchouts. His strikeout averge during these three games is .462, which used to be his batting average! During this span, his batting average has dropped from that healthy .318 all the way down to an average at best .278. So again, while we're only talking about three games, we're kind of talking about a serious slide in the numbers department over those three games. And, games against Texas and Boston are kind of more important than games against Kansas City and Cleveland. Suddenly, you're hot start looks pretty insignificant.
I only hope that Howie can quickly turn it around. Tonight we host the Red Sox at the Stadium for game two of the four gamer, as Dan "Golden Boy" Haren (4-0, 1.16) tries to keep pace with Jered Weaver against Jon Lester (1-1, 3.20). One win? Wow, Lester sucks...I hope.
By the way, where are all those "Crawford or bust" idiots, now that he's had a worse start to the season than Vernon? I'm more wishing that we still had Bobby Jenks, after last night's game.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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