Live by the Ninth, Die by the Ninth
Two games ago, Torri Hunter goes yard with 3 on base to win.
How about this boxcore!
| LA Angels | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG |
| Figgins, 3B | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .379 |
| Matthews, LF | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | .344 |
| Guerrero, RF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | .281 |
| Anderson, DH | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | .273 |
| Hunter, CF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .333 |
| Kotchman, 1B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .286 |
| Kendrick, 2B | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .429 |
| a-Aybar, PH-SS | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .100 |
| Napoli, C | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .227 |
| Izturis, SS-2B | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .143 |
| Totals | 33 | 6 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 15 | |
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a-Grounded out for Kendrick in the 4th. |
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BATTING HR: Hunter 2 (4, 8th inning off Betancourt, 0 on, 0 out; 9th inning off Borowski, 3 on, 1 out). TB: Matthews; Guerrero 2; Hunter 9; Kotchman; Aybar; Izturis. RBI: Hunter 5 (8). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Guerrero 2; Aybar; Anderson 2; Izturis. GIDP: Matthews; Izturis. Team LOB: 10. BASERUNNING FIELDING |
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Now they lost last night, in kind of the same thing. Well, K-Rod was unavailable, so maybe 80% of us would say it wouldn’t have happened if he was pitching the ninth. But take it as it comes and Cleveland’s Travis Hafner pulls off a watered-down Torri Hunter to do us in.
Santana was fine for the start, and I’m sure he’s upset about the loss, but here’s the pitching line from last night:
| LA Angels | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
| Santana | 6.0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Oliver (H, 3) | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4.91 |
| Speier (BS, 1)(L, 0-1) | 1.1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9.00 |
Note I never like to see a pitcher enter the 8th inning who also pitches in the 9th inning. It’s just long on a closer to go more than 3 outs.
Weekend Update and Good Monday!
Ok, so when you take your weekend off from work and you put the Angels high into your sight, it feels bad when they don’t do so well. If they lose during the week, that’s not as bad as a weekend if you’re taking the kids, right?
Saturday: They won a close one 2-1 vs. Texas. The box score is useless, right? Only 2 runs. So here’s the pitcher’s nice line for us:
| LA Angels | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
| Weaver (W, 1-1) | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 2.02 |
| Oliver (H, 2) | 0.2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 9.00 |
| Speier (H, 2) | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5.40 |
| Rodriguez, F (S, 3) | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
Sunday:
Well, not so good for the pitching line as John Garland got served by Texas, though you can’t totally complain since he dominated the Twins in his first start.
Blah:
| LA Angels | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
| Garland (L, 1-1) | 5.0 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5.54 |
| O’Day | 2.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.80 |
| Shields | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Bulger | 1.0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 9.00 |
Better luck today please!! Help us welcome Cleveland with a 10 run 3rd innning!
Tonight’s the [Saddest for Me] Night!
Being an Angel’s fan in New York is tough enough. You get Yankees fans who begrudge you but you know you own what? The best winning record vs. the Yankees in last maybe 6 years.
But it’s home opener for the Angels tonight, and I’d love to be there, but no way. I’ll watch it on MLB.tv Premium where 800k is good for my computer and I’ll try 1.2MB streaming if that works.
Plus it’s headphone friendly!
But moreover, just join me in wishing the Angels a great 2008 season, and good luck tonight!
Angels get it Done!
Wow just like I said, lose the first, and sweep the rest. Remind you of ’02 with Yankees then (ahem) Twins?
This shows our composure as we were cruising today, and when the Twinkies got close, we pushed it again.
Vlad, not so good, but hey, he will still be a .320, 28HR, 120RBI guy for us. But great to see Hunter get off the snide with his first HR (and hit) of the season.
Napoli cranked his second one, and we went on to win 5-4!!! Niiiice!
Saunders Makes Great!
If you think this boxscore doesn’t look so good…
| LA Angels | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG |
| Figgins, 3B | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .333 |
| Matthews, LF | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .308 |
| Guerrero, RF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | .333 |
| Anderson, DH | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | .250 |
| Hunter, CF | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .167 |
| Kotchman, 1B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .385 |
| Kendrick, 2B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .417 |
| Mathis, C | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .333 |
| Aybar, SS | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .000 |
| Totals | 32 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 17 |
Check out this pitching line:
| LA Angels | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
| Saunders (W, 1-0) | 8.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Rodriguez, F (S, 1) | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
And now just smile! We won 1-0 last night to go up 2-1 on the Twins.
Saunders on the Mound Tonight
So far the Twins and Angels are 1-1 so tonight is the rubber match even though there’s a fourth game. Hopefully the Halos take tonight and tomorrow and go 3-1 and prove me correct in my theory that in important series, they lose the first and then go on to win the series.
Garland Pays Dividends; Lineup Pays Respect!
John Garland, our off-season pitching pickup, pitched longer (8 IP) than I thought he would, and wow, only let up 6 hits, 1 walk for only 1 earned run).
But additionally, the Angels hitters cranked 15 hits, which is impossible to “scatter”. That is, 4 innings of 2 runs scored, and one inning of 1 run. They used small ball and power:
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Kotchman and Napoli went yard, while doubles abounded for Vlad, GA, Figgins, and Kendrick.
I’m surprised at Torri Hunter who stands out as 0.000 and last night left 5 on base. He’ll come around though. And no Aybar yet? Izturis at .125 should mean Aybar tonight, but we’ll see.
Tonight is Garland vs. Bonser
Waiting…waiting..please come around 8:10pm edt!!
I want to see on MLB.tv here in New York my Angels take on the Twins. I’m still at work so that’s why I can’t watch it on a tv network.
But if I can’t stream that, then I like the new Gameday as up to 10 events could be highlighted there as videos (hopefully Vlad goes yard and even in gameday I could watch that).
Ok, enough hype of product; let’s go Halos!!!
Opening Day Loss sours Decent Pitching
Opening on the road is always tough, right? You’d rather have the Home Opener be the Opening Day game for your team, so Los Angeles traveled to Minnesota for their Home Opener, and lost 3-2 behind pretty good pitching from Jared Weaver.
Remember that the opening day pitcher won’t make it 9 innings. Because in Spring Training they (all pitchers) build up arm strength to go from 1-2 innings, to 3-4 to maybe 6 innings in final Spring Training start.
Jared Weaver last night:
6.1 IP, 8H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 5K
That’s not too bad on the endurance (6 1/3 innings) and 3ER isn’t the worst we’ve seen. But 10 basemen over 6.1 is a WHIP (walks + hits / innings) of 1.58 which is not-so-bad, but not stellar.
What was disappointing was scattering 9 hits (none more than a double) with leaving men on bases by our best hitters. Maybe it was Hunter’s return to Minnesota, but Vlad didn’t shine either.
Figgins went 2-4 but what caught me was no one tried to steal a base; even in top of the ninth, Willits came in, but didn’t try.
Oh well, if there’s one thing I can think of for the Angels, it’s they usually lose the first game and then take control (think 2002 playoffs).
Weaver to Start the Season…
It’s official: Jared Weaver will start the season for the Halos at Minnesota Monday night.
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