Friday, June 25, 2004 |
Angels 13, Dodgers 0
Dodgers: 4 hits, no runs, no errors.
After yesterday's blanking by the A's, today must have felt good for the Angels. AK followed Figgins' earlier oh-so-close-to-the-cycle HR-3B-1B-1B, 4-5 on the night and his average now at .244. About time. Eckstein's 0-3 1 BB night must feel awfully lonely with everyone else hitting the ball on the screws; even Wash got a hit and an RBI (average now .400 on the year). Erstad gets his first homer, making Richard unhappy because we lose our singularity, but hey, I'll take it.
Speaking of Wash, what a dominant performance! His ERA finally tumbles below 5.00, now 4.76 on the year, with 3 K's and only one walk. Derrick Turnbow even found the plate once in a while, and managed to pitch two scoreless frames. Incredibly, he has a 0.00 ERA, though watching him flail against even a struggling Dodger offense wasn't pretty. This is not a guy you want in tight games.
On the other side... the shine's off. Fourth place beckons, as Baseball Prospectus forecasted earlier. But what do you do if you're DePodesta? You need a starting pitcher to replace Nomo, whose start against the Yankees showed so much promise, only to be dashed when he collapsed against the Giants. And really, Lima and Ishii are too inconsistent to rely on in the rotation, and Alvarez has requested he stay in the bullpen. Edwin Jackson still looks like a newborn deer at AAA, but Nomo's so bad, you almost want to take a chance on him. You need a real power threat to supplant Green -- or more likely, the cheap and moveable Dave Roberts. You need bullpen help -- Drefort, Martin, and Alvarez have all been awful lately. Early season phenom Duaner Sanchez has started to buckle. Only Mota's held up well, but even he's had some scary moments, too. (By ERA, does that make Robin Ventura the team's relief ace?)
What I said last year about this team -- the holes are too numerous to fix with a single player -- could also be true about this year, too.
It's only one game. Tomorrow, OP, the team's de facto ace, versus Aaron Sele, a guy who's frequently pitched like one for the Angels.
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