Friday, August 27, 2004 |
Adam Kennedy, Twins Killer: Angels 9, Twins 6
If you're Shannon Stewart, you're having a "D'oh!" moment right about now. For some reason, I seem to be watching whenever the Angels pick up a particularly spectacular stupid play by the other team; last year it was Trot Nixon's "how many outs is it?" throw of a live ball into the stands. This year, it was Stewart forgetting there were only two outs, and AK scored from second. But as Helen observed, it didn't affect the outcome of the game, since all that would have changed was who drove in Kennedy (Anderson as opposed to Eckstein).
Raise your hand if you thought you'd see consecutive implosions (well, kinda sorta) of both Donnelly and Shields. Raise both hands if you thought you'd see Scioscia bring in Percival to pull Shields' chestnuts out of the fire.
We got a welcome sight when GA took one deep; his power outage may be eroding, with five doubles and two homers on the month. Sure, it's not Barry Bonds numbers, but it beats the one double and one homer he got last month. It's a good time for him to warm up, anyway.
Adam Kennedy's kinda almost making a believer of me. Not only is he hitting .455/.519/.591 over the last week, but he picked up a spectacular double play in tonight's game that completely saved Sele's bacon. Likewise, Erstad's late recovery -- hitting .351/.408/.503 since the All-Star break -- has not only turned around my thinking (recall I wanted him back in centerfield at the start of the season), but it's caught the attention of Steven Goldman at Baseball Prospectus as well:
Last week, TEAMS pursued Erstad into his den to get the lowdown on this sudden turnaround of this poster child for sabermetric anemia. Here is how the interview began:Anyway, I'm sure Batgirl will be upset after tonight. Not only did the team lose, but they might have lost Koskie for a substantial time. With Oakland beating the surprisingly pesky Devil Rays (they chased Mark Redman after the second), the Angels gained no ground in the division; and with Texas beating a badly slumping Baltimore club (why couldn't they have been slumping when we saw them?) and Boston getting bruised in a win over Detroit, the wildcard remained unchanged as well.TEAMS: You've hit so well lately after struggling for such a long time and...
ERSTAD: What do you mean "for a long time struggling?" Like what?
Reader, here TEAMS failed you. Taking into account the angry glare with which Erstad was now fixing your host, TEAMS hesitated to give the proper answer, "Like, forever," and instead said...
TEAMS: Uh, the last couple of years you had numbers that -
ERSTAD: I played 60 games last year. It's kind of harsh to say that I...
TEAMS (laughing nervously): Right.
ERSTAD: You know what I mean?
TEAMS (glancing about for an exit): Right.
ERSTAD: So it's just--I'm finding holes, you know?
TEAMS: Your approach hasn't changed?
ERSTAD: No. Just swing and put in play and sometimes it falls and sometimes it doesn't, you know?
btw the a's and redsox have to lose sometime right?
mattkew
: 8/28/2004 09:35:00 AMbtw the a's and redsox have to lose sometime right?
mattkew
: 8/28/2004 09:35:00 AMNewer› ‹Older
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