6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

There are times I hate having a day job; if it were up to me, I'd be independently wealthy, go to games in season, and do pretty much whatever I wanted to do otherwise. As it was, my attempt at getting to the park early failed miserably when I fielded a call from my work (I worked from home today, the better to get to the park) that cost me a half hour's worth of four-lettered frustration for absolutely no gains.

So, finally, I got to a point where I could exit for the Anaheim of Los Angeles, and the Angels team therein. After collecting my dad and wife, we drove over to Fresca's Mexican Grill, across from the park on Katella. There we met up with the Rev., his girlfriend (Lee? Leigh?), Sean, his wife (whose name I do not now remember), and of course Rich. We parked in the $5 lot by the restaurant, and man, I can tell you that was the easiest I have ever had it getting in and out of that stadium. Get out on Sunkist, and Cerritos is empty in either direction. (Of course, it may be that, because of Big Bang Friday and the fireworks attendant thereto, we lost a lot of folks who otherwise would be fighting us for street access.) Oh, and the food was both good and cheap. For the suggestion, I thank the good Rev. profusely.

Being so late, I barely got to talk to any of our compatriots, especially Sean, whose bloggery about the Angels has always puzzled me. Why from Dallas? I mean, it's one thing to grow up in OC and suffer through a bad team, but why do it when you have another bad team (for the most part, though not this year) right in your neighborhood? It turns out the answer is simple as it is astonishing: his dad was an area scout for the Angels back in the day. (Imagine being the only kid with an Angels cap in a sea of otherwise uncontesting, and for the most part, indifferent Rangers caps.)

With that mystery solved, we moved on to the game itself, as did our fellow bloggers; the Rev. and his fancy femme own season tickets, Sean and his wife had already bought theirs, and so the remaining four of us broke ranks and wound our way up to our aerie above the dish, first base side, just after the national anthem stopped ringing in the stands. Helen, checking the Cubs game on her cellphone, prompted Rich to call Alex Ciepley at the game; the phone call appears to have taken place on the heels of what would turn out to be a game-deciding two-run shot by Hideki Matsui. Ciepley was undoubtedly bummed about the turn of events in a way that Alex Belth was not. There's something miraculous in just how mundane these things are now to us -- calling across the country to a friend in another ballpark watching a live ballgame.

Figgins' solo homer in the first, I thought, portended grave things for the Angels, and so it turned out, as the Angels failed to capitalize on men in scoring position several times throughout the night. In common parlance, Moeller was dealing, and what he was dealing was a string of incredibly tough pitches to the Angels; on the night, 73 of 92 were strikes, an amazing total, so Figgy's solo shot in the first was likely an aberration where he let one get away high over the plate. After that, he retired the next nine batters in order.

Washburn, on the other hand, didn't fare nearly as well, but as we saw with the new, more groundball-friendly Jerrod Washburn, he's not averse to the single and even occaisional double, but once men got in scoring position, a new, more miserly pitcher appeared on the mound, bending yet failing to break at the fishy fusillade. Rich and I discussed one of the Angels' recurring themes this offseason, namely, whether the Angels are likely to re-sign Wash. Stoneman's move here is hard to forecast -- he did, after all, sign Orlando Cabrera with a glut of good shortstop prospects in the minors -- but Rich made several solid points:

1. Washburn is a lefty.
2. He is a Scott Boras client.
3. He's got a reasonable ERA.
4. This offseason will feature one of the weakest free agent pitching classes in years.

Translated, if he can keep his ERA around 4.00 for the season, he ought to be able to get 3 years/$25M easy. Whether the Angels make an offer to him rests on Jered Weaver's progress, as well as that of other pitchers in the Angels system.

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The middle innings of the game drifted on before us, frustrating but ultimately innocuous. Aside from Figgins' spectacular (and wholly unexpected) 7-4 double play, and Vlad's grand running catch in the ninth, neither team recorded any noteworthy plays with the glove. However, we did see the appreciable depth of the Angels' bullpen, and that of the Marlins to a lesser extent, though the Angels pulled out far more of their pen than did the Marlins. Mecir reminded me of exactly why the A's let him go last year, and how sorry I am that they did!

Rich reminded me during Encarnacion's at bat against Frankie to see why McKeon left him in there. Apparently, no particular ability to hit him exists, as Encarnacion is 0-3 lifetime against K-Rod, with a strikeout.

But the ninth: after a GA double, Finley's sac bunt, and an error on a routine ground ball to short, the Angels score, though if the throw doesn't go halfway up the line, Anderson's a dead duck and the Angels lose. Caught halfway between third and home with one out, GA just froze for a second, but then trotted in to score with the ball somewhere off in the distance. Unlike Richard, who accuses him of indifference, it's been obvious he can no longer make speed plays, and so the Angels had a mediocre runner on the basepaths.

At last, Jeff DaVanon's redemption in the twelfth. He's not a terrible player, but no longer is he an especially good one, or even a particularly useful bench player. But tonight: a hero. Rest well, Maya.

Update: Rich waved a finger at me this morning by e-mail:

• The point with Encarnacion vs. K-Rod was at least partially about whether Lo Duca has a history against him (he doesn't, really -- 0-3 with a walk).
• Rich draws my attention to the play in the hole that Cabrera made to Erstad in the tenth, without which, the Fish score and we're back to a deficit.
• Washburn's Borastivity works against him so far as the Angels re-signing him is concerned. I know, but I didn't make that point clear. What makes the Angels more likely to sign him is the lack of a lefty, and the absence of major-league-ready starters on their way up. That is, the Stoneman/Bane/Boras/Weaver feud may have taken a toll on the Angels' 2006 season, if you're willing to assume Weaver could have been ready immediately following a July 2004 signing. I'm not sure how much of an effect Weaver would have ultimately had on Washburn's re-signing, though, because he threw so very many pitches for CSULB during the regular college season.

Recap