Wednesday, June 22, 2005 |
Washburn Meets His Quota: Angels 6, Rangers 0
H O M E A W A Y
Year W-L GS ERA W-L GS ERA
=======================================
2005 1-2 6 4.91 3-1 9 2.51
2004 4-4 11 5.76 7-4 14 3.77
2003 3-9 16 4.47 7-6 16 4.39
2002 5-3 14 3.79 13-3 18 2.65
Washburn has consistently not gotten it done at home, for whatever reason; it's now such a consistent trend, it's just a fact of life, one that will no doubt get him a bigger salary elsewhere than in Anaheim, should he and/or the Angels so choose. Tonight's game will likely therefore go down as his best home effort of the year, and so a tip of the cap to Jarrod, who will no doubt be pitching for a National League team next year -- who knows, maybe even the Dodgers.
Juan Rivera's home run and resulting RBIs will no doubt get the headlines -- indeed, the Mark Thoma MLB.com recap does so -- but to me, the piece of interest was the novel use of Benjie Molina at the DH position. This is such a natural spot that it makes me wonder why Scioscia hasn't used him there more often. The coddling of McPherson against lefties -- any lefties -- continued with tonight's game, and so Figgy played a very good defensive third base tonight in his stead. His D has steadily improved with time, especially at third. Though he contributed exactly zero at the plate today, he's just an amazing guy to have around as a spare part. Like Kennedy, I'm gonna miss him when he gets expensive.
Aside from Washburn's heroics, the bullpen had another good night, with Peralta and Yan combining to keep the Rangers off the board. Peralta now has the ridiculous ERA of 0.66, which means he's due for a kablooie on the mound at any moment. Yan, strangely enough, I'm a little more sanguine about, as I think he may have some downward regressing to do. Don't know why, but that's how I feel.
The Rangers fell apart from the very first. Kenny Rogers, carrying a league-leading 1.98 ERA into the game, got chased in the fourth after only 80 pitches but surrendering six runs. Unlike the Chicken Man, the Rangers' bullpen held together, throwing four and two-thirds innings of solid, zero-earned-run ball. Maybe the Angels are lucky, maybe the Rangers are slumping a little, but for the moment -- remember this, because there may be times you need to -- the Angels are king of the AL West hill, and by four and a half games.
: 6/23/2005 01:32:00 PMNewer› ‹Older
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