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

We have now reached cruising altitude. You may now take off your seatbelts and walk around the cabin, but please return to your seats once the "fasten seatbelts" light comes back on. Colon has had several rough outings this year, and yet the majority of the season he's been pretty good. Despite the broadcast, he's not a real ace -- a guy you can rely on to shut down the opposition -- though he has acted like one at times this year. Even though he blew up earlier in the year against the M's, I didn't have too much fear that he'd repeat given his last three outings, especially given how well he pitched in his last two.

And, he didn't disappoint. Colon mowed down the M's in a solid if not totally dominating performance, five strikeouts over eight innings, and 93 pitches. Wow, let's step back from that for a minute; ignore the strikeouts, any pitcher completing eight on 93 is having a good day, and any pitcher throwing 66 of said 93 is having a damn good day.

Seeing Spiezio getting any playing time whatsoever certainly came as a shock, and starting two games in a row was as surprising as finding a hooker leading morning prayers at the mosque. He's bad, but I don't think I can recall the last time a player had a .048 average and got back-to-back starts as he did in yesterday's and today's games. The Mariners are wondering why he's still on the roster, too, but his ridiculous three-year contract has made it somewhat difficult for them to admit they've made a mistake, like farting during a funeral. But it was a weird lineup all the way around, with Willie Bloomquist inexplicably inserted in the two-hole, and what is Raul Ibañez doing batting third? A thing built of necessity rather than desire, to be sure, akin to Finley's swinging and popping up: why are either of these players in their teams' respective lineups?

Speaking of lineups, I had to admit to being somewhat unhappy to see Kotchman missing from today's starting nine. It's clear he needs more time in the minors (yes, I was afraid of it but hoping for better), though it's far from clear what the results might have been had he faced the very shaky Ryan Franklin. If the Grabowski Principle means anything, it means that surrendering a home run to slap-hitting Chone Figgins is a sure sign it's time to come out, and so a happy offensive afternoon was assured for the Angels, who beat the snot out of Franklin, especially in the fifth. The presumably 'roidless wonder took eight earned, but his replacement, Jeff Harris, came up and manhandled the Angels the rest of the way. Harris, it seems, was fully formed from the Mariners' system, leaping from the anonymity of Quebecois indy ball to AAA Tacoma in a single year. I have my doubts about the veracity of the Baseball Cube stats given above, though, as Baseball America lists Harris as a six-year minor league free agent. Despite the medical hall of horrors that the M's system seems to be for pitchers, he seems to have re-upped and has -- in relatively few innings -- turned into a useful short reliever.

No Vlad blasts at all today, and the home run power all came from the unlikely combination of Figgins and Rivera, though Jose Molina also pitched in with an RBI double in the epic fifth. That fifth deserves mention not just because of the number scored, but because of a fielding adventure by the M's of the sort that have lately befouled the Angels play. In particular, Chone Figgins got aboard on a single, and then Cabrera hit a single with Figgy in motion. Instead of fielding it cleanly and getting the ball quickly back into the infield, rookie centerfielder Jeremy Reed grabbed at the ball and pretended he had an easy play back to short. Figgins, sensing Reed's asleep-at-the-switch fielding, decided to dash home. By the time the shocked Reed could pull himself together, the Angels had another run in. Shortly after, Juan Rivera popped a little flyball out to left, another single that Raul Ibañez would also misplay, allowing Rivera to get to second and eventually score on Jose Molina's double.

With the Angels so far ahead, the only reaction possible was outright laughter as Vlad squirted Ichiro's long flyball into the stands to give him a home run. Too funny, but Vlad didn't think so. It was a decidedly much-needed tonic after the last couple weeks.

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