6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: A Statement You Can Take To The Bank: Angels 9, A's 2

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Tuesday, August 09, 2005

A Statement You Can Take To The Bank: Angels 9, A's 2

The two AL West A teams battled it out tonight, and I was pretty sure the Angels were going to get swept. I still think there's good odds of them losing the series, but that's not what I'm here to talk about just yet. I'm here to say increasingly good things about one John Lackey, who in giving up two walks and five hits, managed to shut out an offense that's put up 47 runs over their previous seven games. I keep saying this or that outing is Lackey's best, but he's really topped himself with this one.

Peralta's two runs surrendered to Eric Chavez weren't nearly enough to recover from the earlier damage the Angels had done. I didn't see it because we had walked to the corner ice cream store, though the box score indicates it took him 26 pitches to get out of the inning, hardly ideal.

The Angels offense: the first two innings were brilliant, but then Harden hardened up and we saw the same old skinflint on the mound I've grown to know and respect. Harden left the game with more strikeouts, too, nine to Lackey's six, and over one fewer inning. The one thing I wanted to comment on overall: Finley struck out twice and got aboard on an error. He's falling apart much faster than I had thought possible. Kotchman went 1-5 but only struck out once. Kid's learning. Cabrera also had an inexplicably good night, 1-3 with a walk while scoring two runs. Nutty. I don't think it's hitting second; maybe it's just that he's finally coming out of the tall dollars slump. Or something.

Recap

// posted by Rob @ 11:11 PM link // 0 comments