Thursday, September 22, 2005 |
I Was Wrong, We Were All Wrong: Angels 7, Rangers 4
Though I cringed when I read Finley's name in the lineup, he did get a clutch walk in the sixth, allowing the inning to continue and eventually for the Angels to get ahead. The real embarrassment was the five runners Cabrera stranded, but that's more a question for Mike. The lineup's been a puzzlement all year, and Cabrera in the two hole is no better or worse than a half-dozen other bad lineups we've seen. And, hey, a clutch double from Kotchman.
With the three-run lead in the division, the Angels have the biggest lead in the AL, an amazing thing. I figure the Angels can take two of three from Tampa Bay, and if Texas can squeeze one from the A's (Kenny Rogers, who has a streak against the A's, is scheduled Friday), it would take the Angels' magic number to five going in to the Oakland series. A split in Oakland and all it would take is a single win against Texas, and the Angels clinch the division. Barring a sweep by Oakland, or wildly differing outcomes in the weekend series, the season will actually be decided in Texas.
Postscript: Good, not great, game by Santana, but considering the last time he pitched against Texas, it was a big improvement.
Postscript 2: The grousing about lousy attendance (another game with less than 15,000 at the gate?) continues unabated in Oaktown, yet I recall some trash-talk from various and sundry about how the Angels are "frauds". I wonder now; has anyone bothered to look into Beane's management of high-dollar-value contracts? Wasn't Jermaine Dye a big contract for the A's, only to turn into fairy dust once he got the dough?
Postscript 3: 22 over .500. That's a season high, if I'm not mistaken, and called getting hot at the right time.
Newer› ‹Older
 |
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.