Wednesday, October 05, 2005 |
Bunt-A, Bunt-A, Bunt-A, Bunt Me: Angels 5, Yankees 3
Not.
Watching the top of the order go 1-15 (the same four characters are an astounding 3-30 in the series) makes me wonder how the Angels ended up with 95 wins at all. And yet, it happened, and even the sabermetric guys note that the Angels have performed exactly to their Pythagorean record, while the Yanks are five games over theirs.
The one thing that really bugs me about all the guys predicting the Angels to advance is that they won at least two of their games against the Yanks in the regular season against pitchers they won't see as starters: Kevin Brown and Al Leiter. The good news, such as it is, is that tonight they won against 8-5 Chien-Ming Wang, the one guy in the Yankees rotation that they haven't seen before. Since it's pretty much a certainty that they'll see Randy Johnson now, let's hope they get to do so on a cold day and his back kinks up. Johnson's April and May were simply un-Johnsonlike; weather for this week, however, looks cool but not cold. Oh well.
Anyway, back to tonight's game. In the seventh -- that wacky inning that must have had Jim Tracy smirking behind his TV set -- Rivera reached on a sliding infield single. Finley tried to get down a bunt -- failed -- yet got aboard on a lousy throw from Wang. Kennedy bunted the runners over, and somehow, after Figgins flied out, Cabrera magically got only his second hit of the series, plating both Finley and DaVanon (Rivera seems to have hurt himself sliding in). All of which is to say that first, O-Cab came up big when he needed to, and second, the Yankees still have lousy infield defense, neither run being earned.
Lackey wasn't too steady, and got bounced in the sixth; fortunately, the Halos have a far deeper bullpen now that they've got Escobar in the mix, and it turned out not to matter.
Wha-huh? How did he fail? He bunted it to the pitcher, and it would have been a normal sacrifice if not for the bad throw. It looked to me like he successfully got the bunt down.
I'm not sure that's true at second base -- I do believe (just from memory) that Kennedy's a superior second baseman -- but it's absolutely true in center and at third.
I think he was throwing across his body to get him out. Obviously a tough throw for a rightie.
How worried should we be with Vlad's lack of production? The Angels can't possibly survive at Yankees stadium without him hitting well.
: 10/06/2005 11:16:00 AMGood question. The problem I have is that it's been the bottom of the order carrying this team for a while now.
: 10/06/2005 12:25:00 PMI'm also nervous about Byrd facing the Yankees. Unless the umpire is calling a generous strike zone, I think he's going to get shelled.
: 10/06/2005 01:05:00 PMNewer› ‹Older
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