Sunday, April 16, 2006 |
I Want My Pythagorean Series Win: Angels 9, Orioles 3
Lackey pitched his first really excellent game of the season, going deep into the game, working eight strong innings. It could have been far worse, but for Javy Lopez's confusion: Lopez hit a ball out of the park, but he thought Erstad made a fair catch at the wall. Passing baserunner Miguel Tejada along the way, Lopez was ruled out and credited with a single. A real heartbreaker for the O's, but a neck-saver for Lackey, who settled down thereafter and only surrendered one more run.
Kris Benson didn't fare as well, giving up four earned runs, including a leadoff solo homer to Vlad. Vlad has been the subject of some concern in certain parts; his lack of power production hasn't been encouraging, and his singles haven't been that powerfully hit, many of them being bloops. His two homers today should be a good omen, but the game's most exciting moment for Angels fans had to be the double steal by Izturis and Figgins. With Figgins heading for second — and apparently a dead duck in a rundown — Izturis stole home, and then Figgins, out of the rundown, stole second. And later, improbably, Figgy himself managed a three-run homer. Izturis executed a perfect suicide squeeze play in which everything went right for the Angels; not only did the run score, but Izturis safely reached first and Jeff Mathis reached third on a bad throw by pitcher Tim Byrdak.
The two injuries in today's game — Tim Salmon's hamstring and K-Rod's ankle — are perhaps problematic, but I'm less worried about them with Shields available to back up Frankie, and Salmon wouldn't likely play anyway in the Twinkiedome. One more left in Charm City, though.
And how was today's excellent Lackey effort that much different than his last start, where he posted a line of 7IP, 4H, 2ER, 1BB and 8Ks? I'd call that pretty excellent as well. If he did that every time out, he'd win 20+ games and a Cy Young award. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised to see him win one pretty soon. I think he's really that good. Reminds me of Curt Schilling at the same age.
: 4/16/2006 02:16:00 PM
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