Sunday, April 30, 2006 |
We'll Always Have 2002, Mike: White Sox 2, Angels 1
Captain Renault: What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?At some point you have to tip your hat and move on, and we're well past that point now. Essentially the same lineup couldn't hit against the White Sox' rotation last year in the ALCS; we'll never know what would have happened had Bengie Molina, the only decently-hitting Angel going into the series, not been plunked on the arm by the Yankees. But regardless, the results were stunningly similar, with the Angels all but completely flummoxed by Jose Contreras, whom the Yankees could never quite figure out or straighten out. I suppose I can understand it; in 2004, he gave up the tenth most home runs in the majors with 31, and you just can't do that if you're a Yankee, especially when the Yanks thought they were getting a 31 year-old veteran. We assign credit, then, to the Chisox and pitching coach Don Cooper for turning his situation around.
Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.
Captain Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.
Rick: I was misinformed.— Casablanca
The season's not even a month old, and already there are some calling for Kotchman's head (NSFW, language). Despite the fact that he went 1-3, his lone hit was an infield single; Friday, he had a long flyball out that could have as easily gone for a ground-rule double — save for an excellent catch by Jermaine Dye. He's not having terrible at bats, but the results aren't terrific, either. This isn't going to be a good season for the Angels; I'm still predicting this is a second place team, mainly because it's just going to take some time for the rookies to get their bearings. Anyone who thought otherwise has been badly misinformed.
Kotchman got replaced in Friday's game by Edgardo Alfonso, who entered the game in a pinch-hitting role; and Saturday, Alfonso got the starting DH job. With the Angels only one back and the tying run on, Mike let Alfonso get the at-bat, instead of sending up obvious pinch-hitting candidate Tim Salmon; he rewarded Scioscia by promptly hit a timid little line drive to short. Alfonso, who just last week complained about playing time, got some and made the least of it. Some — myself at least with a toe in that camp — would say that this gives Scioscia an excuse to bench Alfonso after running his mouth in the press. He had his big chance in an important game with a close score, so now nobody owes him anything anymore. But such an analysis forgets the Steve Finley Experience; Finley had an appalling forty-five games last year in which he went 0-fer-something, and Mike had no seeming inclination to bench his collapsing starter. We should know by mid-May whether Mike has learned that lesson from 2005; how does Howie look on those ground balls at third these days?
Finally, no account of this game would be complete without a mention of Kelvim Escobar's excellent performance on the mound. Aside from Escobar taking out his frustrations at Doug Eddings by intentionally plunking A.J. Pierzynski — by all accounts a complete jerk unafraid to badmouth his own teammates — he threw a very good game, collecting three strikeouts while walking one and giving up a run on three hits. The bad news, though, is that he had to leave the game early due to a blood blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand, a fact the broadcasters did not relay to anyone.
Guillen was insensed at Escobar, a fellow Venezuelan.
"A.J. has nothing to do with the dumb [expletive] play they made--Josh Paul and him," Guillen said. "And all of a sudden, you're blaming A.J.
"If you're going to blame somebody, look in the mirror and watch the video. A.J. has nothing to do with that. First, the ball bounced and A.J. didn't kick Josh Paul to get the ball out of his hands. I think that's a [expletive] way to play baseball."
"Guillen was just getting started during a 3 1/2-minute tirade."
: 4/30/2006 02:09:00 PMNewer› ‹Older
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