6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

Today's Birthdays

Only one today --

Drawing Nearer: Angels 3, Padres 2

[It] was no discouraging surprise to me that my first instructor at Chouinard Art Institute [one of the predecessor institutions to CalArts] ... greeted his beginning classes with the following grim edict: "All of you here have one hundred thousand bad drawings in you. The sooner you get rid of them, the better it will be for everyone."

This was not a discouraging statement, because I was already well into my third hundred thousand.

— Chuck Jones, Chuck Amuck

Having joined Seitz in the you-all-can-go-home-now, season's-over gloomery, I find no reason to change my mind yet. Seitz's analysis is pretty much one I agree with: you don't give any team ten extra outs per game, yet they're doing that every day. You work on those things that cause errors, yet not a game seems to go by when they don't commit at least one error that changes the course of the game. You keep your best players on the team, even if it means expensive veterans have to lose some face.

Still, if you choose to believe that somehow the Angels could pull this one out, the Chuck Jones Theory — that they're somehow kicking out all their bad games now for a title run later on in the season — might apply. Only Friday, we heard how Dallas McPherson needed to drive in more baserunners, and so he did yesterday, with an inside-the-park home run that the Angels came by at the expense of Dave Roberts' knee. Roberts has a contusion, and not any broken bones, though he has a lot of swelling in the joint; still, it's unlikely he'll be out for months. This undoubtedly comes as good news to our Padres-lovin' friends Jen and Jo; of Roberts, Jen said, "there's nobody else who can hit leadoff. Nobody."

Which, of course, is to say the Angels have a break in today's game. They'll need it, because they keep giving the other guys breaks — like starting Bartolo Colón.

Recap

Seventeen, But Far From Sexy: A's 5, Dodgers 4

I suppose now we can call the Sanchez/Seo trade a complete bust, and a heist by the Mets; Seo's meltdown last night, a slow-motion act of self-inflicted arson in which he surrendered a bases-loaded walk to end a 17-inning marathon, merely capped a season in which he hasn't been able to do anything right.

But that's not to say that the Dodgers collectively failed; with the Dodgers behind a run in the ninth, Rafael Furcal, who walked to get aboard with two out, then stole second, and Kenny Lofton tripled him in. But Nomar wasn't able to get Lofton home, and that presaged eight more innings of futility. The Dodgers hit into three double plays, stranding 15 baserunners overall. For a team that's been executing well offensively for the most part, this game qualifies as either an anomaly or a harbinger.

Recap

Happy Father's Day, Vinny

The sacrifices he made so that we might know what was going on at the ballpark:

These days, of course, Vin, 78, is called Dad and Granddad. He had three children with his first wife, Joan, who died early in 1972, and another with his current wife, Sandra, who also brought two children to their marriage late in 1973.

"I hope they look upon me as Dad," he said of his stepchildren. "The thing that helped with our Brady Bunch, as we call them, is my wife. She is a tower of strength.

"I'd say to her, 'You deserve a medal.' "

So one day Vin went to a jeweler and had a medal engraved, wrapped it with a ribbon and presented it to Sandra as a token of his appreciation for her being there on so many summer days and nights when he was serving as voice of the Dodgers.

Today, Scully is in Oakland with the Dodgers, doing the job he has done so masterfully for 57 years, and doing it with a measure of regret.

"My ache now is all the things I missed because of my job," he said. "Mother's Day, Father's Day, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, you name it.

"It has been a series of misses. And it has made my heart ache. Baseball just devours you."

Now, that just makes me feel guilty. And not a little weepy.

You, Too, Arte

His "dad acted like an owner":

"He walked around with the box scores in his hand," his son recalled. "He always knew who was doing what, who pitched, who made the errors, who was doing a crummy job."

Roster Notes

• Mark Whicker has a piece up about Dodgers' first-round pick Clayton Kershaw.

  The father, Chris Kershaw, used to read books about Sandy Koufax to Clayton, and the fact Clayton is left-handed might not be pure coincidence.

  High school pitching stats are supposed to be fanciful, but Kershaw makes you blink. He was 12-0 for Highland Park and struck out 139 in 64 innings. Baserunners? Just 52.

  "You can take a lawn chair out there when he pitches," Walker said.

  On May 19, Walker and six other Scots could have hit the mall. Kershaw faced 15 batters from Justin Northwest and struck out 15. The game was halted after five innings by a mercy rule. Kershaw needed just 73 pitches to do that.

• The Dodgers are in the hunt for a starting pitcher, and have made "95% of the calls". Sure you don't want Weaver, Ned? No, not Jered...
• Bartolo Colon's fastball still clocked in at 88-92 MPH during his last rehab start, not the 95 MPH he normally gets.
• Darin Erstad will not go back on the DL with his balky ankle.
• Juan Rivera "tweaked" an ankle running the bases yesterday.