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

Bud Black needs to start the sleuthing right now. Lackey's been a month without a win, and really, if you want to see the ass-kicking version of Big John, you'd have to go back to his five-hit complete game shutout of Tampa Bay just before the break. Since then, he

• didn't survive the fifth in a beatdown by the Indians, giving up five earned runs in a 6-4 loss
• went eight innings and gave up four earned runs in a 8-4 victory over the Devil Rays
• managed exactly a quality start (plus one unearned run) against a very tough Boston lineup in a game the Angels went on to win 10-4
• imploded against Texas at home for seven runs, all earned, leading to a 7-3 loss
• got collared with a tough-luck 4-0 shutout in which he gave up all four runs, one unearned
• Took a 7-2 road loss in which he surrendered three earned runs over seven innings, but got no run support

So even though Lackey has a 7.36 ERA in August, you can attribute that to his bad game against the Rangers and tonight's fiasco. Outside of those two games, the genesis of his winless streak is the same story that has dogged the Angels all season: a little poor defense stirred in with some inoffensive offense. The Angels committed four errors, and actually were outhit by the Mariners 18-14, but for once, the Angels came out ahead — if only by one — on extra-base hits, and that was the difference.

Lackey didn't exactly cruise through his first four scoreless frames, surrendering six singles and a walk in the process, but the floodgates opened up in the fifth when the M's sent nine men to the plate, a process helped along by Mike Napoli's botched throw that sent a stealing Ichiro off to third base. Adrian Beltre singled him home, and we watched in some horror as left fielder Juan Rivera let the routine ball get past him, allowing Beltre to take third, narrowly missing an inside-the-parker. Consecutive doubles from Raul Ibanez and Richie Sexson plated two more, and it was at exactly this point we had to wonder what had to happen for Ron Roenicke to yank Lackey; was he waiting for divine intervention? A phone call from Fox Sports letting him know the Saturday game against the Yankees was due to start?

But, no. Roenicke, for whatever reason, let him stay in, and Lackey worked Kenji Johjima into a hard-hit groundball out to third for his second out. But that was all he got, as the next batter, Ben Broussard, homered with Sexson still on base.

And still Lackey remained on the mound. Roenicke didn't even have a pitcher warming up after Ibanez's double, as clear a plea for an intervention as ever happened on a baseball diamond. It was only after Yuniesky Betancourt doubled that Roenicke finally decided that maybe John had overstayed his welcome, yanking him for Hector Carrasco, who did a fine job in relief. But it all recalled just how narrow a thing this victory was, as the Angels' margin of victory was shockingly thin considering the quality of the opposition offense.

Some of that, no doubt, stemmed directly from Mike Hargrove's insistance on leaving Beltre and Sexson in the three and five holes, respectively, no matter how badly they're doing at the moment. Thanks in part to a .296/.359/.535 line in August, Beltre finally pried his average up to a wholly respectable .267. However, it's hard to imagine what excuses Hargrove might have for having a guy hitting .232 hitting that high in the order. Sexson struck out in three of his five plate appearances, though he did get a leadoff single in the seventh (only to be doubled up on the next batter, Kenji Johjima), and an RBI single in the five-run fifth. Two of those strikeouts were inning-enders, and well, um, thank you for playing, but shouldn't they have Broussard hitting somewhere besides seventh? Sure, Sexson has 25 dingers on the season, but his godawful .303 OBP is just killing the team in that position; he's earned a demotion, no?

Sadly, the game featured more of the far-too-frequent fielding errors that started the crowd's eyes to roll; Robb Quinlan's destructive toss of a ball he should have kept comes to mind, as does Vlad's misplay of a liner in right that should have been an out. Yet, the Angels managed a few good plays as well, like in the top of the third when Rivera made a good running snag of Ichiro's foul along the third base line a few yards shy of the foul pole. And then Scot Shields got two outs with one pitch in the eighth, but just blew up in the ninth and required bailing out by K-Rod, who managed a pair of strikeouts, one against Chris Snelling.

Snelling's K requires a special and brief note, because he actually took Frankie to a 3-0 count — and then took three straight strikes looking, but on each pitch he tried to sell a ball four count, walking out of the batter's box. The first time, the umpire is going to be annoyed; the second time, he'll be mad; and the third time, why, we'll see you tomorrow around noon.

Helen wondered why they had even left the kid in the game, considering the tieing runs were in scoring position; do you really want a rookie with four major league at bats this year to decide whether you're going to go down in flames 0-19 against the division? I suppose with Eduardo Perez, Willie Bloomquist, and Rene Rivera on the bench, it was a six-of-one situation for Seattle; but the question is, do you want to evince some confidence in your rookie, or gamely try to win this one? Having answered affirmatively to the former, Hargrove may have made a tactical career mistake.

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