6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Playing To Lose, Winning Anyway: Angels 6, Yankees 5

Proceeds from the ads below will be donated to the Bob Wuesthoff scholarship fund.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Playing To Lose, Winning Anyway: Angels 6, Yankees 5

The Angels continued their awfulness and managed to win despite continued lousy play. Lackey's mediocre game aside, we were treated to more wretchedness:

Erick Aybar made a pair of throwing errors, both of which might have been caught by a taller first baseman; fortunately, neither Giambi (in the second) nor A-Rod (in the eighth) scored as a result.
Lousy field positioning by Angels coaches in the fourth put Maicer Izturis on the edge of the infield grass rather than back at regular depth. With Melky Cabrera at second, the Yankees had some speed, and thus when Jeter bounced one over Izturis's head, he had no chance of fielding it, and into left field it went, and the Yankees closed the gap, 3-4, leaving Jeter on second and Giambi on third. Bobby Abreu's one-out bouncer to first drove in the tying run, one that should never have made it out of the infield.
Scot Shields' struggles on the mound continued, as he wild pitched in a run in the eighth to give the Yanks the lead.

Fortunately, however bad Angels pitching may have been, that of the Yankees was even worse (Octavio Dotel in particular), and so the Halos manage to slink home with at least some semblance of dignity. Depending on your read on the play, Dino Ebel was either a goat or a hero for holding Reggie Willits at third in the bottom of the ninth, and previously in the bottom of the fourth, when Vlad hit a rocket to deep right and the arm of Bobby Abreu. Abreu misplayed the ball and actually dropped it, possibly giving Maicer Izturis a shot at scoring, but Ebel, perhaps remembering his misadventures of the previous night, decided to hold him at third. My first reaction was that it was a mistake, but with two out, not so much.

The Angels reverted to the Bad News Bears in the field, at least, and the bullpen looked equally hittable. The good news: the Angels got a whole mess of extra base hits, the first time in what seems like a long while. Mike Napoli's pinch-hit sac fly can't qualify as "walkoff", but it sure feels a lot better than a groundout.

And, oh yeah, this marks only the third time in his career A-Rod has captured the golden sombrero; the last time was June 22, 1995 against the Chisox, as a rookie. (The AP recap says it was his third sombrero, anyway; Retrosheet disagrees, but I'm betting the third one happened in 1999, the last remaining modern year missing from their data.) Bet they'll eat that up in New York.

ESPN Box • Recap

// posted by Rob @ 11:51 PM link // 0 comments