Saturday, September 09, 2006 |
Maddux Lite: Angels 4, Blue Jays 1
Oh, don't get me wrong; there's just no way I'm going to confuse Joe for the Mad Dog. For one thing, Joe would have to be about 21 years old now, instead of the 25 he actually is; the great players are almost universally precocious. Quibble, if you must, over men like Sandy Koufax, who didn't come to greatness until he was 25, late bloomers like Hoyt Wilhelm, or Negro Leaguers like Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson, the former getting his major league start at 41 — we think — and the latter a 28-year-old rookie, but they are the exceptions, not the rule. The huge majority of those whose names adorn Cooperstown were active by the time they were 22, and so we can probably rule out such a career for young Joe, already 25. By the time he was 25, Maddux had already placed third in the Cy Young voting for his 1989 season, had logged over 1,000 innings, and was on his way to his fourth straight season of 15 or more wins.
And then there's that whole being-left-handed thing.
But man, when Joe gets on a roll, he really gets rolling, and tonight he just mowed down the Blue Jays after an early stumble. The Jays helped him out some, in particular, Vernon Wells in the first: with Reed Johnson at second thanks to a leadoff double, Wells smacked a single to right, plating Johnson. But, for some reason, Wells got greedy and stupid all at once, and decided to take the left turn at first. About halfway, he decided that was a good time and place to wait for Vlad to throw to the infield, and he let himself get caught in a 9-3 rundown in which Howie Kendrick never let go of the ball! It looked plain ridiculous, like the kind of insane baserunning gaffes we've come to expect from Vlad. Fortunately, it was Toronto doing it, and that led to Troy Glaus's 6-3 groundout to end the inning.
The rest of the night went like that offensively for the Jays, who only recorded five outs in the outfield, and a pair of doubles as their only hard-hit balls. The Angels, on the other hand, didn't exactly beat up on A.J. Burnett, but they did squeak out a win, with Anderson and Vlad pasting consecutive doubles in the fourth, and Juan Rivera advancing Anderson with a single. Howie Kendrick hit into a 4-6-3 double play that sent Anderson home to make it 2-0, but that's the kind of game he's had a lot of lately, this being his fifth 0-fer game this month. For all that the Angels hype machine has promoted him as an unconquerable contact hitter, he's looked feckless more often than not recently.
Mike Napoli, who's had an endless stream of 0-fers as well, whacked one over the fence in the seventh, his first homer in nearly a month and only his second hit of the month. In the eighth, Anderson took one into the hard part of the park, midway up the right field terrace. And of course, Shields made the last out of the eighth, and Frankie cleaned up the ninth, setting down Aaron Hill, Wells, and Glaus in order. It was a completely enjoyable game, played in a Maddux-like 2:20. We'll hold off on the Cy Young nomination just yet, but if Joe can repeat this sort of outing in his second tour of the league, such talk might not seem so far-fetched.
Newer› ‹Older
 |
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.