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

Bartolo Colon has taken some abuse around these parts, for the most part deservedly; his godawful 2004 first half (6.38 ERA) made him look like a total albatross. He settled down, and with 21 wins in 2005, became the Angels' first Cy Young winner since Dean Chance in 1964.

Then last year, it all fell apart again. Following a 6-1 loss to the Dodgers on June 30, he was 0-4 to start a season for the first time in his career. He went on in his very next game to record only a single win — ironically enough, a four-hit, 4-0 complete game against Seattle on July 5, 2006. Two more no-decisions and an embarrassing 8-3 loss to the Royals later, the latter a game in which he surrendered four earned runs over six innings, and it was clear something was wrong. Finally, Colon completely, utterly, and totally self-immolated in a one-inning appearance against the Devil Rays on July 26 in which he gave up successive home runs to Rocco Baldelli and Ty Wigginton in the first, leaving the game at the end of the inning complaining of elbow pains. It was the shortest start of his career since the Angels beat him up on September 2, 1998 to the tune of seven earned runs on nine hits.

By August 4, the Angels found out he was done for the season with a partially torn rotator cuff, one of the worst injuries that can befall a pitcher. He elected to rehab the shoulder rather than undergoing surgery.

And, so, after a successful spring training and a couple of rehab starts, here he was, live and large, for the first time since that painful outing in Tampa Bay last July. Truth be told, I would have been happy had he kept the team in it through six; even a five and a third game would have been a positive development. As it was, Bart pitched his way through seven innings, and all the outs, save for one first inning strikeout of Jose Vidro, required the sometimes acrobatic assistance of his fielders. Adrian Beltre's third inning line drive looked destined to become the Mariners' first run and extra bases for the former Dodger, but Matthews, Jr. made a beautiful running, over-the-shoulder catch that started a string of consecutive outs.

Despite giving up one run and seven hits, Bart actually looked pretty solid. That's not to say that he'll look anywhere near this good against better offenses; the absence of strikeouts is a concern. Maybe that's not a surprise, because his velocity is likely gone for good:

"My goal all along was to pitch in April. I worked really hard to get back here, and I want to thank my teammates for all the runs they gave me tonight," Colon said. "I know the days of throwing 99, 100 miles per hour are over for me, but my mind is stronger."

In fact, we pretty shortly started wishing Colon had stayed in the game. Darren Oliver, also struggling, did little to advance his cause. While he sent down Ritchie Sexson on a called strikeout, as it was, he left two on base for Scot Shields to deal with. I have bagged on Shields' regular season performance this year, in particular after his surrendering a game-losing homer to Pronk in the recently completed Cleveland series, but in fact he managed to appear in six straight games before giving up so much as a run; and inheriting two baserunners during that time, he only allowed one of them to score.

Further, Shields has had rough starts before and done fine the rest of the season; his April 2004 was, for him, pretty terrible, posting a 4.91 ERA. From that, I draw that he'll eventually right himself, though he's now 31, and so we ought to factor that into his game. Also, the fact that he hadn't pitched in five days may have had something to do with the grand slam he surrendered to Ben Broussard in the eighth, an event met with much hand-wringing in the stands; of a sudden, the Mariners, who had no hope at all, were one run away from tying the thing up. But Shields recovered, getting Ichiro out on a hard grounder to second baseman Erick Aybar — who made a nice play just to get to the ball, let alone to shoot a rocket to Quinlan at first. So we'll see about the Scot who misspells his own name, but I'm not — yet — worried about him.

Bart should also get some credit for pitching through some questionable defense. For instance, Robb Quinlan's misplay of Jose Guillen's hard grounder to first in the second inning; in racing to the bag, Colon ended up twisting his own ankle, or perhaps Guillen stepped on it. Either way, it looked for a minute as if a freak injury would take him off the field, possibly for some time. Still, he pitched through it, and even unto seven without too much apparent difficulty.

And then there was Vlad's bobble of Jose Vidro's leadoff single in the eighth, which Vidro then converted to a man-on-second, no outs situation. That ended badly — according to the radio broadcast, the ensuing Broussard pinch-hit homer was the first in Mariners' history. But for the rest, the Angels flashed some excellent leather all around, with Matthews, Jr. robbing Jose Vidro of a home run in center by a matter of a couple feet at the warning track in the sixth. In the seventh, Orlando Cabrera made a fine leaping catch of a Jose Guillen line drive.

Oh, and the Angels' sticks? Chock full of hits they were. Vlad powered another homer out of the yard, a no-outs, three-run shot in the first. Quinlan drove in a pair and went 2-3, his first hits of the season, and therefore his first RBIs. Mike Napoli even got a hit and an RBI, which somewhat atoned for his having been caught napping in the third and was picked off first 1-3-6.

Poor Napoli later took a foul tip to the Adam's apple. It was the second significant catcher injury in the game, as Kenji Johjima took a foul ball off the calf and was pulled in the sixth for former Angel Jamie Burke, who, as a 35-year-old, finally made a team's starting roster. Wow.

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// posted by Rob @ 12:22 AM link  //  3 comments