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

Recently, friend of the site Al Yellon picked the Angels to win the division and the AL pennant on the strength of their "outstanding" hitting, "excellent" pitching, and "unquestioned" defense. Being a little closer to the matter, I haven't been so sanguine about the offense, relying as it does on relatively untested youngsters like Howie Kendrick and Casey Kotchman; but Kendrick has a strong record of consistent, high batting averages in the minors thanks to his exceptional bat control. Kotchman had high OBPs and struck out little; guys like that tend to develop power, which is to say, he's likely to turn into Todd Helton or Paul Konerko one of these fine days. He's only 24, which means patience is still demanded — though it wasn't on this night.

In fact, Kotchman was one of the evening's stars, ripping a homer over the deepest part of the centerfield fence that bounced on top of the wall and just past the outstretched glove of Kenny Lofton. He went from the penthouse to the doghouse with a strikeout in his next at-bat in the fourth, but he singled in the fifth and got a walk in the eighth, getting on base three times out of four. Considering the park and the cold atmospheric conditions, he had a great game, bolstering my confidence in him.

The rest of the Angels' offense was somewhat more uneven than that. Matthews, Jr. did his part with the bat by working a leadoff walk in the first, and a single in the seventh. The walk he converted into a run when Vlad doubled him home, the only hit Vladi got all night. Vlad's fifth inning GIDP was pretty terrible: he was beat and he knew it, and so didn't even bother legging it out, halfway to first when the ball arrived in Mark Teixeira's glove. I tend to be extra-nervous about Vlad's health, and any little sign of trouble gives me the jitters.

But there probably isn't any reason to be worried, at least not yet. Vlad also made a nice running catch in or near foul territory (we couldn't see it in our cheap seats), his only putout of the game; if he is feeling gimpy, he's not showing it on the field.

Shea Hillenbrand reached on an error in the fourth when Hank Blalock misplayed a routine grounder straight at him. Hillenbrand promptly erased himself when he tried to steal second, a mistake he would replay in the eighth after arriving at first on an RBI single. He had just knocked in Garret Anderson, who arrived at second with a double; Hillenbrand then totally misjudged Mike Wood and got thrown out again, and not by a little.

But perhaps the game's biggest star was Matthews, Jr., who recorded six outs by himself, most of them toughies:

• In the first, he caught Mark Teixeira's line drive to center on a sprinting catch to strand Kenny Lofton at third.
• In the third, he botched a catch of Michael Young's routine flyball to right center; with Vlad bearing down on him, he got distracted, and the ball went in and out of his glove, the result being that Michael Young ended up on second with a two-base error. This prompted a round of boos from the audience, which doesn't really seem to have made up their mind about Matthews. Lackey, who didn't bring his A game tonight, then walked Teixeira and — can you believe that? — Sammy Sosa to load 'em up. But then...
• GMJ pulled Lackey's chestnuts out of the fire when he made another fine sliding catch of Hank Blalock's rope to shallow center field, ending the inning. And thus was Matthews, Jr. booed and cheered in the same inning.
• Much easier were his retrieval of Brad Wilkerson's leadoff pop fly in the fourth, and successive lineouts to center from Frank Catalanotto and Michael Young.
• With Frankie Rodriguez making his first regular season appearance of 2007 to close the game in the ninth, Brad Wilkerson had fouled off a number of pitches, doing a good job of staying on top of the ball. Wilkerson tattooed one to the deepest part of the yard, and Matthews, Jr. galloped to the notch in center field. With only steps to go before the ball left the yard, he pulled down the towering fly, to the great appreciation of everyone in the stadium.

All this is to say that the Rangers were hitting balls hard off Lackey, but it all came to naught for them, or if not naught, then one, as in one run. The Rangers threatened several times, but the Angels managed to suppress any uppity rallies. Of particular note was the superb job Justin Speier did. Entering the game in the sixth after Darren Oliver failed to retire either left-handed batter he faced, Speier elicited a pop bunt from catcher Gerald Laird — which he fielded cleanly and immediately turned and looked back both baserunners to their stations. He then got Ian Kinsler to hit into a 5-4 line-drive double play to end the inning. It doesn't get much slicker than that, and so we take it as an auspicious sign for one of the Angels' newest acquisitions.

So, Lackey had a rough night; despite his five strikeouts, he also walked four. While it's better than the March 30, 2003 season opener he pitched, giving up five runs over five innings, he was at best adequate, though in fairness the rough third inning would have been a lot shorter had Matthews, Jr. fielded Young's fly cleanly — or had Mike Napoli fielded Ian Kinsler's popup behind the plate at all. As with Matthews three batters later, Napoli let the ball squirt out of his glove after failing to get a good read on it, thus needlessly extending the inning for his pitcher. The matter was made worse because Kinsler shortly thereafter took one of Lackey's pitches over the wall in center, and so I can only imagine the kind of needling that Lackey and/or Scoscia must have given Napoli after that. (In his defense, Napoli also had a quick-witted steal of second base that eventually he turned into a run on Izturis's RBI single.)

On the Rangers' side, Kevin Millwood pitched well, but I suspect this outing will prove fairly typical for him; he's not really a pitcher of the first rank, and he's never had the kind of strikeout numbers that cause you to sit up and take notice. The rest of the Rangers' bullpen, though, assembled a good game in relief, limiting the Angels to one run in the game's remaining three innings. As for Sammy Sosa, he got soundly booed every time he came to the plate and contributed only a harmless walk in the third to the entirety of the Rangers' offense. In all, it was a fine game for the Angels, and one the Rangers have nothing to be ashamed of, errors on both sides notwithstanding.

Recap

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Prior to the game — which we barely got to in time, thanks to a malfunctioning left turn light on the corner of Katella and State College — the Angels officially sent Troy Percival out to pasture in his old 40-numbered jersey and blue jeans, the tails of his jersey flopping in the cool evening air as he ran out from the bullpen. He bounced a pitch over the plate, and of course the "radar gun" lit up at 101; the auld lang syne didn't last long, and the new Angels quickly settled down to their usual positions. The game went on, and later, during a radio interview, Percival announced his intention to continue to coach his son's Little League team for another couple years or so, but then he wants to manage. Well, bully for him.

After the game, we visited the new team store on the terrace level. It's well-stocked and spacious, and though we had to wait in line for some time to get in, it moved pretty well. I ended up purchasing a media guide, and a Scioscia-style jacket for the bargain price of $144. (Those embroidered A's are quite expensive, I understand — not.) I'll use it, oh, for a month or so every year, I'm sure.

Finally: this was apparently the ESPN national broadcast game, and those following at home had to endure Rick Sutcliffe and Dusty Baker. Sutcliffe used to work for the Padres, and while I've never heard him enough to form an opinion, our Padres-lovin' friends in San Diego sent us enough negative vibes about him to make me suspicious; and Dusty Baker we already know as a dispenser of dubious wisdom. For instance, he has cast aspersions on the value of walks previously ("Clogging up the bases isn't that great to me"), and once more during this game: talking about GMJ's leadoff walk in the first, he remarked that "you would never guess that a little innocent walk like that could lead to two runs." Well, Dusty, that's why you're not managing the Cubs anymore.

Labels: angels, rangers, recaps