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

So far, Blez's foreclosure on AN crankiness about the A's and their early season doldrums doesn't seem to be working, if the object was to prevent the actual events:

Early season panic resolution: Let's face it, the A's haven't been known as fast starters during the Beane Era. Every year I bring up the team's record in April and May over the past five or six seasons because it seems like this team is destined to struggle during those months. Maybe this year will be different, but don't we say that every year? Every season we all ask if this is the year a slow start will doom the A's, and this might be that year especially if the Angels continue to roar out of the gate. But realize that the team starts slow every year. It's as sure as the sun rising and Paris Hilton appearing in another "leaked" adult video when he stardom starts to wane.

When did this idea that the A's had consistent rough starts come from?

               Won-Loss
Season   April   May   Total
=============================
2000     12-13  15-13  27-26
2001      8-17  18-9   26-26
2002     15-11  10-17  25-28
2003     17-10  14-13  31-23
2004     11-12  15-11  26-23
2005     12-12   7-20  19-32
2006     12-12  12-17  24-29

That is to say, the A's have had one great start (2003), one good start (2004), a couple mediocre ones (2000, 2001), one bad one (2006), and one awful one (2005). Man, that reads like a bell curve, doesn't it? I guess if it's happening to your team, you pay closer attention, especially to recent events; as they say, the games in April count every bit as much as the ones in September. Already, they have calls for Bob Geren's head, and some of us watching the games in Anaheim have barely found out why we should take a shine to Geren before he's shown the door.

The A's, of course, started the season with a litany of injuries, starting with retroactive DL time for starter Esteban Loaiza, outfielder Mark Kotsay, and first baseman Dan Johnson. Today's game amplified that, as Milton Bradley begged off with a "sore side" which sounded remarkably like dat ol' debbil oblique strain, an injury that seems to have replicated like rabbits in baseball of late. Jason Kendall had the day off (gotta do that with aging catchers), and then Bobby Crosby, who had offseason back surgery, got yanked in the sixth due to back spasms.

All of which was to say that the Angels weren't exactly facing Oakland's A team. On the other hand, Mike Napoli was out with a virus, and Figgins, Colon, and Weaver were all nursing long-term infirmities. Injuries are a part of the game, and so far, the top two teams in the division are both suffering from them pretty badly. So, sauce for the goose.

We arrived at the park early; having spied a lineup sheet taped to one of the field-level cameras, I resolved to come back and crib the day's lineup. By the time I got back, the camera operator (named Kurt) was in place, and not only was he a voluble, friendly fellow, but, unbidden, he ran off to some backroom somewhere and printed out a copy for me. We chatted for a few minutes before he had to do whatever tuneups on his camera were needed for the broadcast. Of the prior day's game, he told me that the cameramen normally root for the Angels, but if there's a threat of extra innings, they're as happy as any Oakland fan to see a rally that gets the game in the books in nine. He also told me about catching a Vlad grand slam one day he was working the camera in the rocks; he gave it back to one of the trainers, but how cool would that have been?

The game commenced with Moseley on the mound. I have made certain predictions about Moseley that I may now wish to keep quiet — but no. Moseley, the return on the trade that sent Ramon Ortiz to pastures out Cincinnati way, once was a premier pitching prospect who lost his way due to injury (back spasms while with the Reds) and dubious effectiveness (in the Angels system). As recently as 2005, he was a top 30 prospect in the Angels system, but he dropped off the list the next year, testament to Eddie Bane's great job of scouting. Baseball Prospectus 2007 said of him

Lacking any particularly reliable out-pitch, Moseley's destiny is to be a Quadruple-A hurler, casting about for emergency starts and the off chance that some really bad ballclub will somehow back into having him on their roster.

Luckily, Moseley encountered a (mostly) 4-A Oakland lineup, and so things actually went pretty well in his second major league appearance. Moseley immediately surrendered a scary line drive in the gap to Shannon Stewart, but Gary Matthews, Jr. — for whom all crowd doubt has now been erased after a hot start — made a fine running catch to retire him. Moseley then struck out Nick Swisher, but gave up a long double to Mike Piazza — not unexpected. It really should have been a long single, but Izturis misplayed the ball, getting just enough glove on it to deflect the ball against the left field stands, making Anderson change his route just long enough to let Piazza get to second uncontested. On the next play, Izturis redeemed himself by making a running catch of Eric Chavez's long pop fly to end the inning.

So far, so good.

Lefty Joe Kennedy, who had been in the pen last year for the A's, got tabbed with an emergency start in Esteban Loaiza's stead, and he was solid in the first couple innings. In the first, Matthews, Jr. got aboard on a fluke double when Stewart badly misplayed a routine warning track flyball, but that was really the only offense the Angels would muster (aside from a Casey Kotchman walk in the second) until the third inning. Matthews got aboard on a single, and he stole a base while A's catcher Adam Melhuse fumbled for the ball and lost his footing; it was comic for us, but the A's fans sitting next to us were all looking at the floor and grimacing.

That seemed to be a turning point in the game. Thereafter, Kennedy lost his composure and his control, walking Orlando Cabrera, and plunking Vlad to load the bases. Melhuse then had another disaster sparked by Kennedy's wildness, a passed ball that let Matthews, Jr. score, giving the Angels the early lead.

In the Angels' half of the fourth, we knew something was really up when, during Howie Kendrick's at bat, Kennedy threw a ball completely over everyone's head, batter, catcher, and umpire; he repeated it in the sixth during Molina's at bat. Presently, Kendrick smacked a leadoff homer into the bullpen, cause for much cheering. The Angels continued to threaten with a Jose Molina single and a double by Izturis that didn't knock in a run; on the other hand, this is one of the Molina brothers we're talking about. But the A's pitcher settled down, striking out Matthews and getting Cabrera to line out to center to end the threat.

The game fairly settled down up to the top half of the seventh, with only a fourth inning single that Mike Piazza turned into an out, and a fantastic over-the-shoulder catch by Kotchman to break up a relatively routine string of outs made by both sides; shockingly, Moseley fanned four and walked none, displaying a surprising level of control. Shannon Stewart's botched catch of what should have been a routine flyball on GA's single to left turned out to be momentarily exciting but meaningless, as Quinlan bounced into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. It was an unusual 0-fer outing for Q, who normally bashes lefties.

But in the sixth, Kennedy was clearly tiring, throwing a lot of pitches and missing the plate a good amount. In the seventh, he surrendered a leadoff double to Eric Chavez, and Mike Scioscia came out with the hook; the assembled audience gave him a hardy cheer.

His replacement, Justin Speier, struck out two of the three following batters, but gave up a leadoff walk to nice guy Bobby Crosby Scutaro in the eighth. Speier then walked another after GA made a diving attempt on a foul ball, the second of the game, and a total shock for those of us used to Mr. Calculated Risk who doesn't often make showy fielding maneuvers. The A's got Scutaro home on a Scot Shields wild pitch, which seemed to me to be at least partly the result of an inconsistent strike zone called by home plate umpire Dan Iassogna (i.e., he would have had him struck out if the strike zone weren't so absurdly inconsistent/tight). Perversely, that strike zone got tighter as the night wore on, something that may have plagued Kennedy as well, though Kennedy had been missing up for most of the game.

Of course, the Angels' big inning came in the seventh, when the A's brought in veteran Jay Witasick, who promptly gave up a single to Izturis like he was handing out Halloween candy. He followed it up with a walk to sudden OBP-machine Matthews, Jr., but got 3-fer-the-season Cabrera to fly out. With one out, Witasick's only hope was a groundball to a glove, but instead one ended up on the batter's eye, and that was it for him, and, as it turned out, for the Angels' scoring. Anderson followed with a 2-3 swinging strikeout.

Finally, we got to grind our teeth on K-Rod's supremely awful outing. I have my suspicions about his pitching, but he was missing the zone pretty consistently, and while he had some heat going, the fastest I saw him clocked was 94 MPH. But the fact that he surrendered a double to Travis Buck, a player who's never been above AA, tells me that his A stuff is packed in a trunk somewhere in the Phoenix metropolitan area. He gutted his way through his three outs, getting Marco Scutaro — Crosby's sixth inning defensive replacement — to line out hard to Garret Anderson, and striking out Bobby Kielty, who was 4-10 against K-Rod in prior engagements. We sometimes see heaven in that arm, and while I'm learning to be more trusting, he still can give you a good scare, especially early in the season.

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