6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Hen<i>wreck</i>son: Angels 6, Dodgers 2

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Saturday, May 19, 2007

Henwreckson: Angels 6, Dodgers 2

At some point, somebody had to remind Grady Little that playing with fire will eventually cause Mrs. O'Leary's cow to get blamed for a conflagration she didn't commit, and from there start an improbable primetime reality show. The Angels cashed in plenty on Mark Hendrickson's back-to-earth night, with Hendrickson giving up a homer and a walk to Mike Napoli. Both turned into runs for the Angels, the latter on a Figgins double play groundout. Little also gave Hendrickson plenty of rope in the sixth for a total of three earned runs, one on a Shea Hillenbrand RBI single. This comes perilously close to being a prima facie application of the Grabowski Principle, a shoal upon which at least one managerial career has foundered.

Jeff Kent, after last night's game, complained about interleague play, saying

[It's] hard for the players to get motivated," he said. "We played these guys in spring training and then you come here and you try to get pumped up. You don't know who they are; you don't play them on a regular basis so there is no rhythm to the game for the players."

Like you know the freaking Pirates any better, Jeff. Anyway, Kent got a homer and a couple long loud flyball outs off Jered Weaver, a possibly dangerous sign; Weaver's been good at containing righties, mostly, though Kent and his Hall of Fame-headed self isn't maybe just any right handed batter. Other than Kent, though, Weaver gave up only one double, to Mike Lieberthal in the top of the seventh, after he'd thrown over 100 pitches and was clearly tiring. It might not even have been a double save for a slightly offline throw by Gary Matthews, Jr., but it didn't matter, since Scot Shields got Rafael Furcal to line out hard to Reggie Willits to end the inning.

There was some talk from the Angels radio broadcasters during the game of Weaver showing some Jeff-ian emotion after he'd given up a single or two, but if it were true, I didn't notice it.

One of the hits Weaver surrendered was Furcal's third inning single, the weirdest I've ever seen in all my years going to the ballpark. Furcal bunted the ball, and with Chone Figgins racing in from third, the ball popped right over his head, just past the outfield grass for a little bloop single. Reggie Willits got it back in in a hurry, a good thing considering how the Dodgers' sloppy play in the bottom of the first allowed Reggie Willits to score on what should have been a tailor-made Vlad ground ball to short. Kent got charged with an error, but in reality it was Nomar's fault as he bobbled the ball at first, allowing Vlad to reach, and, once the ball hit the ground, Willits to score.

Napoli's good night at the plate — continuing his late hitting streak to nine games — was somewhat counterbalanced by yet another weak throw to second when Luis Gonzalez stole the base successfully in the fourth; a better throw would have had him, and prevented the Dodgers' second run, since Russ Martin and Wilson Betemit made consecutive outs. We take progress where we can get it.

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