6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Kelvim Escobomb: Mariners 11, Angels 3

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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Kelvim Escobomb: Mariners 11, Angels 3

Everything went wrong, and during meltdowns like this one there's usually plenty of blame to go around. Escobar didn't have much in the way of command, despite 37 strikes and 27 balls, and got hit hard for it. It didn't help that Casey Kotchman decided he could take Ichiro Suzuki in a footrace, an infield single that should have been ruled E3. Chone Figgins shortly thereafter botched a play at third, and before you could say "blowout", the Mariners, whose offense is about as bad as the Angels', were up to a 3-0 lead.

The Angels managed to load the bases with two out in the top of the third. Felix Hernandez hadn't looked very stable all game, but in the main, the Angels failed to capitalize up to that point. At that precise moment, Kotchman tapped out his miracle: a bouncer up the middle that Yuniesky Betancourt got to but couldn't send anywhere.

Then the inexplicably DHing Shea Hillenbrand, one of several white flags in the game, tapped out to a force play at third. Another white flag was the appearance of Tommy Murphy, whose lack of playing time is clearly not helping, especially against a pitcher like Hernandez. He struck out to lead off the third, but after Willits lined out, Figgins inexplicably walked, and then Cabrera and Matthews got consecutive singles to load the bases.

Too bad, because three runs against Hernandez should have been enough to get the job done. Unfortunately, Escobar and his reliever, Hector Carrasco, had already combined to give up six runs in the bottom of the third, and so the game was already lost. The Angels got two more in the fourth with the bases loaded on a Cabrera single, but that was all.

You're going to have games like this one; the trick is, making sure there aren't many of them.

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Labels: angels, mariners, recaps