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Wednesday, June 06, 2007 |
Just One Flub: Twins 8, Angels 5
All it took to unhinge John Lackey was one lousy misplay by Orlando Cabrera in the fifth, a grounder straight at him up the middle that should have turned a one-on, no-outs situation into a nobody on, two-outs scenario. The fact that it was Little Nicky Punto, as the now sadly defunct Batgirl used to call him, did the damage made it all the more galling. In fact, this relatively powerless offense blasting three homers out of the park (one by the much more acceptable Michael Cuddyer) was a sure sign of weirdness, illustrating the inevitability that there are some automatic losses built into a 162-game season.
The Angels' strength of schedule over the interleague period (6/8-24) is .452, the second lowest in the division; their hardest opponent is Los Angeles, but almost all of the other teams are very weak.
And it wasn't as though the Angels weren't capable of putting runs on the board; five is usually plenty. The Halos were 27-4 going into today in games in which the offense scored five runs; oh, well. Mike Napoli (2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs), Casey Kotchman (2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI), and OCab (2-for-4) all had strong days at the plate, as did Howie Kendrick, who got a solo homer, his first since coming back — all to no avail.
As pointed out yesterday, the Angels have a long stretch of interleague play coming up against mostly subpar NL Central teams (in particular, the Pirates, Astros, and Reds). Meantime, the Angels' division foes will be playing:
| Team | Schedule | Strength of Schedule |
|---|---|---|
| Oakland: (excluding 6/7 vs. Red Sox) |
6/8-10: @ San Francisco 6/11: off 6/12-14: @ Houston 6/15-17: vs. St. Louis 6/18-20: vs. Cincinnati 6/21: off 6/22-24: @ New York Mets | .468 |
| Seattle: | 6/8-10: @ San Diego 6/11: @ Cleveland (makeup game with no travel day) 6/12-14: @ Chicago Cubs 6/15-17: @ Houston 6/18: off 6/19-21: vs. Pittsburgh 6/22-24: vs. Cincinnati | .457 |
| Texas: (excludes 6/7 vs. Detroit) |
6/8-10: vs. Milwaukee 6/11: off 6/12-14: @ Pittsburgh 6/15-17: @ Cincinnati 6/18: off 6/19-21: vs. Chicago Cubs 6/22-24: vs. Houston | .440 |
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