6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Los Angeles* Treats Everyone Like A Drunk In Bed: Angels 10, Cardinals 6

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Friday, June 08, 2007

Los Angeles* Treats Everyone Like A Drunk In Bed: Angels 10, Cardinals 6

Bart: bad. If his goal is to end the season with a 9.00 ERA, then he's on his way. On the other hand... three solo homers in and of themselves weren't terrible, but his control continues to be very erratic, and it seems it's getting worse. Giving up homers to the likes of Kelly Stinnett (who just a couple weeks ago was the Las Vegas 51's starting catcher) isn't very confidence-building.

Bullpen: Dustin Moseley is, despite his wobbly game tonight, still better than Hector Carrasco and Darren Oliver. And both those guys got their jobs done tonight, though it represented a pretty strong divergence from the typical Scioscia-managed game in that the starter goes six or seven, and the bullpen goes two or three. Oliver got his strongest outing of the year, striking out the Cards' 2-3-4 batters in order, a real feather in his cap. And Shields and Frankie were, if not perfect, enough.

Offense: Heavenly. Not so much the first few innings, but the broadcast team mentioned that Kip Wells is good through the first three, and terrible thereafter. It's a pattern that's really developed in the last couple of years:

Note that the red trend line for 2006 goes to zero because he did get to the seventh last year, and did in fact have a zero average against, but that accounted for only seven plate appearances. So it was anyway somewhat predictable to see the Angels struggle through the first four innings, and then roar out to a big three-run fifth inning, with the bottom of the order doing plenty of damage, including a pinch-hit single off Reggie Willits' bat. Despite Chone Figgins' fielder's choice that erased Willits, the uncharacteristically patient Angels loaded the bases on OCab's walk, setting the stage for Vlad's two-run single and Casey Kotchman's RBI single.

Having pummelled Wells almost but not quite to the point of submission, the Angels chased him in the sixth but couldn't get any traction against reliever Russ Springer. That wasn't the case for Springer's replacement, Tyler Johnson, who promptly found himself with men on second and third and no outs after Vlad's little dunker and a booming Matthews, Jr. double. Casey Kotchman got both home on a single, and managed second on the throw.

Now, just as my cynicism about GA washed heavy over me, he managed to plate Kotchman on an RBI single, and wouldn't you know it but Tony LaRussa yanked Johnson. (At this point, Helen quipped that one or more Angels — presumably including Vlad — could expect to get drilled tomorrow during the game.) Howie Kendrick lashed a double against Ryan Franklin, advancing GA to third; both came home on Mike Napoli's double down the left field line.

And remember, the Angels still hadn't made an out.

Shea Hillenbrand, called upon to pinch hit, made the least of his opportunity by grounding out to short, but after Figgy advanced Napoli to third on a single, OCab plated the last run of the frame on a sac fly.

And then there was Figgins' one-man-show in the ninth, in which he reached on a single, stole second, stole third, and scored on Stinett's wild pickoff throw. Wow.

It was almost too much to watch, let alone describe adequately. With victories by the entire division today, the Angels remain five and a half games on top of the division. Getting some breathing space now would be a good idea.

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*No, not that one. The other one. Here's a clue.

Labels: angels, cardinals, recaps