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

Jeremy Guthrie was a first-round pick by the Indians in the 2002 draft, a pitcher with good-not-great peripherals at the college level (8.60 K/9 in his best year for Stanford). Selected 22nd overall and signed to a major league contract on a $3M bonus, his first year with the team was a resounding success. Channelling Greg Maddux, he didn't get a ton of strikeouts, but he got groundballs a-plenty. After a 1.44 ERA, 6-2 record for AA Akron (including two complete games), he earned a late-season promotion to AAA Buffalo, whereupon he got shelled (6.52 ERA, 4-9). The Indians declared he was not a bust, started him at AA (again) and promoted him to AA (again); in both cases, he was less-than impressive the second time around, and worse besides. Along the way, he got to face the Angels on September 3, 2004, in which he made only one out but was charged with two runs after walking David Eckstein.

He toiled for another year at Buffalo, posting unimpressive numbers there, until the Indians finally got fed up with him and designated him for assignment when they needed to add outfielder Trot Nixon to the 40-man roster. The Orioles picked him up when their scouts raved about his 95 MPH fastball and two or three other quality pitches.

At 28, with Leo Mazzone in the dugout, he may have finally found his place. Even though he owns a dangerously low 3.02 K/9, he came into today's game with a 3.02 ERA, and through eight innings, you could see why. He recorded 15 of his 24 outs on the ground and was involved in five of those plays. He faced the minimum in six innings, and retired the side in order five times. That is to say, he came out throwing strikes, and for a hack-happy team like the Angels (though perhaps not quite so much this year), he made his outs quickly and efficiently.

Ervin Santana, on the other hand, managed to stick around only for seven innings, struggling to make third outs in several places. In fact, all the runs he allowed came with two outs:

• With two down on strikeouts to start off the third, Brian Roberts singled off him, and Nick Markakis doubled to drive him home. Santana struck out the side by whiffing Miguel Tejada to end the threat.
• In the fourth, he got Aubrey Huff and Kevin Millar in order on popups, but then Melvin Mora blasted a solo homer to notch another run.
• In the sixth, Tejada got a leadoff single, but Santana again retired Huff and Millar on flyballs. After walking Melvin Mora, he gave up an RBI single to Jay Payton for still a third (and fortunately, the last) run.

Surprisingly, Santana's only 1-2-3 inning was the seventh, in which he got Paul Bako and Brian Roberts to make outs on the first pitches of their at-bats, and struck out Millar on six pitches. The Halos weren't able to get any traction against Guthrie, and so Santana left the game behind and in danger of taking a rare home loss despite pitching a quality start plus.

A pair of sparkling plays got little-used Darren Oliver a scoreless eighth. The first, Tejada's bullet deep in the hole at short ended with Aybar throwing a dart to first, which Hillenbrand picked up on a close play. The second, Aubrey Huff's liner to left-center, ended up caught in the nick of time by Garret Anderson. Millar even obliged the Angels by striking out, a rarity. Oliver may have his uses, but with the bullpen depth the Angels have this year, he may rather soon become an expendable player, even taking this good outing into consideration.

A highlight-reel catch of Melvin Mora's popped up bunt attempt highlighted Chris Bootcheck's 1-2-3 ninth. Diving to his right, Bootcheck got an instant out instead of a sure bunt single. Inbetween pitchers, the Angels picked up their second run of the game when pinch-hitter Casey Kotchman followed up Shea Hillenbrand's single with a double, and Howie Kendrick's 5-3 grounder drove in Hillenbrand.

Reggie Willits made a 4-3 groundout to finish off the frame, going 0-for-4 on the day, and 1-for-18 in the series. He's made up for some of that by getting walks (five in this series), but he hasn't scored a single run in the series. He's far from being useless, but his cooling off is now quite pronounced. You can see where he might soon be replaced in the leadoff role by the resurgent Chone Figgins.

And Figgins played a critical role in this game, batting second for the first time in ages. He got a critical leadoff single in the top of the ninth off Baltimore closer Chris Ray, and thus was on base when Vlad came in to slash one onto the batter's eye in center. It worked out to be Bootcheck's first major league win, and for that I salute him.

Two more incidentals to go with this game that don't fit cleanly elsewhere:

• For all that Shea Hillenbrand has given me grief at the plate this season, he had the Angels' first good at bat against Guthrie, getting a 10-pitch at-bat to lead off the third. Forget his strikeout, no other Angel saw as many pitches.
• In the fifth, Hillenbrand was part of a flyball double play that just turned your stomach if you were an Angel fan. With Aybar at first, Hillenbrand hit a liner to medium center. Aybar took off on contact and got as far as second — and stood and watched Payton field the ball instead of standing halfway between the bags so he could retreat or advance as needed. Just another example of Aybar's incompetence on the basepaths.

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