Saturday, July 07, 2007 |
Light Up The Dramamine: Angels 2, Yankees 1 (13)
Reggie Willits went 1-for-5 with a walk today, was .063/.111/.063 in July going into the game, and .147/.211/.176 over the last two weeks. Why he's still batting leadoff after a slump that pronounced is beyond me. But in complaining about Willits, I should also mention that Figgins went 0-for-6 and has cooled off considerably of late; he had to. Vlad had two hits and only stranded one runner in this game, which was good, because he's been hitting .259/.333/.407 since the start of the Baltimore series (as of the start of play today).
Both starters had excellent games, which, in Clemens' case, surprised me, but he hasn't had a full season to argue with his back yet. But Lackey was by far the more dominant pitcher, bringing his A-game to the Bronx, tying a career record for strikeouts with 11, walking exactly nobody, and five-hitting New York over eight impressive innings.
The bullpens were then the difference, and Kyle "Dr. Tightpants" Farnsworth was the first guy I expected to implode; but he managed to finish with a 4.46 ERA while giving up only one hit over an inning of work. The Angels got to Luis Vizcaino, though.
Heh.
So, tomorrow, Ervin Santana against Chien-Ming Wang, the former notoriously horrible on the road, and the latter 0-2 with a 5.40 ERA against the Angels lifetime. That is to say, it's the moveable object meeting the resistable force: a nailbiter, either way, especially with Frankie presumably unavailable.
Update: *I missed the "2" next to Posada. Oops.
Labels: angels, recaps, yankees
7-7-07: "The bullpens were then the difference"
the bullpen is a strength of this club. Frankie and Shields have been nails. Speier is on the way back, Resop looks good, and Carrasco has been jettisoned. Waiting in the wings for October will by Mighty Joe Saunders. Oliver is looking better, and at least Bootcheck is, uh, improved and staying in The Show finally..
They aren't perfect and they wore the black hat Friday, but it's all in all, it's more than adequate for a World Championship club.
Resop really shouldn't be trusted with any kind of a lead against a quality offense, but I fear that will happen tomorrow with both Shields and Frankie out of commission. Ditto for Moseley.
Admittedly, the front end is the weak link (but aren't they all?). With Frankie and Shields anchoring it and pitching the important innings, i'm pretty comfortable with the pen we have, especially in light of what it should look like in the Fall. "oversold" isn't an adjective i'd use when looking at the overall composition as we begin the 2nd half.
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