Sunday, August 19, 2007 |
Hokie Joe Does It Again! Angels 3, Red Sox 1
All of which is to say that Tavarez did a fine job, two-hitting the Angels through six. But his rocky first inning proved to be the difference in the game, with the Halos wasting no time in getting Chone Figgins aboard on a 2-2 pitch he lined into center. Orlando Cabrera then walked.
At that point, GA made a flyball out. It is worth mentioning at this juncture the fact that Anderson has been truly awful with runners in scoring position this year, .211/.255/.326. Why he is batting ahead of Casey Kotchman is beyond me.
Vlad then singled in a run, his only hit of the day, and Gary Matthews, Jr. picked up the only other run to score for the next five innings on an RBI groundout. The rest of the game passed with great annoyance offensively: outside of a one-out rally started with Orlando Cabrera's heated at bat that ended with Tavarez grazing Cabrera's uniform, followed up by Vlad's walk, Tavarez retired the next 11 Angels in order. The only other Angels run came in the seventh, when Casey Kotchman doubled and eventually scored on a two out wild pitch to late-inning substitute Robb Quinlan.
Quinlan was called in to replace Erick Aybar, who, we were told, left the game with a strained hamstring. Aybar made a couple of very nice plays in the second and sixth innings, making up for some of his earlier errors, both on grounders against Mike Lowell.
Hokie Joe Saunders, whom I have underappreciated, gave up six hits but struck out seven, his best performance of the year and coming at a time the Angels desperately needed a good start from anybody. His only run came, predictably enough, when Scot Shields came in to relieve him in the eighth and couldn't it done, making no outs but allowing his only inherited baserunner to score with two outs. (The fact that he earned his 28th hold of the season is a little grating, but what can you do about stat definitions?) Saunders wasn't quite as efficient as Tavarez in latter innings, but he made up for it by preventing a single Boston baserunner to make it past second while he was on the mound.
Justin Speier made the last out of the eighth by getting a called strikeout on J.D. Drew, and, contrary to my expectations, K-Rod had a relatively quiet ninth. Getting out of town with a split qualifies as a huge accomplishment, and for that, I thank the Angels' alleged number five. With the M's clobbering the Chisox 10-5 as of this writing, the Angels get to keep a two-and-a-half game lead in the division.
Labels: angels, recaps, red sox
Who am I to designate the lineup, but I would have 4-5-6 as Kotchman, Matthews, Anderson....my 2 cents.
Since 2006, the Angels are 19-5 with Hokie Joe on the mound.
He's now beat Boston three times.
The Angels are 9-2 this year with him pitching, and in his two losses he surrendered only three earned runs.
If this had all come in a single season, you'd have to think he'd get a little ROY consideration. Alas, the Angels have only nibbled. Maybe to Joe's benefit?
Newer› ‹Older
 |
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.