Friday, August 03, 2007 |
Not Your Average Joe: Angels 6, A's 4
The Angels' offense took advantage of Chad Gaudin on an off night — but he's been having a few of those lately. Prior to last night Gaudin lost his last three decisions, giving up five earned runs or more in all of those games. Vlad helped him to his fourth by busting out of his homerless drought with a pair of dingers, the first a solo squeaker that just left the yard in left, but the second was a three-run blast that should have propelled the Angels to victory on its own save for the A's late two-run rally off Darren Oliver. Oliver, left in to pitch with a four-run lead, gave up a leadoff walk to Marco Scutaro, and then made the next two outs without too much ado. Unfortunately, he gave up a home run to offensive cipher Donnie Murphy, which caused his exit from the game. Just so, Frankie Rodriguez closed it out with a minimum of fuss, striking out Travis Buck to end things.
So in the end it was Garret Anderson's RBI double in the seventh that won the game. One moment from that inning proved instructive, and that was the error by A's first baseman Nick Swisher. Figgins had tapped a ball that should have been an out — and here I'm working from memory — but Swisher ended up on his belly near but not quite at first base. Without time to get up, he extended his right hand with the ball toward the bag and tried to make contact for the force. Instead, the ball rolled out of his hand, and the umpire correctly ruled safe. Bob Geren either didn't see this or felt obliged to argue the call with the A's trailing in what was then a close 4-2 ballgame. A game of inches, as they say... as it turned out, the error had no effect on the game, because Figgins erased himself trying to steal third on a nice throw by Kurt Suzuki.
Labels: angels, athletics, recaps
no way is he part of the Oliver-Speier-Shileds-Frankie pattern.
i'm thinking he could take Bart's spot, or as utility player's spot that rides on the pine - you know, since Josh Paul was so valuable to our 2005 post season run.
He has one of the best 11 arms on the team - that merits him a spot if it were to start today.
I don't have a ton of faith in him, but for instance, i'd have him on the roster ahead of Gwyn, Jones, Brown, Budde, etc. Who knows about injuries too?
Right now, that last spot imo with certain assumptions would be a toss-up between Wood and Ervin, and I'd taken Ervin.
and while his use as a reliever is inconsistent, he got us past the Yanks in 2005 - in relief.
If it's Ervin vs Thompson, it's pretty clear to me where we should go.
Newer› ‹Older
 |
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.