Saturday, August 11, 2007 |
Now Batting Cleanup, Maicer Izturis: Angels 10, Twins 1
Escobar also hurt himself in other ways, giving up a wild pitch in in the third, which eventually caused him to intentionally walk Joe Mauer before getting Michael Cuddyer to fly out to center. It certainly wasn't one of Escobar's better outings, albeit better than his atrocious July 30 game against Seattle in which he walked seven and still clocked a loss, thanks to Miguel Batista (followed by two relievers) pitching his only shutout of the season.
I wondered how long it would take for the Angels' offense to put some runs up on the board against Twins' starter Scott Baker. They saw him earlier in the year (coincidentally, in another contest against Kelvim) and threw him to the mat for all five of the Angels' runs in a 5-1 Angel victory. Baker had an even worse night of it this time, lasting only 5.1 innings and giving up six runs, all earned, on nine hits. Like that June 5 game, he also gave up a home run, but this time it was Maicer Izuris' grand slam, a towering shot to the right field terrace. It was the first slam of his career, and also his first career home run with more than one baserunner. As I'm sure more than one source has already pointed out, he's hit three homers in the last ten games, representing nothing but luck, but we'll take it.
Beyond that highlight, the Angels got contributions up and down the lineup, with five Halos driving in a run (six if you kinda-sorta include Vlad's broken-bat GIDP in the third). Once the Angels posted another four-spot in the seventh (including a hysteria-inducing intentional walk to Izturis), Scioscia busted out the subs, and started giving out at-bats to the junior part of the bench, starting with Matt Brown and ending with Ryan Budde, and replacing Vlad with Nate Haynes. Budde may have seen his last at-bat in the Show for a while, as it's pretty clear he's headed back down to Salt Lake as early as Tuesday, when Mike Napoli is expected to return from the DL. One thing mentioned in the broadcast on that subject: Mike Scioscia has not committed to playing Napoli as the starting catcher on his return. I have a feeling his bat may play into that.
This was the first time I got to see the former Angel prospect Alexi Casilla play, and it was definitely interesting. In the first, he hit a tapper to Escobar, who threw the ball to a racing Kotchman for the first out. Gardenhire argued the call, and according to the radio guys, Casilla was safe on the replay; to us it appeared to be a tie. Having never before seen him run, he was just amazing out of the box getting to first. He reminded me of Carl Crawford, and he might even be faster than Figgins. But he's not necessarily a good base stealer, getting thrown out 33% of the time in his last stint in AAA. He erased himself for the first time in the majors tonight, as Jeff Mathis picked him off during Jason Bartlett's at-bat, a real nice piece of work by Mathis. As I mentioned before, Casilla struck out to end the sixth with the bases loaded, so his night was a long one.
Finally, I should say some good things about the non-holy-trinity of Angels relievers, i.e., those men whose last names are not Speier, Shields, or Rodriguez. Even though Scioscia brought Justin Speier in for the seventh, after the Angels busted it open he gave Darren Oliver and little-used Greg Jones a chance to pitch to the 5-6-7 and 8-9-1 batters; both men retired their opponents in order, saving Frankie and Shields for the hazardous duties they're supposed to face. One of those men, Tommy Watkins, Oliver got to ground out harmlessly to second in his first major league at bat. Watkins is 27 and an organizational soldier in the mold of Nate Haynes. Here's hoping he gets his first hit against another team.
Update: I really like what Izturis had to say about his slam in the Times recap:
"You know what? That's not my game," Izturis said through an interpreter. "I know I've hit a couple of big home runs this homestand, but that's the job of the big guys. I'll take them, but I don't want to get too enamored with them, because then my swing gets out of whack. . . . Even in batting practice, I don't hit a lot of home runs."Good to hear. One other fun thing about his slam was that it was the first by an Angels second baseman since Alfredo Amezaga went yard against Oakland on October 1, 2004, winning by a lopsided 10-0 shutout score with Bartolo Colon on the mound. I remember that game, because the Angels were so close they could taste the division, but it was nevertheless a nailbiter, because just the day before the Angels were tied after a 6-3 loss in Texas. The Angels had been out of first place most of the year, but then the A's faded down the stretch, going 12-16 in September, and critically, 1-2 in October in the concluding series against the Angels. The Halos had almost the exact opposite record, going 15-13 in September and of course taking the series in October.
you mention the "peripherals" - given a choice of 2 hits/7 walks vs. 2 walks/7 hits, i'll take the former any day.
You've been much too hard on Escy for that game.
THANK YOU!! What a start may portend for future starts has no bearing on what it meant for that particular game. They don't decide who wins and loses by who walks the most guys, or gets the most strikeouts. It's very simple. You look up at the scoreboard after the game, and you find the team that has the most runs.
This isn't the minor leagues. Escobar is not trying to earn his way on to a major league roster. His job is to keep the other team from scoring. If he does that, I couldn't give a shit if he walks 27 guys and has 27 pickoffs.
Sometimes, Rob, you're so concerned about finding the forest that you forget to look at the trees.
Yes, exactly. While I realize just getting there is important in and of itself, Escobar's recent walks are a worry.
For instance, Kendall was gone, Swisher, Kotsay and Piazza were back, and Cust had been signed. The absence of Bradley was neutral - he'd missed a lot of the season anyways. None of them granted our offensive powerhouses, but still, its much better than the A's offense previously had been in 2007.
Two of the walks were to Cust too, and for instance, sometimes its better to pitch around a power threat than to give him an extra base hit.
You make some decent points Rob, but the consensus from the peanut gallery is you were too hard on Escy that game - "atrcoious" is just going too far.
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