Wednesday, September 12, 2007 |
Games They Give Away: Angels 18, Orioles 6
Kelvim Escobar didn't have a whole lot, but given the sorry state of Baltimore pitching, he didn't need to. The Halos' bullpen more than made up for it, with Darren Oliver, Dustin Moseley, and Jason Bulger all putting up zeroes to the end of the game.
The offense had some good highlights for the Halos, including a two-run homer for Garret Anderson, whose fine second half continues apace, and Brandon Wood's first career home run, a two-run shot in the ninth off Baez. The Angels failed to score in only three innings, and posted crooked numbers in five frames.
Once the game got out of hand, Scioscia called in a few reserves, with Erick Aybar, Robb Quinlan, Terry Evans, Nathan Haynes, Brandon Wood, Tommy Murphy, and Kendry Morales all getting in an at-bat or two; Kendry got an unusual call to play right field, only the fourth game in his career he has appeared there. Even Chone Figgins got an unusual start in right field, with Vlad still carrying DH duties while he recovers from his triceps injury, which prevents him from throwing.
One side note about this game: during the course of the HH gameday thread, poster acuda27 noticed that both sides had as many hits as runs, back when the runs scored was in single digits for both sides. The game did not finish this way, of course, but since we have the miracle of Retrosheet, I thought it would be interesting to see how many times this has happened. The short answer is 181 times in the Retrosheet era (not including 2007, for which I don't have data at present), with the most recent example being Philadelphia's 9-5 pounding of the Dodgers on August 10, 2005. This has only happened to the Angels three times in their history, and two of those games were losses:
- A 3-2 loss to the Red Sox at home on June 22, 1961, with former Yankee fireballer Ryne Duren taking a loss.
- An 11-3 pounding on May 16, 1970 in Oakland.
- A 6-4 victory on August 18, 1986 over a mediocre Oakland team that ultimately finished 76-86, good for third in the seven-team AL West. Oakland that year featured three managers, Jackie Moore, Jeff Newman, and in his managerial debut with the A's, Tony LaRussa. That 1986 A's team wasn't going anywhere, and the Angels proved it by sweeping them in that homestand. The Angels went into the series with a dicey 1.5-game lead over Texas as of August 14, but left it 4.5 games up — and an impressive 12.5 games over the rapidly fading Royals. Thereafter, the Angels' lead never dropped below three games, as they cruised into the postseason.
Labels: angels, orioles, recaps, wow
Newer› ‹Older
 |
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.