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Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Lackey Throws A Gem: Angels 2, Devil Rays 1

John Lackey, who's had his ups and downs (especially against Boston), tossed a gem when, as it turned out, the Angels really needed one. For the longest time, Chone Figgins' single run in the first — created on a single, a successful steal of second followed by a wild throw that allowed him to advance to third, and a scoring wild pitch — was the only run the Angels had to call theirs. Howie Kendrick added to that in the bottom of the sixth with a scoring groundout, a controversial play that the radio announcers said should have been an inning-ending double play.

One of this game's frustrations was watching the large number of high-ERA relievers the Angels ultimately failed to score against. Another was K-Rod allowing a two-out walk and a run on 2B Jorge Velandia's RBI single, a very scary close in a year when Frankie's had a lot of them. It ruined the shutout, but the Angels eventually got the win after he struck out Josh Wilson to end the game.

The A's almost helped out the Angels by coming back from an 8-0 deficit, losing anyway to the Mariners 8-7. The Angels' magic number is four. The Angels could clinch the division with two wins against the Mariners in the upcoming homestand.

Update: I should also mention that the Red Sox fell to Toronto 4-3 yesterday, which means that both the Angels and Indians are a half game behind them (Boston at 90-62, Cleveland and LAAoA at 89-62). Home field advantage is very much in flux now. Also, the Yanks clobbered Baltimore 12-0, and climbed to 2.5 games back of the Sawx in the division.

Yahoo BoxRecap

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Comments:
It's sort of amazing to think that the Red Sox could go from the best record in the majors by 2.5 games to 4th best in the AL (which would also be 4th best in the majors) in one week. Of course, that assumes a lot more Yankee wins and Bosox losses, but with the Yankees facing Baltimore and the Sox facing Torono right now, not totally improbable.
 
Another questionable call I thought was the final strikeout where the batter was ruled byt the first base umpire as having swung at the pitch. From the replay I saw on the news it looked like he held up. I'll take it, but Frankie got away with another less-than-stellar (and most certainly playoff-come-from-ahead-loss-inducing) performance.
 
Toronto has a tremendous record at home, at 46-31 they're 15 games over .500. They're the mirror image of that on the road, 30-44 on the road. If they can get to .500 on the road they've got a shot at the division, but look at those teams they have to beat: Boston and New York for 18 games or so. That's no easy feat.
 
Gus, looking at it my brain and eyes (not my heart) on the replay on the broadcast, i think we went around on the pitch for the 3rd out of the 9th. easily.
 

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