Wednesday, September 19, 2007 |
Lather, Rinse, Repeat For Santana: Angels 2, Devil Rays 1
"His mechanics are better," Scioscia said of Santana. "He's been preached to all year, he just had trouble putting it all together. He made some key pitches in key situations."Juan Rivera homered in the second, and Jeff Mathis drove in Howie Kendrick on an RBI single in the fourth for the winning run. Unlike yesterday, the Angels' bullpen held little drama, outside of K-Rod's two-out walk to Jorge Velandia. (Velandia yesterday gave Frankie fits as he singled in a run. Data point for the future.)
So now to the race part of today's recap: help from the A's in clinching the division was not forthcoming as Seattle swept Oakland with a 9-5 victory. In Toronto, the Red Sox' miseries continued with a sweep by the Blue Jays, including a humiliating grand slam off Jonathan Papelbon in the eighth with one out, a move decried by Rotoworld because of Papelbon's flyball tendencies; Boston lost 6-1.
All four contending teams in the AL either swept or were swept: the Yankees took down Baltimore 2-1, and Cleveland beat Detroit 4-2. Both the Indians and Angels have a magic number of three, the lowest of any races in baseball, and are tied for the best record in baseball at 90-62. Detroit finished the day five and a half games out of the Wild Card; the Yankees' magic number there is five, but are now only a game and a half back of Boston.
Labels: angels, devil rays, recaps
His main problem has been locating his pitches, and perhaps a bit of lost bite on his slider - a likely product of that inconsistency.
When he has his head on straight, we've seen what he can do, and it's quite impressive. He still has great stuff. Guys with a mid-90s fastball as well as a plus slider and change don't grow on trees. And when they're only 24, some growing pains seem inevitable.
Newer› ‹Older
 |
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.