6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

The loss was, of course, strictly Scot Shields', but why in God's name was he still in there after throwing breaking stuff that hit the ground at 50 feet? Mike Scioscia perhaps figured that his career numbers against the Rangers' slugger were good enough — 3-for-23, but two of those home runs.

Make that 4-for-24 with three home runs, including a grand slam. Now, the Rev thinks home plate umpire Lance Barksdale squeezed Shields and thus caused an implosion, but to this I would say, so what? You could also, partly, chalk some of his hittability to the extreme temperatures he was working in. At the same time, if John Lackey and Justin Speier also had to work in 99° F gametime temps (the Yahoo box score claims 97°, but I'm going by the radio announcers), well, neither of them gave up grand slams.

In-game management may in fact have taken second place to the weather as the deciding factor. For starters, the home run Lackey gave up to Brad Wilkerson wasn't that far over the left field bullpen fence. We happened to notice a gust kick up just as that pitch went over the plate, and combined with the absurdly high temperature, the ball — a high, arcing fly — just carried and carried until GA had no room left. In April or May, there's a good chance that stays in the yard, and the same applies to Ian Kinsler's blast into the left-field seats over the low wall. Minus those four runs, the Angels win this game handily and John Lackey is celebrating his 17th victory.

But that still isn't satisfying, because Shields did get himself into another jam and just couldn't pull himself out of it. He couldn't throw his breaking stuff for strikes, leaving him terribly vulnerable to hitters who were then able to sit dead red. Why would Scioscia leave him in there so long? Part of it, of course, was the fact that he had pieced together three straight good outings, but given how badly he pitched in August, that wasn't very comforting. About the only reason I can figure is that same thing that caused him to leave Ervin Santana in the rotation until his godawful July 17 outing in Tampa Bay: the Angels need him to be good and Scioscia will give him every opportunity within reason to be good.

Now, I'll argue right here and now that Scioscia erred on the side of patience one too many times here, because it was pretty obvious before Blalock ever stepped to the plate that Shields had nothing, loading the bases on a hit, a walk, and a hit batter. But reviewing his other decisions in (and after) the game, I found myself generally agreeing with them:

• Reggie Willits at leadoff was another of his long-term-over-short-term decisions that didn't pay off quite as well as I had hoped. Willits nevertheless managed to get on base via a walk and didn't strike out any. That's important, because he whiffed in 24 of 93 August plate appearances. Do that from the leadoff spot as a player with no power and you'll find yourself relegated to nowheresville very quickly.
• Pulling Juan Rivera in the eighth. Rivera had a nice stretch of games recently at AAA Salt Lake, but that's not the majors. It showed, and Scioscia pulled him for Gary Matthews, Jr. in center, moving Willits to right.
• DHing Vlad over Kendry. Kendry has had a nice run lately, but Vlad also needs days off his feet. Again, this was a long-term-over-short-term decision, and it's just plain vital to the Angels' offense that he get that rest.
• Robb Quinlan over Kotchman or Morales at first. Bench players need love too, and Q finally got his first hit since August 5, snapping a seven-game hitless skid. Quinlan's 2008 prognosis with the team could be very iffy, especially with the Angels trying to work in at-bats for Kotchman (who's showing good signs of being able to hit lefties), Kendry (who will probably end up as a perma-DH and maybe Kotchman's platoonmate against lefties should it come to that), and letting him go might be the best thing for all parties. Or not, if they decide they want to keep Dallas McPherson around.
• Scioscia encoded a message that he's going to change Shields' usage as the result of this bad outing in a postgame interview.

In short, the sum total of Mike's one big managerial blunder in this game — the loss aside — seems a net positive. The game was winnable, even under the extreme weather conditions, but the Angels have the luxury, with a six-and-a-half game division lead, of being a little generous to a (hopefully, temporarily) faltering horse that helped get them this far. We shall see tomorrow whether this philosophy does any good with Ervin Santana.

Lastly, Jeff Mathis had another of his increasingly common good offensive games, including a two-run homer and a heroic bloop double in a rousing but ultimately ineffective ninth inning rally. (On the other hand, he did get caught stealing in the seventh with nobody out, perhaps a busted hit-and-run play.) Great rally, but, geez, guys, pitching.

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