Thursday, September 06, 2007 |
Pickoff Moves
One Bad Pitch: A's 6, Angels 2
Joe Saunders pitched mostly well save for one bad pitch to Mark Ellis, who took Saunders deep in the fourth. You wouldn't know it, but Ellis is developing a little power; that was his 17th dinger of the year, pretty good for a second baseman.The Angels just didn't have what it took to come back off Joe Blanton, which is odd because he has a 2-6 career record with a 3.69 ERA against the Angels. The spell's wearing off, I guess. The only other noteworthy thing in the game was Anderson's tying the franchise record for consecutive games with an RBI, at 10. He sure is on a tear.
The Angels got to keep their 7.5-game lead in the AL West with the M's 10-2 pounding by the Yankees, putting Seattle three games out of a Wild Card berth.
Rusty: Cubs 8, Dodgers 2
6-4-2 World Headquarters can be a confusing place at times, what with the better half rooting for the Cubs. Yet with the Dodgers only a couple losing streaks away from elimination in September, it doesn't take much to let those losses slide off your back when they do happen, especially to Chicago.The Cubbies, of course, have their own special way of making bad things happen, the details of which are infamous as they are numerous. The most recent example was their 2004 season, in which they were effectively eliminated early from the division by a Cards team that worked up a 10-game lead by July 21 after playing and beating every division rival but Houston that month.
That left the Wild Card for the Cubbies, and as of Sep. 26, they held a perilously thin half-game lead over San Francisco. But where the Giants had to face a mediocre but still over .500 Padres team and the division-leading Dodgers over their last six games, the Cubs had four to play at home against 72-84 Cincinnati, 30 games out of the division title and going nowhere. A series win would have vaulted the Cubs into the postseason.
Naturally enough, the Cubs won the first game 12-5 in a resounding thumping, but then proceeded to drop the other three, and with them, the Cubbies' playoff hopes, for the final series of the season was against one of the last powerhouse Atlanta teams, which they naturally lost. (Helen, of course, was there for all four, played out, as she recalls, in a howling gale.)
So, the Dodgers obliged the Cubs on a night when the Cubbies needed a win. Eric Stults pitched about as well as you could have expected under the circumstances, but unlike Brett Tomko, his upside is a little more unknown, and so I have some faith that he'll turn into a useful part. He claimed his bad outing came from ten days of disuse, or rust. He could be right. The Dodgers' offense turned in a forgettable night, with three of the team's four extra-base hits coming off either bench players (Saenz, Lieberthal) or the pitcher (Stults). The best news of the day was that Russell Martin's leg injury is only an ankle sprain.
minors.baseball-reference.com
Sean Forman has outdone himself, with minors.baseball-reference.com adding a significant piece of the puzzle to baseball history. One gripe: try searching for Brandon Wood. This won't get you to his minor league page at all.Update: Duh, I'm being inobservant. There's a link to his minor league stats from his major league page, up near his splits and gamelogs.
Labels: angels, athletics, cubs, dodgers, minors, recaps
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