6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: H-Rod Shuts The Door, But Gently: Angels 5, Royals 3

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Thursday, April 17, 2008

H-Rod Shuts The Door, But Gently: Angels 5, Royals 3

The Angels put to bed the irritating streak Kansas City had dating back to May 5, 2007, when the Royals behind Jorge de la Rosa beat Ervin Santana in KC; Santana pitched six scoreless frames, but couldn't make it out of the seventh when he gave up the game-losing three-run jack. That game was something of a precursor to this series, in that the Angels got a lot of baserunners against the Royals but KC seemed to have a can of Off sprayed at the plate.

In this one, Brett Tomko was Brett Tomko in only one inning, the third, in which Garret Anderson doubled with the bases loaded. Elseways, he was mostly knocking the Angels out in order or with a minimum of fuss; and even when he gave up a pair in the fifth, the only clean hits were the doubles by Aybar and Mathis, as Matthews' dribbler up the middle failed to punch out Aybar at the plate.

Jon Garland was wobbly but effective enough to get the win. Speier was once again wobbly, but Shields did a fine job, retiring the side in order. Finally, K-Rod: 88 MPH fastball, allowing yet another run, and ending the game with a 6.14 ERA. It's clear his ankle is still hurting him; if he needs to go on the DL, so be it.

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