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

I remember Helen asking, just before the game started, whether Texas could still hit; I averred as to how I wasn't that impressed with their non-A-Rod, non-Teixeira, wounded-Young lineup. But of course such comments have a way of boomeranging on you, and so this one did. Dustin Moseley had a career 5.44 ERA as a starter going into today's game, and he didn't disabuse me of the idea that he needs to be back in the bullpen as soon as possible, where he's a full run better (4.39).

Moseley actually did pretty well through the first three frames, giving up only a run in the second on a wild pitch in Ben Broussard's at-bat. But his limited repertoire that tends to junkballing isn't a good bet to survive more than three frames; in fact he has a .397/.397/.672 career line in the fourth inning, and we saw exactly that tonight, as the Rangers slapped him silly, including a grand slam to Ben Broussard. It wasn't like that was the only bad pitch he made all night, either, as Texas lit him up for a pair of doubles besides, a total that would have been three if not for some nifty fielding in the first by Gary Matthews, Jr. that nailed leadoff man Ian Kinsler at second.

Fortunately, Moseley's eventual fate as a down-by-three-runs bullpen pitcher is all but assured upon John Lackey's return, though it does expose the Angels' thinness in starting pitching relative to last year. It means, among other things, that Ervin Santana needs to grow up (yesterday's game being a very good sign in that direction) and that Jon Garland was an inspired trade that may merit a mid-season extension. No, the real problem is the back end of the bullpen, and we saw that in all its gore. The last three in this shaky bullpen are Jason Bulger, Rich Thompson, and Darren O'Day. This game came close to deciding eventual dispositions of all three.

Bulger made his outs, but he gave up some hard-hit liners along the way and had a hard time keeping the ball in the strike zone. Far worse was Thompson, who gave up a single to his first batter faced (David Murphy), but got Marlon Byrd to ground out to third on a hot smash requiring Figgy to make a highlight reel play. A 6-2 fielder's choice at the plate came awfully close to putting Thompson in a position to actually record a scoreless frame for his major league debut, but then the floodgates opened. He failed to record a single out for five batters, delivering up what turned out to be the margin of victory, a humiliating five runs, all earned.

As a result, and not going out on a very-far limb, it seems like the order of return and exit should be something like

When?	Enter	Exit
Tomorrow?	Scot Shields	Rich Thompson
April 15	Chris Bootcheck	Jason Bulger
May 5	John Lackey	Mr. Coin Toss

I say that Lackey's replacement will be a coin toss because, alone among the trio of nondescript middle relievers the Angels started their season with, Darren O'Day has had the most success to date, and it's really not too clear whether sending O'Day down will be better than, say, having Chris Bootcheck around for mopup duties. According to BPro, Bootcheck was the lowest leveraged reliever on the Angels' staff not named Hector Carrasco: he was only asked to pitch with a lead or the game tied in 16 of his 51 appearances last year, and seven of those came with an Angels lead of four or more runs. Please note that I'm not mistaking O'Day for any kind of phenom; he's got a trick delivery which makes me rather suspicious, as does his skipping AAA — and all but skipping AA (he only pitched 29.1 innings in the Texas League).

But just as we should not be surprised to see O'Day shipped to Salt Lake, neither should we be surprised to see him stick. A great deal will depend upon Scot Shields' subsequent performance once he returns to the big club; if he continues his 2007 fluctuations, the Angels will be in a tough situation. Moseley is likely to stick with the club in the bullpen, if nothing else then because of his lack of options, which leaves the Angels in the position of deciding whether they want to keep a player on their major league roster who could turn into a gascan overnight, or sticking with a known mediocrity.

Getting back to tonight's game, in a sense, Moseley didn't really lose it, because the margin of the loss was in fact the five runs Thompson gave up. The Angels, who previously had a 7.02 ERA against starter Kason Gabbard (small sample size alert), were only able to scratch out seven singles against the Texas starter over eight innings; Vlad twice hit into demoralizing, inning-ending double plays, the last one (in the 8th) so obscene that Scioscia promptly lifted him for Reggie Willits. Those amounted to one-half of the Angels' GIDPs, the other two coming from an obliging Howie Kendrick, and the allegedly lefty-mashing Robb Quinlan.

As with the bullpen, the Angels are fairly swimming in options, but in Quinlan's case, the solutions are considerably easier to find. Juan Rivera's workouts at first remind me of various situations I've painfully had to watch in one job or another, where it was obvious to everyone that a new hire was bad enough that he needed to move on but had yet to do anything stupid enough to get himself fired: one way or another, Q is out the door, and if his attempts to hit lefties this year continue to be as unsuccessful as they were in his season debut tonight, he'll find himself packaged to Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Toronto, or one of the other teams where Angels castoffs wind up after the Halos' front office loses their affection for that player. Casey Kotchman can hit lefties as well and provide better defense.

So the game was, for those of us in the stands, pretty drab up through the eighth, but then Ron Washington obliged the Angels and sent out Dustin Nippert, a long-time Arizona prospect acquired last year in a swap for RHP Jose Marte. Nippert then proceeded to give up the first three parts of the cycle, in order, to the first three batters he faced, and ultimately all six of the Angels' runs in what has to be one of the most entertaining ninth innings of any wrong-end blowout I can recall. After Gary Matthews, Jr. collected his first hit of the game on an RBI double, that cashiered the fun and games for the Angels, bringing in Franklin German to face Reggie Willits, called in to pinch-hit for Vlad. Willits then ripped a double, and that proved to be too much for Washington, who made yet another switch for the husk of Everyday Eddie Guardado. Guardado gave up a hit to Torii Hunter but finally stopped the bleeding by getting Garret Anderson to fly out. A good scare was had by one and all, but the Angels still ended the day 3-2.

Incidentalia:

• Kenny G played the national anthem on his kazoo-like soprano saxophone, and treated us, if you can call it that, to an exhibition of circular breathing, holding the high note of the Star Spangled Banner for what seemed like a geological age or so.
• Torii Hunter got a hit in his first home at-bat in an Angels uniform, a good way to start the season.
• The Rangers had a 1-5-2 collision in the 7th that nearly took out their third baseman, Ramon Vasquez. He recovered, but he lay on the ground for quite some time before reviving.
• Gabbard faced the minimum in three of his seven innings.
• We got an unusual appearance of "God Bless America" at the 7th inning stretch, and it bugged me; isn't Sunday enough? Between this and Kenny G, the Angels were pressing all of Helen's buttons, and not in a good way.

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