6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Santana Overpowers The M's: Angels 4, Mariners 1

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Saturday, April 19, 2008

Santana Overpowers The M's: Angels 4, Mariners 1

Just after I get done lamenting the woeful strikeout rate of the Angels as a staff, who steps up to correct matters but Ervin Santana, who whiffed eight tonight in a masterful performance. Not that the non-Frankie parts of the bullpen especially needed the night off, but he gave everybody but Scot Shields the day off, going eight strong innings, and carrying a one-hitter through 6.2 frames. The solo homer he allowed to Beltre in the seventh was the Mariners' only tally of the game, as Santana retired all but three batters, and the side in order five times using a fastball he routinely dialed up to 94-95 in the early innings (but down at 90-91 by the 8th). Greg Norton was the only other Mariner to get past first base.

Jarrod Washburn, on the other hand, was an object lesson in the necessity of missing bats, as the Angels harried him for a run in the second (on Jeff Mathis' sac fly), threatened again in the third, and finally broke through for three in the fourth by singling Washburn to death. Washburn is of that class of pitchers who really has to be fine at the plate to succeed, and he was at times sloppy around it, sometimes wildly so. His velocity, never impressive as an Angel — typically 90-91 when everything was working — has fallen off to 85-86 in this game, though he did muscle one up at 89 on his lone strikeout, of Torii Hunter to end the third.

Both sides flashed some excellent defense; the crowd gave Vlad a hearty round of applause after he made a fine running catch of Richie Sexson's fly in right. Ichiro made a great running catch on what I judged a near-certain double off Torii Hunter's bat in the bottom of the fifth that temporarily dispirited the crowd.

But the big news of the game, aside from the wonderful outing by Santana, was the Angels' callup of Sean Rodriguez from AAA Salt Lake. Rodriguez, stationed at second in his first major league start and appearance, had two chances in this game, made both of them, and was involved in the game-ending 6-4-3 double play, which he turned ably as the pivot man. He also got his first major league hit, a two-out single in the bottom of the sixth against Washburn, the last the Angels would get in the game.

With Frankie having been used — rather shakily, yesterday — in five of the prior six games, the Angels brought in Scot Shields to face the Mariners' 1-2-3 batters. He dispatched Ichiro on a flyball, but remembering Shields' schizophrenic tendencies last year, the crowd got hushed after Jose Lopez whacked a clean single to center. Facing Angels-killer Raul Ibanez, Shields got a double play ball, and that was that.

In all, a very satisfying win, and a great night to be at the ballpark.

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