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Thursday, August 13, 2009 |
The Ass-Kicking Will Continue Until Morales Improves*: Angels 10, Rays 5
As usual for day games, I got into this one late, late in the bottom of the fourth, and what a game it was: by that time I had already missed Mike Napoli's RBI triple (somewhat generously credited, but hey, you have to make those plays). It's late, and there were a lot of fireworks, but dayam, a pair of three-run jacks from Gary Matthews, Jr. (who has no business hitting them, getting one off the ill-named Grant Balfour) and Howie Kendrick (who should, once in a while). Not least to be mentioned here is an ugly but serviceable (thanks to the miracle of excellent run support) maiden start by Trevor Bell, four runs, all earned, in five and a third innings. I have no idea if he'll be back for seconds, but we'll see.
Morning after update: And I forgot Kendry Morales' epic 12-pitch at-bat in the seventh that ended with him getting credited with an infield single to short and an RBI (yes, the Yahoo box score has it wrong), though two runs scored on the play. Shortstop Jason Bartlett's only play, from deep in the hole, was to third, and he threw wildly, allowing both Chone Figgins and Erick Aybar to score. It wasn't quite as excellent an at-bat as Alex Cora's epic 18-pitch at-bat against Cubs starter Matt Clement, which ended in a home run; but it had salubrious effects nonetheless.
*That wasn't intended as a slight against Kendry, who actually had a good game, going 2-for-3 with an RBI, a walk, and three runs scored.
Comments:
Is the title referencing a movie? Previous post or another site? I can't puzzle it out.
It's too bad you missed the first four innings. Bell did better than his line score showed. Very efficient, first pitch strikes, better than two to one strike-ball ratio. His first three innings were very sharp. Seemed unafraid, and the two dingers he gave up to the league's top homerun hitter (in a day game when even GMJ hit one out) weren't exactly meatballs. I liked that he went after Pena, even if he lost. He gives up very few HRs overall, so I think this is just a 'lesson learned' moment. I've seen far worse debuts. This one was actually pretty promising.
It's too bad you missed the first four innings. Bell did better than his line score showed. Very efficient, first pitch strikes, better than two to one strike-ball ratio. His first three innings were very sharp. Seemed unafraid, and the two dingers he gave up to the league's top homerun hitter (in a day game when even GMJ hit one out) weren't exactly meatballs. I liked that he went after Pena, even if he lost. He gives up very few HRs overall, so I think this is just a 'lesson learned' moment. I've seen far worse debuts. This one was actually pretty promising.
One of those memes that had percolated out of the 90's that I guess not everybody heard... originally "The floggings will continue until morale improves", i.e. the clueless ship master's approach to H.R. problem-solving.
Ah, I do vaguely remember that. I guess this instance is hard to grok, because the effective pun usually biases toward reality, rather than away from it. Given that Morales is the best hitter on the team at the moment, it's hard to imagine anything other than the ass-kicking continuing should Kowbell improve any further.
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