Sunday, May 30, 2010 |
Morales' Surgery Delayed A Week Due To Inflammation
Saturday, May 29, 2010 |
The Losses Mount Despite The Win: Angels 5, Mariners 1 (10 Innings)
Meantime, the Angels mostly singled, outhitting the M's throughout the game, and even Bobby Wilson had a hopeful two-out double in the second that falsely portended better to come. A good part of that was undoubtedly because of Torii Hunter's early exit from the game, taking a 95 MPH fastball to the hand in the first inning; he stayed on the basepaths, but then was immediately lifted for Reggie Willits. (X-rays subsequently turned up negative, but the damage to Torii's swing has yet to be assessed.) The Angels finally did bust through with Bobby Abreu's one-out, eighth-inning homer, but did nothing further that inning. In the ninth, Hideki Matsui started the inning with a walk, and Howie Kendrick — and what the hell is wrong with him? — damn near bunted into a double play, pushing the ball straight toward the pitcher.
And thus did Brandon League snuff out a ninth inning rally, sending the game to extras. Shockingly — though maybe not so, given the M's weak offense — both Francisco Rodriguez (whom the M's have seen exactly once before) and Brian Fuentes (who faced two lefties, exactly his strength) pitched well, with Fuentes even claiming a pair of looking strikeouts.
The tenth inning was an adventure in raised, dashed, and raised expectations. Once Maicer Izturis got aboard on a one-out double, I figured, oh, this is how the game ends, with an Abreu double in the gap. Well, no, but Bobby did reach — with an intentional walk. Reggie Willits then tried to hit his way on, but then it was ex-Angel Chone Figgins' turn to hurt his team. Figgy bobbled a routine grounder hit straight to him, and with the speedy Willits bearing down on first, everyone was presently safe.
That of course brought Kendry to the plate. At first, his grand slam didn't seem like it would clear the fence; but it kept carrying and carrying, and finally left the yard, much to the astonishment and joy of everyone in the stands. And then he lept into the dogpile at home plate ... and never came up again, until they hauled him off on a litter. It was an immensely sad moment, and the house took forever to clear, as much of the assembled crowd stayed on, hoping to catch a glimpse of him rising.
That sight never came. One consequence, we learned in the postgame broadcast, is that the Angels have henceforth banned walkoff dogpiles of this sort, and I wouldn't be too surprised to learn of MLB taking up this matter as a matter of custom. We all shuffled off, heads low, the talk among the fans in somber voices, as though we'd seen a drive-by shooting.
Update: Sam Miller of the Register cites a Jon Heyman report that Kendry's ankle is broken. What I want to know is, how does a national reporter like Heyman scoop all the local press? I'm waiting for the team's announcement, or something from the Times or Register.
Update 2: Heyman says further Kendry will miss 10-12 weeks. That would be August or September. Ow.
Finally, I wanted to touch on two unrelated park issues that came up, one from yesterday's game that I forgot to write about, and one from today's:
- I finally found a place I think I can eat at: the carne asada at Angelito's is actually quite good, and if you order it without the bread, can fit on my low-carb diet, too.
- I got accosted by security, of all things, for having too long a lens! I brought my 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 Canon lens, which I have taken to the park many times, and was shooting on and off (there wasn't much to see, really). They claimed someone had complained, and in any event, I wasn't supposed to have a lens longer than 6" in the park unless I had a press pass! I complied, as there was no sense in arguing with them; and besides, I have a stubby 70-300mm diffractive optics lens as a fallback for just such an occasion. But it's really too bad, as the 70-300 has color fringing problems that the longer one just doesn't. Well, we'll see how this goes.
Labels: angels, ex-angels, injuries, mariners, recaps
Mister Lee: Mariners 8, Angels 3
Scott Kazmir, the man that causes us to look with one eye akimbo at Sean Rodriguez in the Rays' organization, just blew chunks from the third on, as if it were batting practice. Tony Reagins must wonder what he's done to justify such an awful misreading, and you even start to fantasize about the genesis of this trade; was it a senior dementia moment of Bill Stoneman's that went unchecked?
Chone Figgins finally did something useful for the M's on his new, and strangely obscene already, contract, scoring a pair. Franklin Gutierrez caused a fair amount of trouble, too, but perhaps the other side was more enlightening, or disappointing. Scot Shields, bad from almost the first of his warmup tosses (I distinctly recall one bouncing to the backstop followed by another over Mike Napoli's head), found his just deserts shortly thereafter, surrendering a first-pitch double down the left field line to Rob Johnson, a man who owns a grand total of five extra-base hits all year. Shields is heading towards retirement faster than I thought possible.
With this loss, the Angels are now guaranteed a losing May, and a losing season by the end of the month.
Labels: angels, mariners, recaps
Friday, May 28, 2010 |
Dodgers Call Up Scott Elbert
Update: Tony Jackson has more, but still no word from anyone on the Dodgers' corresponding move; Jackson's logical speculation is that it would be seldom-seen Nick Green.
Labels: dodgers, transactions
Thursday, May 27, 2010 |
Dodgers DFA Ramon Ortiz, Call Up Justin Miller
Miller is perhaps best known as the inspiration for the “Justin Miller rule”: Because opposing hitters found the ink-work on his non-throwing arm so distracting, baseball officials ordered him to wear long-sleeved shirts when pitching.Related: the Dodgers inquired about the availability of Roy Oswalt and Cliff Lee, now that the former has asked for a trade to a contender and the Mariners trail the AL West considerably.
Labels: dodgers, transactions
Angels Win A Series! Angels 6, Blue Jays 5
Which is to say I think they're about where they ought to be in the standings. The 26-20 Rangers are four games up, the A's 24-23, and the 23-26 Angels are still within sight of the division if they can shake up their bullpen.
But back to the specifics of the game. The Jays got an early 3-0 lead when Joel Piniero suddenly lost his command, and started walking guys, fairly uncharacteristically for him:
"It's weird, because I wasn't getting hit around. It was just the walks," Pineiro said. "(Catcher) Jeff Mathis was telling me: `What are you doing? The ball is moving so much.' I couldn't control it. Maybe I was just guiding it so much. But after that inning I kind of settled down and all of my pitches came around. Then I was back to being myself again."But he didn't do it again, fortunately for the Angels. His offense got him off the hook for his misdeeds in the fourth and fifth innings, with Howie Kendrick, Bobby Abreu, and Michael Ryan doing the heavy lifting.
The Halos got what should have been the winning runs on Hideki Matsui's two-run jack in the sixth — his first in almost two weeks, and only his second on the month. But then came Brian Fuentes and Bobby Abreu's misplay of Alex Gonzalez' fly in the outfield that ended with Gonzalez on second, and ultimately, tying the game when John Buck singled him home. It amounted to Fuentes' third blown save of the year, and given he only has six, that's an awfully rickety closer you have there, Mr. Scioscia. Luckily for the Angels, Fuentes' ultimately led to an Angels win, as Abreu drove in the winning run on a bases loaded single in the bottom of the frame. But what a way to get a win.
Labels: angels, blue jays, recaps
Wednesday, May 26, 2010 |
Al Yellon On Why The NL Will Adopt The DH By 2012
There are millions of dollars invested in pitchers like [Ubaldo] Jimenez, who is signed through 2012 with a couple of relatively inexpensive (for today's market) club options for 2013 and 2014. And teams don't want investments like this injured while doing something that isn't their primary responsibility -- batting or running the bases.My view is that the DH saves pitchers (something Al notes) from the vicissitudes of the basepaths, and simultaneously gives guys like Jim Thome a position where they can be of some value rather than being a nuisance on the field, even at first. The former is a risk ownership wants removed; the latter is a carrot for the players. This should be a no-brainer.
Labels: dh rule
How They Scheduled Games In The Ancient Days
And Yes, I'm On Twitter Now
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 |
Santana Goes All The Way And Slays Jays On 10K's: Angels 8, Blue Jays 3
The offense managed to beat the snot out of Ricky Romero, who had a 2.71 ERA going into the game and hadn't surrendered so many runs since a 10-5 blowout at the hands of the Yanks last September 3, long after it was obvious the Jays wouldn't be a force in the division. Unlike that time, all of his runs were earned, setting a personal mark for suck in the majors; top and bottom the Angels battered him, the only Angel not getting a hit being Juan Rivera, and even he scored a run. Rivera reached on one of third baseman Edwin Encarncion's three errors in this game, and even then he scored on a wild pitch. It was a day full of gifts, and while you could smirk at those, at least the Angels capitalized.
Labels: angels, blue jays, recaps
Dodgers Roster Notes
- Andre Ethier could be back as early as Monday after he took batting practice. Question: is this even remotely a good idea?
- Sure, Ramon Troncoso claims to have found a flaw in his delivery, but I want to see it against the living.
Kershaw Lowers ERA, Still Loses: Cubs 3, Dodgers 0
Brandon Wood Hits The DL
George Sherrill Hits The DL With Back Tightness, Furcal Returns
Labels: dodgers, injuries, transactions
Casting About For Angels Bullpen Solutions
Part of this is Scioscia's inability to juggle parts properly when incompetence of one sort or another become obvious; Fuentes, in particular, has no business facing righties, but the major-league-minimum parts of the bullpen are all just craptacular, and the duo of Kevin Jepsen and Jason Bulger entered the season with substantial questions about their abilities in the major leagues. If anything deserves damning, it's the clerical error that allowed Darren O'Day to exit the team's control.
The scary part is that the rise of the Angels' solid bullpens announced the team's presence as a force in the AL West. Its unraveling seems to herald the reverse. I don't know how to fix it, either, short of some losing years and good drafts.
Via Halos Heaven.
The Loser's Curse: Kevin Goldstein On Bryce Harper's Key Role In A Changing Draft
Those bonuses are something Weaver's agent, Scott Boras, has connived to extend every single year. Kevin Goldstein reports that Bryce Harper, a prep catcher widely viewed as the best amateur talent in the game now, has escaped high school by getting a GED. He now toils for the College of Southern Nevada, a junior college.
Thanks to various loopholes, he has leverage against the draft in multiple dimensions:
Leverage traditionally comes from younger players, as high school players who find teams that don't meet their demands opt for the college game and an opportunity to maintain or improve their sdraft tock down the road. However, for Harper, by leaving high school two years early, getting his GED, and enrolling in a junior college that has no effect on his eligibility, he has created more leverage than any top pick in draft history, as he can return to his junior college next season and be just 18 when the 2011 draft begins—as old as the high school draftees.Boras thinks the $30M deal the Reds signed with Aroldis Chapman is only the beginning, and that the cash register will ring even louder for Harper, or at least, louder than the $15.1M package the Nationals gave Stephen Strasburg. Now of course, there are peculiarities to his situation that makes this difficult to sustain; how much better can he get before the draft? And then there's the risk he might regress if he does pull out and go to a 4-year college.
Then there is the CBA that ends after the 2010 season. Consistently treated as the redheaded stepchild in previous talks, insiders on both sides of the table believe that the upcoming negotiations will be the one where the draft is finally addressed in a very real manner, including the possibility of a hard slotting system that would all but end the days of the over-slot signing bonus. Thus, the 2011 version of draft candidate Bryce Harper would almost be forced to sign, assuming that his leverage would be reduced dramatically the following year.Given how badly the Angels are playing this year, I have to think they're going to have a protected draft slot in 2011 (i.e. top half). This could be a good thing if the draft slotting system he suggests is imposed; but then you wonder what the Yankees and Red Sox would have to say about it.
Labels: draft
Monday, May 24, 2010 |
Angels FAIL Keeps On Failing: Blue Jays 6, Angels 0
Labels: angels, blue jays, recaps, suck
The Wheels Grind For A Brandon Wood DL Trip, Other Roster Notes
- During the radio broadcast today, the official line from the Angels is that Brandon Wood is having a hip flexor problem. Whether it's real or not is another story, but a nice, hard-to-see soft tissue injury would provide a convenient excuse to ship a player out of options down to the minors on at least a temporary basis. (Now in the Times.)
He was kept off the field for batting practice Sunday. Trying too hard? Or is Scioscia so sick of his flailing that he's getting him out of his sight?
- The Rev forwards a pregame announcement that Hideki Matsui will henceforth be benched against lefties "until he gets his timing and mechanics into a better rhythm." Bitching about not re-signing Vlad notwithstanding, it's overdue.
Update 5/25: Apparently he will bat seventh. Still, not good. As the Rev points out, the Angels are paying $6M for a part-time, platoon DH.
- Jeff Mathis has returned to baseball activities, though he still has no timetable for a return to the 25-man roster.
- Also, from the LAT link about Wood above: it appears Maicer Izturis is near to returning to the 25-man, and could be activated as early as Tuesday or Wednesday.
Two Games
And So, Goodbye, Jered: Cardinals 6, Angels 5 (10 Innings)
Three runs, two earned (the unearned run coming due to Erick Aybar's throwing error in the fourth that allowed Brendan Ryan to take second) against an admittedly slightly-below-average offense (11th in the league with 196) — the league's worst bullpen (5.33 ERA!) guaranteed he would finish the day without a win. If anybody wonders why Jered Weaver will join John Lackey on the east coast when his current contract is up — either with the Yankees or Red Sox — you don't have to wonder anymore.Dodgers Can't Finish The Sweep: Tigers 6, Dodgers 2
The MLB.com game recap blames Kuroda's three-run first, but really he did his job; why the bullpen imploded is another story, as is why the offense wasn't able to do much past the pair of runs they scratched out in the fifth.Labels: angels, cardinals, dodgers, recaps, tigers
Sunday, May 23, 2010 |
Jose Lima Passes At 37
Signed by the Dodgers as a non-roster invitee in 2004, he posted his third-best career ERA with the team that year and also garnered his only career postseason win — and the Dodgers' first since the 1988 World Series win — in Game 3 of the 2004 NLDS, a complete game shutout of the Cardinals. He spent two more years in the majors, one with Kansas City and a partial season with the Mets before leaving MLB for good.
RIP Jose. You were a fun guy to have around.
Update: Thoughts from Jon, Tony Jax, ITD, and SOSG.
Labels: ex-dodgers, obituaries
Saturday, May 22, 2010 |
Eric Chavez' Career Probably Over
Kazmir's Win Survives The Bullpen: Angels 10, Cardinals 7
Kendry Morales went 3-for-5 in the five-hole, largely against Kyle Lohse. Something about it seemed funny given Howie Kendrick's 1-for-4 afternoon. I still have hope for Howie, but so far this year, he's more Howard than Howie.
Labels: angels, cardinals, recaps
Friday, May 21, 2010 |
The Cardinal Sin: Angels 5, Cardinals 9
Update: Bill Plunkett notes the last time the Angels gave up a grand slam to the opposing pitcher was in 1969 to Fred Talbot of the Seattle Pilots.
Labels: angels, cardinals, live blogging, recaps
Really, Jamie?
Update:
Registrant:
Jamie Enterprises, LLC
5353 Wilshire Blvd.
Suite 302
Los Angeles, California 90036
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: JAMIEENTERPRISES.NET
Created on: 10-Aug-09
Expires on: 10-Aug-10
Last Updated on: 04-Dec-09
Administrative Contact:
Pavone, Peter [redacted]
Jamie Enterprises, LLC
5353 Wilshire Blvd.
Suite 302
Los Angeles, California 90036
United States
(310) 924-7474 Fax --
Technical Contact:
Pavone, Peter [redacted]
Jamie Enterprises, LLC
5353 Wilshire Blvd.
Suite 302
Los Angeles, California 90036
United States
(310) 924-7474 Fax --
Domain servers in listed order:
NS25.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS26.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
She believes in the power of the game she’s loved since childhood to unify families, connect generations, and bring people together from all walks of life.
Labels: dodgers, stupid ideas, suck
Thursday, May 20, 2010 |
Two Games
Gifts Lift Halos, Snap Losing Skid: Angels 3, White Sox 2
The Angels won this one despite their offense; it's not every day you can get three hits and win a game, especially in an era that isn't the 1960's. But Torii Hunter's two-run jack and a gift run off the glove of Jayson Nix was as much offense as they'd need.Joe Saunders posted his second straight excellent game; and but for one out on his May 8 outing against Seattle, he would now have quality starts or better in his last three. Good news for him, and good news for the Angels.
Dodgers' Slo-Mo Loss Rekindles Old Questions: Padres 10, Dodgers 5
At 3:48, this was the longest regulation game of the year. MSTI asks the right questions:- Why wasn't Carlos Monasterios used for this start instead of Ramon Ortiz?
- Why use the already-overused Ramon Troncoso in a game that had already gotten away, when he was one of the Dodgers' premier relievers? He's on pace for a 90+ appearance schedule this year, far too much work for any single reliever. All yesterday served to do was to increase his ERA by over a run. How is that a good thing?
- Will Manny Ramirez be okay after yesterday's freak accident (he kicked a table with his toe) that caused him to be a late scratch? He took some good swings in his at-bat yesterday, but ended up striking out.
Labels: angels, dodgers, injuries, padres, recaps, white sox
Tuesday, May 18, 2010 |
About That Cranio-Rectal Inversion: Rangers 8, Angels 7
Nevertheless, the game's proximate loser was just one in a long line of failures. The bullpen has been godawful this year, at present the third worst in the league. And I really don't see that changing. So no matter who the Angels brought in, it would have been a crapshoot at best.
It's way too early to be giving up on the season, and I really don't want to be doing that; I've been fooled a lot of times. But the Angels just don't seem to be showing any signs of getting off the mat, or when they do, they execute a pratfall the very next day.
Labels: angels, rangers, recaps, suck
More Details On The Dodgers Divorce
Forensic accounting will prove invaluable.
Thanks to jjackflash in the comments for the heads up.
Pickoff Moves
Kazmir's Longest Outing Still A Loss: Rangers 4, Angels 3
More of the same, though Kazmir completing seven innings (his longest outing of the year) should be viewed positively, even if it comes at the expense of one run too many to qualify for a quality start; Kazmir was, after all, pitching in Hell, or Texas. A seemingly accidental hit by 2010's favorite piñata, Brandon Wood, overshadowed the fact that he didn't strike out at all for the second game in a row. He's now struck out four times in his last 29 plate appearances, giving us a glimmer of hope for his future success, even though he's only hitting .154/.148/.154 over that depressing span.No, the real problem would seem to be the top of the order, i.e. Erick Aybar, whose conversion to leadoff man appears to have gone about as well as that iceberg safety test the Titanic made. After an icy .253/.330/.333 May, he's only gotten worse, posting a .200/.268/.262 line in May. Part of that is a lousy .236 average on balls in play, but the guy's had three no-hit games in a row, and hasn't reached by error, walk, or hit-by-pitch, either, during that span. I don't know how much longer the Angels can hold out like this, but something needs to be done, and soon.
In that, he wasn't unique; none of Howie Kendrick, Hideki Matsui, or Kendry Morales got hits either. But then, they're not paid to be singles hitters who get on base a lot.
Dodgers Batter Astros Even Without Ethier: Dodgers 6, Astros 2
With Andre Ethier still unavailable, the Dodgers found a way to beat up on the worst team in the National League. Mostly they accomplished that with help from Casey Blake and Blake DeWitt, the latter getting himself a couple of RBI triples. Wandy Rodriguez and Brandon Lyon, the latter the former Diamondback, coughed up all the runs the Dodgers scored. It didn't even seem like they were trying; John Ely posted yet another fine game, for the moment looking like an island of stability in a rotation of turmoil.Ethier To Hit The DL
No duh. If you're gonna have your best player out for a while, best to do it while you're mostly facing mediocre or bad teams. The Dodgers will be looking at the Astros, Tigers, Cubs, Rockies, Snakes, and Braves over the next week or two, a schedule which gives them a fair chance at at least a .500 record over that span, and maybe better.Xavier Paul is his most likely replacement.
Labels: angels, astros, dodgers, injuries, rangers, recaps
Monday, May 17, 2010 |
Abreu Scratched With Back Stiffness
Pickoff Moves
Sweeps Sunday #1: Piniero, Angels Blank A's: Angels 4, A's 0
Really, I wanted to go to this game and had the tickets and everything, but we basically talked ourselves out of it after we realized how long it would take for us to get to the park following a volunteer effort that Helen helped with Sunday morning. It turned out to be a nice, relaxing afternoon in front of the TV at home with the dogs. Piniero spun a four-hit shutout in the neck-snapping time of 2:06, doubly validating our decision.Despite Erick Aybar having another disturbing 0-fer game at the top of the order — his average is now down to a perilously bad .236 — the Angels required only one run to win, that provided by Hideki Matsui's RBI single in the second. Much as yesterday's game — and today's, if your name happened to be Howie Kendrick, who went 3-for-4 — was a tonic for the offense, the lineup still has nobody in it hitting over .300.
Sweeps Sunday #2: Dodgers Blank Padres, LeBlanc: Dodgers 1, Padres 0
Chad Billingsley appeared to make up for the mediocrity-or-worse that mostly defined his early season to date, pitching into the eighth against the division leader for the team's seventh straight win, finishing the day only two games back of still-leading San Diego.San Diego looked especially offensively impotent last night, only getting one man into scoring position, Yorvit Torrealba to second base in the second. Russell Martin's RBI single was the extent of the scoring for the Dodgers, whose sixth inning run was about as textbook as it comes: eight hitter Jamie Carroll walked, Bills bunted him to second, and Martin knocked him in. It was a good thing, too, because the Dodgers had only two hits on the night, but one of them was when it counted.
Roster Notes
- Andre Ethier had his finger placed in a splint after breaking it yesterday during batting practice. Apparently the decision to put him on the DL will depend on his pain threshold, because there's no treatment for a break as small as this.
- The A's once again disabled Justin Duchscherer, with a hip flexor strain in the left hip, the opposite side that he earlier had surgery on.
- The team also DFA'd Chad Gaudin, who exploded in Saturday night's game to the tune of six runs, five earned in what appeared to be a take-one-for-the-team moment in an already lost game. He was okay with the Yankees last year (3.43 ERA), so there's a chance somebody, somewhere will pick him up off waivers.
- Oakland also activated Kurt Suzuki from the 15-day DL, optioning Josh Donaldson to AAA Sacramento.
Labels: angels, athletics, dodgers, padres, recaps, transactions
Sunday, May 16, 2010 |
The Smell Of Napalm In The Morning: Angels 12, A's 3
Welcome back, Jack Cust. How I missed the gentle sound of the ball clanging off your glove.I'm getting ahead of myself on that one, of course, but if you were an A's fan, you can be forgiven for feeling cheated by the fates Saturday night. Not only was the notoriously fragile Justin Duchscherer a last-minute scratch with an injury, but this game also served as Jack Cust's maiden voyage for 2010. Cust, you may recall, didn't make the club out of spring training, the A's instead deciding to DFA him to AAA Sacramento.— Philip Michaels, on Facebook
Six weeks later, and here the quad-A wünderkind still ends up on the 25-man, displacing former Angel Edwar Ramirez. As it happened, it wasn't worth it, at least not so far. The clank Philip referred to was his egregious misplay of a fairly routine fly ball off the ailing bat of Brandon Wood in the seventh, allowing Wood to take second. But by then, the game was long out of sight for the A's, the Angels having massively piled on to emergency starter Tyson Ross.
Believe it or not, it didn't actually seem like the game would be going the Angels' way for the first three innings. In fact, it had all the appearances of a late Angels slow grind to the "L", as the A's scratched or hammered out single runs in the first and third innings, the third inning a solo shot by Eric Freaking Patterson, f'r chrissakes, a man whom it is entirely possible to imagine finishing his career in single digits in the longball department.
The big story offensively, of course, was the Angels' fourth. With Ross carrying a perfect game into the inning, Bobby Abreu managed to get a two-out infield single. That was really the spark the Angels needed, because then Torii Hunter hit a whistler up the middle, and then Kendry Morales crushed one to the deepest part of the yard to get the Angels the lead, one they didn't relinquish the rest of the night.
Every starter save leadoff man Erick Aybar got a hit and scored a run, and so the Angels' offense continued to cue up run after run from the fourth through the seventh. After the wilderness the team seemed to leave their bats in lately, it was much needed. (Kendry hammered two out of the yard, incidentally, but it seemed like somebody was due another homer, given that the A's don't get an off day on Monday and they were determined to let the pitching hang itself if necessary to preserve some bullpen arms.) But just as necessary were the two good outings from Trevor Bell and Bobby Cassevah, who combined to throw the last three innings of the game without allowing a run. With a team where nothing can be taken for granted from any player, that's huge.
Lastly: it was mighty nice to meet so many folks from Halos Heaven, encamped near the end of the club level at the first base side, near the Knothole Club. Good to put faces to screen names, most especially you, Ladybug.
Labels: angels, athletics, ex-angels, recaps
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 |
Roster Notes
- Per the radio broadcast in tonight's Angels game, the Angels have called up Bobby Cassevah; I believe the Angels also disabled Brian Stokes. Update: Halos Heaven beat me to it (and yes, it was Stokes); also, Matt Palmer was disabled with an unspecified shoulder injury.
- Jeff Mathis get his cast looked at next week to review progress on his broken wrist.
- Bobby Wilson will start a rehab assignment in Rancho Cucamonga presently:
Angels manager Mike Scioscia indicated Wilson’s rehab stint could be a long one as he regains stamina for the taxing position of catcher.
“We’ll evaluate him on a daily basis and get reports,” Scioscia said. “He needs to catch a little bit, get that stiffness in and out of his legs.”
Dodgers Smash Old Foes: Dodgers 7, Diamondbacks 3
The Dodgers didn't exactly smash Lopez last night — four runs over seven frames isn't anything to be ashamed of — but it was enough for the win, anyway. The Dodgers also beat three insurance runs out of the former Cub and Giant, Bob Howry, for good measure. Judging by his 8.16 ERA, it looks like the well-traveled 36-year-old is on his way out of baseball.
One brief note before I go here: I did sneak peeks at Sunday's 2-0 win over the Rocks in which Clayton Kershaw performed admirably. Like the Dodgers, the Rocks are mid-pack in offense by runs scored, which means Kershaw's containment is not a fluke of the opposition. Kershaw has growing yet to do; the wobbling of his youth isn't reason to panic, not yet anyway.
Labels: diamondbacks, dodgers, recaps, rockies
Angels Win Despite Fuentes Implosion: Angels 5, Rays 4 (11 Innings)
Torii Hunter's sac fly in the first gave the Angels an early lead; they picked up another on Hunter's solo shot in the third, and two more on Mike Napoli's second homer of the year. But once the Rays got exposed to Fernando Rodney, all of a sudden it was as if they remembered that, even despite their recent blanking streak (they last scored in the second inning of Saturday's game against Oakland's Ben Sheets), they are still the second-best offense in the league.
Noteworthy, therefore, was the 2010 debut of Trevor Bell in the bullpen, he who also got the win. I confess to being highly surprised that he was called up (the Angels demoting Robb Quinlan to make room, presently with no hits in six at-bats), but pleased at the outcome. I thought as I watched the game that it was his first career win; but no, it's his second, the first being August 18, 2009 against Cleveland on the road.
Labels: angels, injuries, rays, recaps, transactions
Monday, May 10, 2010 |
Another Case Of Inflamed ERA Sends Haeger To Albuquerque, John Ely Replaces Him
John Ely got the callup to replace him, and though he wasn't in AAA for the mandatory 10 days, the callup is ostensibly to replace an injured player, and so the Dodgers organization comes up with something nobody really believes.
But the Dodgers must have had an idea he wouldn't be down long, because Ely said he never even joined Albuquerque. Instead, he reported to Class A Inland Empire, where he threw a bullpen session Saturday. He worked out in Los Angeles on Sunday and flew to Phoenix, but not with the club.Related: Vicente Padilla is out until June.
Labels: dodgers, injuries, transactions
Maury Brown: MLB To Seize Rangers
According to multiple sources, if the stalemate between Major League Baseball and a group of 40 creditors of Hicks Sports Group isn’t resolved this week, Bud Selig will use powers given the commissioner to seize control of the Texas Rangers and sell them to a group led by Pittsburgh sports attorney Chuck Greenberg and Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan without creditor approval. Currently, Monarch Alternative Capital, a “predatory” hedge fund is reportedly holding out for $300 million in post-sale dollars while Hicks Sports Group is offering $270 million. The Greenberg/Ryan group has reportedly offered $570 million for the Rangers, plus 154 acres of land surrounding Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Creditors hold a $70 million lien on the Rangers, but there is no lien on the land, something that has angered creditors as they have no access to monies involved in that part of the deal. Major League Baseball has been acting as an intermediary between HSG and the creditors to finalize the sale.Brown goes on to quote a Sports Business Journal piece:
“Bud can forget any lender, which includes any hedge fund or anyone, [lending] a single nickel or dime into baseball again,” said Joe Kosich, who owns advisory firm Dornoch Capital Advisors and formerly ran sports lending at Wachovia. “In my opinion, it’s cutting off his nose to spite his face. … It is completely wrong.”We'll see. It looks to me like the guiding principle here is the John Henry group purchase of the Red Sox, i.e. Bud just wants the team sold for the maximum possible amount within the confines of getting an ownership group the rest of the owners can stomach.
Labels: rangers
Hammered: Mariners 8, Angels 1
You could make the case that Santana actually pitched worse than his numbers indicate. The Mariners (perhaps a little rusty when it came to baserunning) had three players thrown out within 90 feet of home plate.I came in to this game just as the fourth inning's second homer was leaving the yard. I've never been all that sold on Santana; he can have brilliant moments, and he can put out some real stinkers, too. I imagine he'll be well-paid when the Angels let him go at the end of his current deal in 2012. Maybe that's for the best, especially given the alleged intramural finger-pointing going on behind the scenes in the dugout.
"I think we're trying to do too much with runners in scoring position. We're not doing the same as last year," Santana said. "Last year, we had a lot of fun, just went up there and had fun. This year, we have too much pressure on."I wonder who might be providing that pressure, Ervin.
In 2006, when the team stank, you knew they were in for some rough times because of the necessity of introducing a number of new players. Now, there's no such excuse, only the knowledge that the team's aging is putting them in an increasingly rickety place in the future.
Labels: angels, mariners, recaps
Sunday, May 09, 2010 |
Dallas Braden Throws 19th Perfect Game: A's 4, Rays 0
Sweet Lou Jumps Off The Bridge: Reds 5, Cubs 3
Piniella went back to the dugout without changing pitchers. One first-pitch hanging slider later, and the Cubs were down 5-3, which was the final score. Al Yellon has a lot more on this, but it seems to me this is a manager who needs to be fired, not as retribution but for cause; and a team that can't do what it needs to on the corners (Derrick Lee and Aramis Ramirez are both aging, and this year, inept at the plate).
The Cubs have lost six of their last ten games, and are 14-18, in fourth place in the NL Central, ahead of only the pathetic Astros. The 16-15 Reds are in second place in the Central, 3.5 games back of the Cardinals.
Labels: cubs, ouch, recaps, reds
Pickoff Moves
Angels Take Two Straight On Matsui's Career 1,500th RBI: Angels 4, Mariners 3
Scary to think it's been almost two weeks since the Angels took two games in a row, but the April 25th win against Cleveland was that far in the rear view mirror.I liked the Angels scoring first, not so much Joe Saunders bleeding runs to make himself ineligible for the win, despite the fact that two of the runs were unearned. As he has all season, he wasn't much in the strike zone (of his 106 pitches, only 54 went in for strikes). The bullpen managed their job; worst offense in the league or no, it's still a positive development.
Hideki Matsui drove the winning run across in the 10th, and yay. Hopefully, this marks the end of his late skid. Kendry's still batting cleanup for a reason.
Haeger The Horrible, Part 7: Rockies 8, Dodgers 0
This was Charlie Haeger's seventh start for the Dodgers this year, and I was struck, looking back at his record, how he doesn't even have a single quality start past his first one, and even that was only a technical quality start thanks to an unearned run. The talk now is of Carlos Monasterios taking the job, and who can blame Joe Torre for that? Well, me, for one; why has it taken this long for the team to figure out that Haeger isn't getting it done? Is John Ely that bad?I looked up, and it was 6-0 in the first, and Haeger hadn't made a single out. The last time a Dodger starter gave up six runs while failing to record an out was Claude Osteen on August 28, 1971 against the Mets. Shockingly, the 31-year-old Osteen still had some miles left in him, continuing to compete in the majors for another four years, two of them with the Dodgers.
An embarrassing outing for the Dodgers, who failed to score despite getting seven hits off Rockies pitching; but all save for an Andre Ethier double were singles.
Mariners Fire Hitting Coach Jim Cockrell
The usual scapegoat has been fired. Lookout Landing says AAA Tacoma's hitting coach Alonzo Powell is his replacement.Labels: angels, coaches, dodgers, firings, mariners, recaps, rockies
Saturday, May 08, 2010 |
Angels Disable Izturis, Call Up Kevin Frandsen
Izturis is apparently having problems with his right shoulder.
Labels: angels, injuries, transactions
Late: LAO On What's Wrong With The Dodgers
How did the Dodgers defense get so bad? While new fielding metrics have made teams place a greater emphasis on defense, the Dodgers appear to have fallen behind the curve. Blake DeWitt is out of position at second base, and is a downgrade defensively from Orlando Hudson, who won a Gold Glove last year yet was not offered arbitration. DeWitt's natural position is third base, which is currently occupied by 36-year old Casey Blake, whose range continues to decline.Rafael Furcal is one of the better defensive shortstops in baseball, but we all know about his health issues. While he's been on the DL, 36-year old Jamey Carroll has been at shortstop, a position he has no business playing. Signing him to be a backup for injury-prone Furcal was one Colletti's worst offseason decisions, especially when a guy like Felipe Lopez went for less money. Even using Chin-lung Hu would be better right now.
We all know about Manny Ramirez's fielding issues, but few realize that Andre Ethier's defensive skills have been rapidly declining. As good as Ethier is with his bat, he's actually one of the lowest-rated defensive right fielders in the game. Moving forward, the Dodgers are going to need to find a way to work around Ethier's problems, and that could mean a position change to left field (when Ramirez leaves next year) or even first base.
Starlin Castro Drives In Six In His Maiden Game: Cubs 14, Reds 7
Labels: cubs, recaps, reds, wow
Dodgers Recall Manny, Send Xavier Paul Back Down
Leapfrog: Dodgers 6, Rockies 5
As I said, I kept flipping back to this game, and it seemed like when I did, the Dodgers had either tied it or been tied, so it was, by turns, 1-1, 2-2, and 3-3. As a consequence, when Andre Ethier tied the game in the fifth, and Russell Martin eventually gave the Dodgers a 5-3 lead, it had the same feel of safety you got in maybe a Corvair; and sure enough, in the top of the sixth, Kuroda gave up the lead, the rally starting with a one-out Eric Young, Jr. one-out triple, followed up by Seth Smith's RBI single.
Interspersed with this was some good news, even despite the fact that Todd Helton managed a sac fly off George Sherrill, and that fact was Joe Torre coming to get Sherrill after he failed to get the lefty out.
Matt Kemp provided the final blow, knocking home Jamie Carroll on an RBI triple, but the real show-stopper was Jonathan Broxton showing what he's capable of when he's not rusty, giving up a single to Carlos Gonzalez (who erased himself trying to steal second), and then mowing down Ian Stewart and Jason Giambi. It almost reminded you of the 2009 Dodgers.
Labels: dodgers, recaps, rockies
West = Weaver = Win: Angels 8, Mariners 0
The Angels added to his misery in the fourth with three home runs, one each by Rivera, Howie Kendrick, and Ryan Budde, the first of Budde's short major league career. It was the second straight game in which Hernandez has failed to qualify for a quality start, and his third consecutive start resulting in a loss. Meantime, the only base runners the M's were able to muster were a couple walks, one to two-hole man Chone Figgins in the first, and another to left fielder Michael Saunders.
In case you were wondering, as I was, about Saunders' shiny .500 batting average, it's because he got a callup from AAA Tacoma earlier in the week following Milton Bradley being placed on the restricted list to deal with "emotional stress". You can imagine why: he's hitting .214/.313/.371 on the season, and he's gotta be saying to himself, oh, not again. (Apparently, Bradley yelled at an umpire earlier in the week.) It's part of a general problem for the Mariners, who are presently last in the league with 91 runs scored.
Shockingly, Scot Shields managed to finish the game without incident. I would be mighty cautious, given his recent history, to put him in front of a lineup that could actually hit, but it's still his third straight outing without allowing a run to score. That's something, anyway.
Labels: angels, mariners, recaps, transactions
Friday, May 07, 2010 |
Angels Win! Angels 8, Mariners 0
That is all.
Labels: angels, mariners, recaps
Thursday, May 06, 2010 |
Angels In Free-Fall: Red Sox 11, Angels 6
This year isn't quite that bad, and in fact, there's a bit of a silver lining hiding in that horrible year: on this day in 1993, the Angels were 15-10 with a half game lead in the division. Nonetheless, this year's Angels are proving to have the classic symptoms of a team that's waiting far too long to get their act together. Scott Kazmir, given a four-run first-inning lead, proceeded to gave half of it away in the fourth on the strength of a two-run Victor Martinez homer. He surrendered the lead for good in the fifth, with Victor Martinez tying the game on a bases-loaded double, and between Brian Stokes and the random Matt Palmer, the Angels ended up on the wrong side of an 11-6 score. Kazmir walked enough people to fill a small conference room (five), and of those, only two scored, more luck than anything else.
Of course, the problem I have with all this is that I don't really have any good ideas about how to fix it; and I very much doubt that Mike Scioscia or Tony Reagins do, either. The Kazmir trade, of which I've always been very skeptical, is looking increasingly painful despite Sean Rodriguez' .200/.260/.289 line in the Show this year. Brandon Wood struck out in this game three times, and you just wonder how much longer the organization can stomach his three-pitch whiffs, one of which he seems to include in every single game.
But if the team were functioning acceptably otherwise, this wouldn't be a big problem. However, Kendry Morales went 0-for-5, Torii Hunter 1-for-5; and then all the pitchers in this game save for Fernando Rodney finished it with ERAs north of 6.00. I've been waiting for an explosion from Mike Scioscia, but so far it hasn't happened.
And it's not just the losing, it's the humiliation. The Angels have been outscored by the Red Sox by margins of four or more in three games of the series. This has to stop. If only it could.
Labels: angels, recaps, red sox, suck
Start Or Relief, The Pitching Stinks: Brewers 11, Dodgers 3
Things really came crashing down in the eighth, when neither of Ronald Belisario nor Ramon Troncoso could get the job done, and George Sherrill compounded things by blowing up in the ninth. Given the run donation he's engaged in lately, it's hard to remember that Sherrill had a stretch of six games where he didn't give up any, though it should be noted that four of those appearances were for a single batter, i.e. he was being used as a LOOGY. Perhaps it's time Joe Torre started seeing him exclusively in that light, because so far, righties are hitting a Nintendo-like .462/.583/.846 against him. As if by plan — huh, maybe the plan of the opposing manager! — Alcides Escobar, pinch-hitter Corey Hart, and Rickey Weeks — righties all — hammered him for two runs.
During this run, it seems even the manager is asleep, and I say that as someone who isn't really paying that close attention to the team's foibles this year.
Won't somebody please start winning?
Labels: brewers, dodgers, recaps
Wednesday, May 05, 2010 |
Vinny On Ernie Harwell
Wait for the flub at 0:50; it's funny, actually.
Update: As anticipated, it's been the subject of an MLB takedown. Sons Of Steve Garvey has a transcript, but it's not nearly the same. MLBAM, you are just disrespectful.
Labels: dodgers, obituaries
Waiting On The Wins: Red Sox 3, Angels 1
Yet, Fangraphs places the WPA blame on Torii Hunter, mainly for hitting into an inning-ending double play in the third.
I suppose the Angels will eventually stop sucking, but the real question is when, and for how long.
I suppose I should say something nice about Piniero's start, which was legitimately good; but the Angels' offense was the story here. The question of historical suck continues, and tomorrow's game will decide whether the Angels will match their longest losing streak since 2001. You certainly don't want to see them replicate their 1999, in which they had an unimaginable 11-game skid from July 16 through the 26th.
Labels: angels, recaps, red sox
How Soon Is Win? Red Sox 5, Angels 1
The first thought I had after things went downhill for Ervin Santana in yesterday's game was, at least the Angels had Jepsen to throw into the game. When he came out, he couldn't find the strike zone — possibly due to his early overuse. Still, even despite a gift 4-2-3 double play from an Antarctica-cold David Ortiz, you knew the outcome wasn't going to be happy. Sure enough the game got out of control fast, unhelped by a Juan Rivera misplay against the Green Monster in left that turned into a bases-clearing double.
From there, my thoughts went back to, well, given tomorrow's matchups, when was the last time the Angels were swept in consecutive three-game series? The answer is September 21-27, 2001, in two road series against Texas and Oakland, part of a greater shellacking that saw the team finish 6-15 that month; the Angels didn't win a single game after September 29, losing all seven remaining games for a 75-87 finish. Whatever's wrong with the 2010 squad needs to be identified in a hurry, lest the season run away early, and 2010 become a replay of 2001.
Labels: angels, recaps, red sox
Tuesday, May 04, 2010 |
MLB May Seize Rangers
Labels: rangers
Furcal To The DL, Nick Green Called Up?
Labels: dodgers, injuries, transactions
Monday, May 03, 2010 |
Epic Yahoo Fail On Jeff Mathis
Not In Franchise Record Territory Yet: Red Sox 17, Angels 8
For those wondering whether we're treading on historic territory, it's coming close; the greatest margin of victory by an Angels opponent was 16 runs, done twice, and both 18-2 beatdowns:
- June 17, 1993: Close to the nadir of the franchise, this team was shockingly only two games out of first despite finishing the day only one game over .500 (32-31); the team finished 71-91. This was the fifth year of the astonishing Kenny Rogers' career (to that point, all with the Rangers), while the Angels were trying to make do with junkpile retreads like Scott Sanderson, who signed as a free agent in the offseason for the princely sum of $1.05M; the Angels eventually released him on August 3. Bonus points: Chili Davis got to toe the rubber for two scoreless innings!
- June 27, 1996: Against the A's Doug Johns, who was having an atypically good game; the 28-year-old sophomore Johns would be out of Oakland with a 5.98 ERA, and out of baseball two years later, but on this day he threw a complete game on eight hits. One of the early Erstad/Salmon/Anderson squads, this team lacked starting pitching but had a shockingly good bullpen (only Chuck Finley and an expiring Mark Langston had an ERA+ over 100, but the Troy Percival-led bullpen was virtually airtight in its major pieces). Angels starter Scott Sanderson was in his second year of service to the Angels, which would prove his final year in the majors.
The lesson we learn from this is that the Angels can't continue to allow Saunders to hide an injury. But with no reserves available in the minors, it's not clear, even if he could be put on the DL for nothing worse than an inflamed ERA, what the options are.
Clarification: The above was written when the score was 17-4, going into the top of the ninth. The subsequent rally that trimmed the Angels' deficit, while pleasant, was only a diversion.
Labels: angels, history, recaps, red sox
Dave Roberts Being Treated For Lymphoma
Roberts was diagnosed in mid-March and he says the cancer was detected early. He says the prognosis is "good." He has undergone two rounds of chemotherapy so far.Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Labels: ex-dodgers, padres
Pickoff Moves
Angels Suffer Motown Sweep: Tigers 5, Angels 1
Jered Weaver was masterful through four and then imploded in the fifth, giving up four runs, all earned; you expect him to have a bad game here and there, and this was one of them. Even after yesterday, he still has a 132 ERA+. It's not enough to put him on the ERA+ leaderboard, where you must be at least 180 tall to get on the ride, but it'll do for an Angels pitching staff that needs some help.The Angels didn't get a man so far as second base until the ninth, when they finally got to a tiring Verlander, scratching out their lone run on a pair of singles from Maicer Izturis and Erick Aybar. This looks to be a mediocre team, the way they're playing, with the record they deserve. Next stop: Boston at home. Gah.
Ethier's Two-Homer Day Highlights Pirates Sweep: Dodgers 9, Pirates 3
Despite some odd tics by Joe Torre — Russell Martin went 0-for-5 in the two hole, his average shrinking to .250 — the Dodgers' offense teed off against Pirates pitching, the victims in this case being Jeff Karstens, the former Yankee, and Joel Hanrahan, the former Dodger prospect. But lest the church bells ringing deafen your sensibilities, George Sherrill had another bad outing, giving up two runs while making only two outs. It's running out of time for him to claim that the season's early.Roster Notes
- The Seattle Mariners released Eric Bynes following a strange incident on Friday.
On Friday night, he inexplicably pulled his bat back on a botched suicide squeeze in extra innings of a scoreless game. Ichiro Suzuki was tagged out on the play.
Byrnes later rode his beach cruiser down the tunnel past the GM after the game, much to the consternation of onlookers.Texas manager Ron Washington was ejected for arguing with plate umpire Jim Wolf that there should have been a strike called on Byrnes on the botched squeeze play. Washington just "could not fathom" that Byrnes pulled the bat back.
The Byrnes signing was a mistake to begin with, given how quickly he's fallen off the face of the earth, something Snakes fans know only too well.
- The M's also optioned Matt Tuiasosopo to AAA Tacoma, and called up OF Ryan Langerhans and INF Josh Wilson.
- Update: The Dodgers may be forced to call up Chin-Lung Hu if Rafael Furcal goes on the 15-day DL with lingering hamstring issues. "[F]inding another natural shortstop" is also a possibility.
Labels: angels, dodgers, mariners, pirates, recaps, tigers, transactions
Sunday, May 02, 2010 |
Charles Schultz Explains The 2010 Dodgers
Dodgers Destroy Duke: Dodgers 5, Pirates 1
He recovered from it, but just; scouts say the velocity and bite on his fastball are down, and he has the numbers to prove it. The Bucs have him signed on his final arbitration year, and it's unclear what sort of a payday awaits him next year.
Duke's opponent, Carlos Monasterios, came out of the Phillies' system as a Rule 5 draft pick, on the other side of Pennsylvania. Mainly a reliever in the minors, this long use of him yesterday was something of a surprise forced on the Dodgers by their inability to keep their starting rotation healthy. Monasterios was largely unable to throw first-pitch strikes, but managed to make his outs despite getting in and out of trouble all night; the only run he surrendered came on Andrew McCutcheon's two-out solo homer in the first. The Bucs loaded the bases against him in the second, two of the batters hit by pitches. Still, that was as close as they came to scoring against him again, with Andy LaRoche grounding out to Casey Blake at third to end the threat.
Preventing runs against the Bucs isn't that hard — they're next to last in the league in runs scored — so too much shouldn't be read into Monasterios' outing, or the subsequent winner of the game, Ramon Ortiz, who struck out five of the ten batters he faced. It'll probably keep him on the 25-man roster a while longer, but it seems to me likely that it's only a reprieve.
Unlike Friday's game, when the Pirates' defense largely let down the starting pitcher, it was Duke himself who failed in this game, giving up a line drive single to Monasterios to lead off the third; and following a one-out infield single by Russell Martin, Andre Ethier welted a home run to the deepest part of the yard, just over the wall onto the stairs below the outfield bleachers.
And that, really, was the game; the Dodgers scored again on doubles by Ethier and James Loney against former Giant Jack Taschner in the seventh. Taschner was yelling at the Dodgers dugout, though what he was saying I don't know.
Additional miscellany about the game:
- Thanks to Phil Gurnee for organizing this game under the auspices of True Blue LA. It's always good to have an excuse to get up there.
- Helen ran a reconnaissance run on the food, but didn't find much of interest.
- Given the Dodgers late play, the out-of-division and weak opponent, parking was a breeze, easily the easiest I have ever seen. Announced attendance was 40,483, but I very much doubt the turnstile number was over 35,000; Bleacher Beach and the Family sections were both all but totally empty.
- Update:
Prior to the game yesterday, Dodger Stadium parking attendants were just randomly placing cars, irrespective of lines drawn on the asphalt. You would think if there were one aspect of operations the McCourts could get right, the parking lot would be it. Not. Even.
Labels: dodgers, pirates, recaps
Saturday, May 01, 2010 |
Dodgers Minor Leaguer Andrew Lambo Suspended 50 Games For Prohibited Substances
"The Dodgers are disappointed to learn of this news and we fully support Major League Baseball's drug policy and its penalties. The organization does not condone the use of any substance not sanctioned by MLB's medical staff."
Labels: dodgers, drugs, minors, suspensions
Baserunning Blunders, Down Shields Doom Angels: Tigers 3, Angels 2
I suppose you can understand it. Aggressive baserunning is a Mike Scioscia trademark, but it also presupposes having the players to execute it, and Matsui isn't really one. Certainly, he's not Chone Figgins, and you can see the collision between Scioscia's philosophy and the players Tony Reagins got him in the offseason.
I don't mean to pick on Matsui exclusively, but his position in the lineup somewhat forces my hand; he's one of the team leaders in on base events (hits, walks, and hit-by-pitches), which necessitates him running. In fact, going into the game — and in this order — the top four players in on-base events were Torii Hunter, Bobby Abreu, Hideki Matsui, and Kendry Morales, all of whom save for Hunter are unaccomplished runners. I doubt Scioscia will learn anything from this, and it's not really clear there was a lesson to learn anyway. Discretion may be the better part of scoring from second, but Scioscia will always say it's better to have run and lost. That's especially true with the horrifically slumping Mike Napoli due up behind Rivera.
None of this, of course, is to excuse Shields' incompetence today; he hasn't looked right at all this year, and that included spring training. Contract or no, I wouldn't be surprised to see the organization cut him loose if he can't right himself before the end of May.
Labels: angels, recaps, tigers
Two Games
Piñeiro = Piñata: Tigers 10, Angels 6
Rookie Brennan Boesch's grand slam eventually chased Joel Piniero, the mighty turd atop a stinking dung heap of a performance in which he coughed up eight runs in the fourth. Boesch's breakout season at AA Erie (he hit 28 homers last year) predicted great things for him, but I'm surprised to see him make the team this year; he got an emergency look because of injury to Carlos Guillen.Otherwise, the offense held up its end of the bargain; was a time when the Angels scoring six runs would be a pretty solid indicator of a win. Mike Napoli tripled, Brandon Wood returned to another 0-fer night, and Torii Hunter had a three-run jack; seems like old times.
Dodgers End Losing Skid At Five: Dodgers 6, Pirates 2
Charlie Morton, described by Vinny last night as perhaps one of the worst starters in the majors, certainly proved a tonic to the Dodgers' flailing offense, giving up six runs; yet three were unearned, thanks to errors by easily-injured shortstop Bobby Crosby, and the converted catcher (and now first baseman) Jeff Clement. James Loney then squeaked a ball into the first row of seats over the low fence in right field, and thus did Morton get salted.Chad Billingsley looked back in good form, though he walked nearly as many (3) as he struck out (4), making up for the rest with mostly routine outs.
And Matt Kemp was 0-for-4, which means Ned can go back to lambasting him.
Labels: angels, dodgers, pirates, recaps, tigers
 |
