6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Mark GIDP Trumbo: Royals 2, Angels 1

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Friday, April 01, 2011

Mark GIDP Trumbo: Royals 2, Angels 1

Michael Kohn will go down as the loser of record in this game, but the reality is that he was merely the beneficiary of an inept offense cobbled together from, mostly, aging or spare parts. As annoyed as I was with the Angels' front office in the offseason, the question one has to ask oneself while all this is going on is why Mark Trumbo even had a chance to ground into two double plays the second day of the regular season.

He wasn't the only one, of course; Erick Aybar also bounced into a twofer, and thus the entirety of the Angels' offense rested on a first-inning solo blast by Howie Kendrick, and a fine pitching outing by Dan Haren went unrewarded. I have not been especially sanguine about Howie over the last year, especially after posting the lowest OBP of his career. Perhaps that's understandable given some of the other distractions going on in his life; he became a new father last year, but regardless, he needs to hit for high average. He's on a one-year deal this year, and I imagine whether the Angels elect to extend him past 2011 — his final year under team control — will be decided by his play this year. I wish him luck, because the team needs every bat it can find. (Coda: I see he has another little one in the house, a son, Tyson, born February 10.)

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Labels: angels, recaps, royals