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Sunday, April 17, 2011

Angels Sweep The Chisox: Angels 4, White Sox 2

Despite what might be the shakiest outing by Jordan Walden since being anointed closer, the Angels hung on to sweep the White Sox on the road.

And as one of my Facebook friends would say, it's Dan Haren Day.

I have to admit, I was kind of surprised to see Jeff Mathis behind the dish today, but Hank Conger did catch the other two games of the series. True Grich has a nice summary of the arguments for Conger to take over the number one slot. What might be even more interesting is a discussion of the relative merits of Mathis vs. Bobby Wilson, and whether the team should be carrying three catchers.

ESPN Box • Recap

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Sunday, June 22, 2008

Kotchman Gives Shaky Weaver A Win, Sweep: Angels 3, Phillies 2

Jered Weaver was back to his bad old tricks, but he somehow managed to hang tough long enough to get a win, staying on the mound for five and a third hot, sweaty innings. Weaver wasn't helped by Kerwin Danley's strike zone, the bottom of which seemed to vary noticeably even within at-bats; in particular, Weaver got jobbed by Danley's calls on two pitches in Geoff Jenkins' "four-pitch" walk in the bottom of the fourth. But in general, Weaver's command, which seems to come and go this year, was often missing, and he got into deep counts by frequently starting batters off with ball one.

The Angels scored all their runs in the top of the second, with Gary Matthews, Jr. cashing in Vlad on an RBI single, and then Casey Kotchman belted Phillies ace Cole Hamels' 1-0 pitch into the right field Bud Light sign. Mike Napoli came close to getting another homer when he ripped a foul ball into the fourth deck, but his contributions otherwise amounted to a pair of strikeouts and a walk. Vlad kept his hitting streak alive, and has now hit safely in 13 straight games.

ESPN Box • MLB.com recap

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Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Joe Sheehan On The Reasons The Angels Lost

At Baseball Prospectus (emphasis all mine):
Brian Runge had a huge strike zone yesterday, and both Jered Weaver and Curt Schilling took advantage of it. Schilling has good control to begin with, and if you give him an extra couple of inches down and to the outside, he becomes essentially unhittable. The bigger zone helped Weaver’s big breaking stuff, enabling him to catch corners that might not have been there on a different day. Runge, as much as anyone else, was responsible for yesterday’s game being 2-0 into the eighth. I’m left feeling like the home plate umpires are exerting too large an influence on the game. A large strike zone is better than a random one, to be sure, but not as good as a rulebook strike zone. Calling strikes on pitches down and off the plate does little more than move games along; if umpires were to call the high strike—which has made an inconsistent appearance at odd times—while maintaining lateral integrity, they’d be closer to the book zone, and a better game.

The Angels’ hitters in the fifth slot of the lineup in this series were Maicer Izturis and Kendry Morales. That’s just not going to be good enough, and before you point to the absence of Gary Matthews Jr., note that Matthews wasn’t any better than those guys this season: .252/.323/.419, which is what happens when your batting average floats back down to its career levels. Matthews’ 2005 and 2007 seasons are completely indistinguishable from one another; he got to be a free agent after 2006. Ah, serendipity. Four years and $40 million left on that deal, folks. It’s OK, though; he’s just 33.

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Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Never In Doubt: Angels 8, Mariners 2

Graph created by and hosted on fangraphs.com.

A magnificent sweep featuring if not his best performance of the year then certainly Jered Weaver's most important performance. The offense knocked out 13 hits and six runs, all earned, off "King" Felix Hernandez, while Weaver got things to play out his way, including a pickoff of Jose Lopez off first in the fifth (which the M's retaliated for in the eighth by throwing out Kendry Morales, also at second base). Two more humiliating runs scored in the top of the ninth on consecutive two-out, bases-loaded walks.

The M's have one more shot at the Angels, but kids, that's a Statement.

Yahoo Box

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