Series Recap: Angels 2, Baltimore 1
This was a good series for the Angels, outside the third game where they failed to get any offense going against crappy pitching. Without getting into game recaps, the offense is beginning to pick up just as the starting pitching begins its predictable slump. There was no way every starter was going to put up a quality start every time out, but now that's becoming less of a requirement. Juan Rivera has finally taken over the outfield/DH spot he earned in 2006, and the Halos are getting solid production from Torii, Vlad, and Kotchman once again. Even when John Lackey somehow gives up 6 runs in 5 innings, the Angels score 14 runs to get him an undeserved win against Cleveland.
With that much said, I still feel bad for Gary Matthews Junior. Look, the contract was a terrible idea, his production outside early 2007 has been questionable at best, and his current knee injury isn't helping things at all. But regardless, I still like the guy, and I'm sure he's a good person who did seem legitimately thrilled to sign with the Angels. This is a player who has been through 6 different clubs before making it to Anaheim, and he finally found job security. Or at least thought he did. He takes a lot of flak for being crappy, and he should, but let's not forget that he's still an asset. As a late inning defensive replacement or pinch switch-hitter, he's still a valuable, if insanely overpriced, commodity.
Game Recap: Angels 7, Boston 5
For the first time since my regular Boston-hating began, this was an Angels/Red Sox game I didn't care about. The Angels have already taken the season series from the Sox, I had the opportunity to go to a game at Fenway which they won, and at this point, they're 11.5 games up on Oakland in the division and don't need to play .600 ball through the end of the season.
That said, this was still fun. Wicked fun.
Jered Weaver had a good on the mound, going 5.2 and giving up 3 runs. No, that's not a quality start, but it's not a 9.00 ERA either, and Jered really needed to get something working after his injury-shortened start last week. He threw strikes, for the most part, and really only got yanked with 2 outs in the sixth because he had just given up a ground rule double to Jed "Better than Lugo" Lowrie. Jose Arredondo walked Jason "No Longer Good" Varitek before striking out Jacoby "Overrated and Regressing HARD" Ellsbury on a nasty slider in the dirt.
Arredondo, Shields, and K-Rod combined to throw the last 3.1 innings of the game, giving up a collective 2 ER, not bad against the prolific Boston lineup. Yet the complaining about the offense continues in Boston. These are the same people who whine about a suicide squeeze when a team is up by 4. Memo to Boston fans: Your team plays in a little league park. You can never have too many runs. I'm sorry your manager doesn't believe in scoring runs without hitting the ball over the fence, but please stop whining.
The real story of the night was the massacre that was the top half of the sixth. The Halos sent Chone Figgins up first, and he would make the last out after 8 other batters had gone to the plate. Two runs scored on a Casey Kotchman career-high 12th homer, Torii Hunter added a three-run bomb onto Landsdowne Street, and Jeff Mathis pulled of a superb suicide squeeze for the sixth run in the inning. Memo to Mike Scioscia...this is how you win in the playoffs:
| - C. Kotchman homered to deep right, C. Figgins scored |
| - T. Hunter homered to deep left center, M. Izturis and V. Guerrero scored |
| - J. Mathis sacrificed to catcher, H. Kendrick scored, J. Rivera to second |
That's such an awesome combination of Angels baseball and decidedly not-Angels baseball.
Anyways, Frankie's gonna need to learn to pitch to Manny "Whining, Again" Ramirez before the playoffs roll around, should the Sox make the playoffs. He surrendered a homer to Ramirez with two outs in the ninth before getting Lowell to fly out to "deep" left. That's 44 effing saves. It's impressive.
Brett Favre
Sorry to bring this up, but I had to say something eventually.
Brett,
Stay retired. Please. Going out on (or close to) top is infinitely better than returning from "retirement" and sucking with a new team. I promise. I lose respect for you every day this nonsense continues. Don't blame the Packers. You're the one who had the press conference. Let your body have a few years where it's not getting hammered by 300 lb. men and enjoy the jersey retirement. You're a legend. Don't fuck it up.
Love,
Marcus
Lakers
Sasha Vujacic signed with the Lakers for 3 years at $5 million per. Hate to say I told you so. I'm glad he'll be back, but I'll miss Ronny.
Miscellany
- Amanda's playing tennis again, this time a $10k in Missouri [pdf]. Good luck!
- Kira caught a typo in a previous entry, so I guess she gets a mention also.
- I don't know why I remembered this just now, but bacon is delicious.
- If anybody has a definitive answer as to the relevance of the Bernoulli equation in a realistic modeling scenario, I'd be thrilled to hear it. Modeling perfectly smooth venturis seems like a real waste of time.
- Anyone wanna get me a present?
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