Got Wood?

Angels 8, Seattle 0

Finally, a fun game to watch. Howie Kendrick went 3-5 with a homer, Juan Rivera went deep, Brandon Wood started (!), and Halo hurlers looks magnificent on the mound. Wood went 1-4, but should have been 3-4 with three doubles. His first double was stolen away by a great play by Beltre at third. His second double was hit even harder, again snared by Beltre, but Wood reached on an awful throw to first. his third double was a clean hit, but nailed the umpire behind Beltre and held him to a single. It's really hard to complain about someone going 1-4 when they go 3-4 with three doubles with a league-average third baseman and a mobile umpire.

Weaver looked good, great at times, and managed to cruise through 7 shutout innings on just 95 pitches. My biggest concern with Weaver has been his lack of an out pitch, leading to long innings and limiting his ability to throw more than 6 innings. Today, though, his changeup was an out pitch, and he recorded 5 K's to only two walks. Shields pitched a solid eighth, throwing 11 pitches to record three outs, the last two on a brilliant 3-6-1 double play. I didn't catch the ninth, but Fuentes struck out the side around a hit and a walk. I can live with that.

Things the Angels can do to keep me interested and claw back to .500:

• Win three games in a row.
• Keep playing Brandon Wood.
• Get good performances out of the most important bullpen pieces: Speier, Arredondo, Shields, and Fuentes.
• Stop dropping pop flies in the outfield. Torii, the ball is your responsibility.
  

Chicago Bulls 121, Boston Celtics 118 (2OT)

A fun game to watch. Ben Gordon hit an incredible three over Paul Pierce to send the game to 2OT, but the game never should have made it to overtime. Word of advice to teams playing the Celtics: Ray Allen is the ONLY player you have to guard with less than a minute remaining. Chicago's inability to play perimeter defense will screw them, as it already has, either again in this series or in the next round. Guard Allen. Guard him. Zone defense is for pasties.


NCAA Women's Tennis

Big congratulations to Amanda, who finishes up her senior year of Pac-10 play by leading the Trojans to their first Pac-10 women's tennis title in 17 years, then following up the team effort with a pair of individual Pac-10 titles for singles and doubles. This sweep was the first by a single player since 1917. Wow.

You'll see Amanda again in the NCAA's in a week or so, and then again on the pro circuit.