Angels 4; Tigers 3

Darin Erstad taketh away, but hey, Darin Erstad giveth as well. In the first inning, Erstad apparently didn't learn from Figgins' stupidity the other night. With runners on first and second, nobody out, and Vlad at the plate in the bottom of the first, Erstad was thrown out trying to steal third base. Now, we could bicker and argue about the old rule that says you never make the first or third out at third base. But no matter your opinion of that cliche, you DEFINITELY DON'T DO IT WITH VLAD AT THE PLATE!!! Anyway, Vlad flew out, and GA hit the weakest single in the history of baseball that still scored a runner from second thanks to some heads up baserunning by Figgins.

I've been waiting for Vlad to drop a fairly easy pop-up. It took a little longer than expected, but he finally did it in the first inning. Fortunately, there was a runner on first who had to hold on the short fly ball, and the Angels were able to record the out at second. No harm, no foul, no error.

I've run out of old man nicknames for Finley, but that's OK, because he's beginning to play like a younger man again, if only just a little. Before the game started, I was thinking about writing something about how even though he wasn't hitting, he was delivering some big hits (and in all fairness, he is hitting for power). He beat me to the punch by ripping a two run triple to retake the lead in the fourth inning, then an RBI double in the sixth to provide some insurance, which turned out to be pretty darn important. While I still find his range to be incredibly untrustworthy, I'll take what I can get.

In the eighth, Bill Miller decided to change the definition of the word "strike", and the pitching suffered. Escobar threw a terrific game, getting stung only by a solo shot in the top of the second from Marcus Thames (who would go on to strike out looking in his next three at bats). He got touched up a bit in the eighth, and it took Shields a batter or two to figure things out for himself before striking out Thames. Which brings us back to Erstad. With two outs, and the tying and go ahead runs in scoring position, Shields got a grounder from Ramon Martinez. It ticked off his glove, and Adam Kennedy had to make a quick throw to have a chance. The throw pulled Erstad nearly off the bag, but with an incredible stretch, he kept his foot on the base and recorded the out to end the inning and save the lead.

In the ninth, it was Frankie time. He threw a lot of pitches, got a video game type strikeout of Nook Logan (I think Jose had thrown it back the mound before Logan started his swing), walked Brandon Inge, and got a game ending ground out from Pudge on the most anti-climactic at bat of the inning.

So five in a row, and the Angels have a 3.5 game lead in the West. They're starting to assert themselves a bit in the standings, and they might be going on the 8, 9, 10 game run that they're gonna need at some point to create a little distance in the standings. Tomorrow it will be the Fat Man vs. young boy in a matchup of Colon and Bonderman. Both have been pretty good for the most part this season despite some road bumps. It's another game in which a Guzzler faces the Angels. The Angels are 1-0 in those matchups. After a five game win streak, and a heck of a good fantasy week to this point, I'll be pulling for the Angels to extend the streak, but hopefully Bonderman escapes with a quality start and a no-decision.