Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Angels 4; Braves 2

I know, this is late, but I just got into the office after taking the red-eye last night. Didn't really have time to recap because I was packing and what not.

Another strong start from Lackey, who finally looks like he's putting it all together. We've been waiting for this for a couple of years now, and it's great to finally see it happening. One mistake to LaRoche, which he paid for, but he didn't get rattled, and he got them through six and to the bullpen. This is how it's supposed to work; six strong from the starter, one from Donnelly, one from Shields, one from Frankie. Perfect. It's like when you make par by hitting it in the fairway, on the green, and a routine two putt.

The Erstad play: First, what is Roenicke smoking this season? How many crappy decisions has he made sending runners from third. Erstad was out by a mile, but for the collision. And what a collision it was. There can't really be any way to prepare for that if you're Estrada. He was just full on drilled, and poor guy, he almost held on. Smart play by Erstad though. He still has that football player mentality.

Angels got screwed on the close play at second where the throw pulled Giles off the bag (I think it was Giles at second). Note to the second base ump - once the runner hits the bag, it's no longer a force. If he comes off the bag, they have to tag him.

Good start to the trip. It's sad to think they have to win both of the remaining series to go .500 on the trip, but I'd sure take that right now. Vlad's starting to do some things on the side, so if they can tread water until he's back, they should be set up to make a run. And Dallas seems to be getting more comfortable at the plate. What he's done to this point doesn't matter. All that matters is what he does from here on in. And is it just me, or does he, for a power hitter, hit a lot soft line drives? A lot of them drop in, but I still think it's weird.

2 comments:

The Chronicler said...

Actually, I think McPherson's "soft liners" are actually "hard bloopers." It strikes me that he hits the ball pretty damn hard all the time. He hits a pop-up, and it carries into the outfield. So maybe his soft liners are balls that other guys would hit for bloopers.

Or maybe I'm just wrong.

Seitz said...

I've thought the same thing at times, so you could be right. The 'soft' wasn't so much a characterization of the swing, but rather the flight of the ball.