Sorry

Rehearsal dinner/last night of freedom for my friend last night, so no game recap. Wedding and reception tonight, so it's not looking good for today's game, either.

Angels 6; Yankees 5

Well, that was a nice surprise. I was getting updates on my wireless web and on the White Sox out of town scoreboard. When I left the game it was 3-1. When I went into the subway, it was 5-2. When I got to my apartment, it was 6-5, and I arrived just in time to see the final out. Big win, since I'm not expecting much in this series. The Angels really struggle against good pitching, more than they should, it seems. Even a good pitcher who has been struggling can and will shut them down. But they apparently got to Randy, got to the pen, and well, that's why they pay Vlad $14MM per.

Bartolo was not good again, per the numbers (obviously I didn't see the game, so if anyone wants to fill me in on how he looked, please do). This is becoming an issue, and it would be a bigger issue if the other guys weren't stepping up. He's either nursing something, or he's lost it. Either way, the Angels are in trouble unless he gets it back together soon.

Good game at the Cell. White Sox went up early on an Everett homer. They extended on homers by Konerko and Rowand in the fifth, but poor defense allowed Red Sox back into the game, and eventually gave them the lead. Then Joe Crede just had one of those nights. He stroked the game tying double in the 8th. Then in the 9th, he dropped a popup in foul territory that he should have caught pretty easily. It was a tough play at first, as it looked like it was heading out of play. The wind blew it back in, and Crede camped underneath it. To me, it looked like he tried to make the catch with a little flair, and just flat dropped it. Bad idea. You don't give Manny Ramirez extra outs, and he showed why when he crushed a Luis Vizcaino for the game winning homer. On a side note, Red Sox fans weren't the huge assholes that they normally are tonight.

Missed it

Out with friends. I have a life, ya know.

Offense sucks. Wake me when we're good again.

Bleh

Good night for the game to not be on TV, and to have issues with my computer (it doesn't like to show the baseball game and have large Excel files over at the same time). Not much to say. Get 'em tomorrow.

Angels 5; A's 2

Tremendous effort from Santana tonight. Whatever he worked on over the all-star break, it worked. He worked down in the zone and was throwing strikes (albeit to a big zone). He took advantage, and except for a hiccup in the sixth, he was strong throughout. I especially liked the mental toughness. Maybe there's something to the conversations with Escobar. He was in trouble often allowing the leadoff runner to reach numerous times. All but once, he was able to work his way out of it.

Total team effort tonight, as the offense picked the kid up in the bottom of the sixth. That's really great to see. Magic man gave it all he had, and when he needed the help, the bats came through. Nice to see Cabrera step in and contribute. Look, we're stuck with the guy, so dammit, I'm gonna root for him when he's in there. Santana responded by working a very strong seventh before turning it over to 'ol rubber arm in the 8th. Getting those runs back had to be a big confidence builder.

Of course, genius that I am, I decided to sit Ervin this week, despite his two starts, in favor of a number of guys, notable Dave Williams, who got drilled by the Astros tonight. Then again, Santana goes against the Yankees on Saturday, who have been mashing lately, so maybe it wasn't such a bad decision. We'll see.

These games with the A's certainly aren't make or break, but they are big. It would be really nice to cool them off a bit and open a little more daylight during this rough stretch in the schedule. The key was not getting swept, and they accomplished that tonight. Tough matchup tomorrow against Harden. Lots of pressure on Wash, and it's at home, so that's not a good sign.
These game

Increasingly more fun with Sitemeter

I just discovered that someone visited here from a search on google for, I kid you not, "pitchers of kids dicks". I honesly don't know what's more disturbing, that someone was actually searching for this, that this person apparently doesn't know the word "pictures", or that this site come up under that search? For the record, it resulted from the post where I talked about Scioscia checking Nationals pitchers for violations, and called the Nationals dicks. Go figure.

And shout out to the Steve Physioc search guy (or gal). What up?

Angels 2; Twins 1

You should not win a game in which you get 2 runs on five hits, and during which you also make 3 errors. But the Angels found a way to get it done despite the weak offense and poor defense. John Lackey somehow avoided his Lackey inning, and Scioscia removed him before we had a chance to find out of if that inning would come in the 8th or 9th. Shields was Shields, and Frankie was Frankie, as the bullpen threw two perfect innings to preserve the one run victory.

Davanon stepped it up with a two run shot, but that was pretty much it for the offense, which continues to slumber. The pitching is only going to be there so often, so they really need to get the bats going. As for Lackey, he was great today, but even when he's had that crappy inning lately, he's been fun to watch. He's turning into a bonafide strikeout pitcher.

I don't know what was up with the outfield. Finley's error looked like it took a funny hop off of that turf, so I'm not gonna get pissed about that one, but Garret's looked like laziness, which means he allowed two extra bases with his laziness this afternoon. I thought he'd gotten away from that for a while, but maybe it's back.

Oh well, four great games with the Twins, with three of them wins. Not a bad start to the second half, but it's a good thing the Twins likely won't be in the playoffs, because I don't think my heart could take a full playoff series with these two teams.

Now I'm off to sweat my ass off at a concert in 95 degree heat. Fun.