Still at work

Listened to most of it, until it got out of hand. At that point I stopped paying attention and started listening to the stuff you see on the right sidebar.

Nice job of picking up for some mistakes early, as Cabrera committed the cardinal sin of getting picked off with one out, a man on third, and Vlad at the plate. They still got two runs out of the inning, no thanks to O-Cab.

Figgins powered up for a homer and three more hits. Need those guys at the top of the lineup to get on base, especially with Vlad red hot and Anderson not completely sucking at the moment. It looks like Oakland's going to win again, so we do all this again tomorrow, when I might be golfing if it's not raining. But maybe not.

About last night

Sorry for the lack of recap, but I was pretty dead tired, and the game ended late in the Midwest. Today, I'm in the office again, so I don't mind taking a few minutes to catch up. Wash actually looked pretty good for the most part, except for the chuck into right field. Forgive the brief rant, but I think it's pretty pathetic that the bunt by Bloomquist was scored a hit. There is a trend in MLB that I'm not happy with. It seems that every botched play that isn't so routine that a junior high school level fielder could make it with ease is scored a hit nowadays. These are MAJOR LEAGUE baseball players. Are our expectations of their defensive abilities that low that we give hits on plays that would have been sure outs had the fielder simply made a decent throw, or simply held on to the ball. Cabrera's boot the other night was an error. It hit him in the freaking glove. But not in today's MLB. He had to bend over for it a little, so that makes it a really tough play, and subsequently a hit.

Anyway, you could tell Wash was a little anxious in the early going. He wanted no part of Sexon in the second inning, and you could see why when he pitched to Beltre, who hammered one out. Timely offense, and Vlad being Vlad, helped erase some of those mistakes, and Brendan Donnelly, fresh off one of the worst performances of his Angels career, stranded two runner on second and third with nobody out to preserve the tie when the game was still in doubt. A little help from that other Santana lifted the Angels back into a tie for first. So it's on, guys. Either play like this the rest of the season, or watch the A's celebrate their advancement toward first round elimination again.

Humor Me

Santana's ERA over the last two months is 3.43. When Escobar comes back, what happens? Here's my suggestion, and feel free to disagree with me in the comments section, but I say Kelvim goes to the bullpen for the rest of the season, and we ride Santana in the rotation. If they make the playoffs, they'll cut the rotation to four anyway. Escobar has the bullpen experience from Toronto, and Santana really doesn't. Honestly, with Santana pitching well for a fifth starter, and the other guys pitching pretty well (assuming a healthy Washburn), doesn't this make the most sense? I realize that the Angels won't do it, because they don't like doing things that make sense (see: Kennedy hitting ninth; Finley hitting anywhere; etc.), but to me, I think this is the best possible use of their pitching resources. Plus, if he's only needed for one or two innings at a time, it may allow Escobar to come back a little sooner (no need to build up the stamina).

Who's with me?

I didn't see it, and I don't want to see it

I can't even come up with words to describe how absolutely pathetic this bullpen has been lately.

Matt, I don't know how you can watch crap like that and maintain any confidence.

Usually reliable - A's 4; Angels 2

The usually reliable Scot Shields really picked a bad time to have a crappy inning. The usually reliable Orlando Cabrera really picked a crappy time to fail to come up with a pretty easy ground ball (his 0 for 5 doesn't look all that great, either). If and when this team fails to make the playoffs, it will be letdowns like tonight's that we'll look back on.

The kid was fairly sharp again, escaping some early trouble before settling down and pitching well enough to win. When your rookie starter outduels the hottest pitcher in the AL, that's a game that you MUST win. You simply cannot afford to lose when you get a very good performance out of your fifth starter. This one hurts.

The debacle that is Steve Finley continues to suck up time in center, and just to just plain suck at the plate. Of course, as I type that, he homers, but oh well.

Byrd vs. Blanton tomorrow. Starting to look like a must win (or as much as one can look like at this point in the season), as I can't see this offense doing much against the rookie in Seattle on Friday.

Angels 9; A's 2

The Angels needed a game like this, and it couldn't have come at a better time. They got the breaks in the first two innings, and Lackey continued his recent dominance with seven strong innings. A couple or errors, a couple of bloops, a timely strike out by Finley, and really only a couple of hard hit ball, and the Angels had a 7-0 lead. Vlad came into the game with only two career grand slams, one coming just a couple of weeks ago.

Peralta really did not look sharp at all in the 8th. I don't know if it's harder to concentrate when you've got a huge lead like that, but a rookie really needs to take advantage of his chances to pitch. On the other hand, Esteban Yan has looked pretty good lately, and pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.

No doubt Matt is already spending his $50. Hey, that's great. Like I said at the time, if the Angels finish strong and win the division, it will be the best $50 I ever spent. Now Fat has joined the fray and given me a chance to win $10 of that money back should the Angels meet the Sox in the playoffs, provided the Angels can come up with at least one quality start should the series take place. But ssshhhhhh, don't tell him that the Angels have the second best starter ERA in the AL.

I'm gonna get myself connected...

Finally have internet access, the non-stolen kind, in my apartment. The cable guy took his sweet time getting here, but he actually ran a line 3/4 of the way across my apartment, and you can barely tell, so things are looking pretty good. Full range of cable TV is back as well, with the baseball package (for which I had to talk the guy out of charging me another $120). All of this comes in time for the Angels not to be on. But the fireworks don't begin until tomorrow night.

Anyway, took my first trip to Ikea yesterday, just to browse a bit (need a coffee table now that I'm in a bigger place). Have to say I was less than impressed. Some of the stuff looked nice, I guess, but it's not like it was super cheap, and quite frankly, I can't believe that people drive over from Ohio (like my sister's friend) just to shop at Ikea. To each their own, I guess.

I guess I could comment on the Angels playoff prospects, but I feel like I've done that already, and Matt, Rob, Richard, and The Chronicler have done so more recently, and probably more entertaining...ly. So go read them.

They won **UPDATE** Kotch!!!!

Didn't see it. Still in a virtual tie for first. Looks like they actually scored some runs.

Played Kemper Lakes today. Had to get the round in before they go private. Nothing to write home about. The last three holes are pretty sweet, though, and but for a poor first putt on 18, I would have parred all three. I'm hammering the new driver. three or four drives over 300 yards. No joke (those GPS things on the newer carts are sweet).

*update*

Casey Kotchman with two jacks, including a granny. Wow. That's some nice production. Just caught the hilights on SportsCenter.

Ironically, the next hilight was Eckstein hitting his fourth grand slam, then Ramon Ortiz throwing the ball away three times.