6.5 Back

Dear Angels Offense,

In case you haven't noticed, the pitchers are stepping up. Howzabout a little response. What say you guys swing the sticks a little better tomorrow night so that we don't need Frankie to come in to pitch the ninth. And bring your extra good swings, because Lackey's on the mound, and he can't seem to get anyone out without throwing about a million pitches in the first five innings. So please get some hits and score some runs, and while you're at it, start playing defense a little bit better. For those counting, that's eight hits for, and 4 errors committed by the Angels in the last two games. You can't keep winning by doing that. So stop it.

Sincerely,
Me

For the second time in three days, the Angels gained ground on the A's. They're now seven back in the loss column, and at that magical place where if they were to take all remaining games against Oakland, it would be a dead heat to the post-season. I still can't see them getting there, but at least there's reason for hope.

Tremendous effort by Jered Weaver tonight. Seven shutout innings, and he broke his two game losing streak. Extra props to Adam Kennedy who drove in the game's only run, and Mike Napoli who, despite a rough day at the plate, threw out two runners trying to steal for big outs. The defense finally nutted up, with the only error coming on Weaver's bad pickoff throw to first. Biggest play of the game was the Ramon Hernandez's ground ball induced by Weaver and the crisp defense that turned it into a run saving double play in the bottom of the fourth.

Lackey turns the page on August and gets his first September start of the season tomorrow. Hopefully he burned that page in his calendar.