Friday, May 22, 2009

Angels 3; Mariners 0

The Angels shut out the Mariners and finished the series in Seattle by taking three games out of four. Joe Saunders righted the ship after last week’s poor outing against Texas. He worked seven scoreless innings before turning the game over to Scot Shields and Brian Fuentes, who combined to close out the Mariners.

The staccato style offense may have only provided five hits., but three of those hits left the yard. Juan Rivera hit his third home run of the year, and second in four games, in the top of the first inning, providing the winning margin. Gary Matthews, Jr. followed with his first home run of the season in the third inning.

Both home runs came against starter Eric Bedard, who was otherwise effective. He allowed only those two hits, and struck out six in five innings as he returned from injury. Howie Kendrick finished the scoring for the Angels with a bomb to left field in the eighth inning off of Garret Olson. It was his fourth homer of the season.

Thoughts on the game:

  • The Angels bullpen has now tossed 10.1 consecutive scoreless innings, dropping their ERA over a half a run in the process. Make no mistake, this will be the key to the Angels success this year.
  • A winning team needs two of a good offense, good starting pitching, and good bullpen. The offense is what it is, and that means that the pitching, ALL of the pitching, needs to pick up the slack. This is why I think the bullpen will be key.
  • No Angel had more than one hit, though Mike Napoli walked twice.
  • Howie Kendrick continues to show signs of life, albeit barely. He went 5-15 in the series with a double, a homer, and 3 RBIs.

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