Domination

That, folks, was a slaughter. UCLA simply stepped on the gas from the very beginning, and never let up. It's the type of performance that makes an impression on a national audience. Kevin Love was exceptional, and Arizona simply doesn't have anyone who can guard Russell Westbrook. He made Chase Buddinger look like a chump tonight.

Hopefully LRMAM will be OK. Kind of a nasty turn of the ankle there near the end.

This was simply a great team playing at their best against a good team playing considerably less than their best. But make no mistake, UCLA is better right now at virtually every position, and they have a much better coach. McKale will be a tough place to play in a few weeks, but for now, there's not much question who the class of the Pac 10 is.

And if you're looking for the Wildcats, you might want to check somewhere out behind this:

Twins 3; Angels 16

For the first few innings, this looked like your typical Angels-Twins tilt. Low scoring, good pitching, great defense, questionable baserunning, exciting plays on the bases and at the plate...

The Angels had extended a little bit in the fifth, putting together a two out rally, Orlando Cabrera's single bookended by doubles from Reggie Willits and Vlad Guerrero. After a Gary Matthews fly out, things had settled down.

Then, with one out in the sixth, Boof Bonser, who had been a strike throwing machine, threw three consecutive balls to Casey Kotchman. The fourth pitch was a strike, and it ended up about 8-10 rows deep in the right field seats. It was such a nice swing, I had to re-watch it a couple of times just to hear the crack of the bat. Then the floodgates opened. After a Howie Kendrick single, Mike Napoli knocked one into the second bullpen, and a two run lead was suddenly a five run lead. As if to rub it in, the Angels added two more runs with two out, Cabrera singling home Figgins (who should have been out stealing second), and a Matthews single following a Guerrero IBB for an 8-1 lead.

But this time eight wasn't enough. Willits, Cabrera, and Vlad reached again (a second straight IBB to Vlad), and Gary Matthews made them pay again, this time with a grand slam. And the hits just kept coming. Garret Anderson followed with a homer of his own. As much I love watching Vladdy hit it deep, there's just something about the swing that GA takes on home run balls that is really beautiful to watch. They weren't finished until they had doubled up that 8 runs for a total of 16 on 23 hits.

Almost lost in the shuffle was an excellent performance from Jered Weaver, who allowed six baserunners, one homer, and struck out four over seven innings. He's now 5-3 with a 3.88 ERA. I think that will come down a notch or so, and he'll finish the season closer to 3.50. I'd take that in a heartbeat. That would be a quality major league season.

After going 8-2 in their last ten, the Angels now sit 15 games over .500, trailing only the Red Sox and Mets in the race for baseball's best record. This has been a pretty nice 59 games, and a fantastic last 26, in which they've gone 20-6. They've been fun to watch.

Now let's hope they didn't use all their runs last night. And if they did, well, Kelvim is used to getting little help.