Three of Four in Baltimore: Angels 8, Orioles 5

The Angels relied on the long ball at the plate, while Ervin Santana followed up last week's gem with another solid performance as the Angels closed out a four game set against the Orioles with a 8-5 victory. The Angels needed the win to keep pace with Texas who won in Minnesota. The Angels' lead sits at 4.5 games.

The Angels started their scoring in the second inning with Kendry Morales' 26th home run of the season, a two run shot that barely eluded the glove of Nick Markakis. The two run shot gave the Angels a one run lead. With the score tied 2-2 in the sixth, the Angels' power bats came to life yet again. Maicer Izturis led off the inning by crushing a 1-2 fastball over the wall in right for a 3-2 lead. Two batters later, Vladimir Guerrero hit a two run shot for a 5-2 lead.

Nick Markakis powered up for the Orioles. His solo shot in the bottom of the sixth pulled the Orioles within two. But a half inning later, Vlad struck again. With Chone Figgins on second base and two out, the Orioles decided to walk Bobby Abreu intentionally to face Vlad. Big mistake. He drilled a Cla Meredith fastball into the Oriole bullpen for his second homer of the game, providing the winning margin.

Santana threw a lot of pitches (116), but just when it looked like he was done, he was able to complete the sixth inning, giving some small measure of rest to a bullpen that worked nine innings just the day before. It wasn't a brilliant performance, but it gave the Angels a chance to win. The Angels are looking for some consistency from Santana, and they have to be pleased about back to back quality starts. Darren Oliver worked a steady seventh and eighth innings, and after Jose Arredondo ran into some trouble in the ninth, Brian Fuentes came into record the one out save, his 34th of the season.

Thoughts on the game:

• There's only so much I can say about Kendry Morales. Another homer tonight, an average over .300. He's going to hit over 30 homers and drive in over 100 runs. But the stat I liked best in this game was his #pitches. Only Chone Figgins saw more than Kendry's 25. He's learning discipline, and if he can add patience to that power, he may outproduce Mark Teixeira over the life of Teixeira's contract.
• I'm sounding like a broken record, but in Vlad's 12 games since returning on August 4th, he's got a line of 370/431/761. Not a bad deadline "acquisition". This team could very well go into October as a much better unit than the team that has built this lead.
• Torii Hunter had the night off after playing all 13 innings yesterday. The strength of this team is its versatility, and that's going to be very important down the stretch as guys need a break here and there.

Back on the Horse: Angels 5; Orioles 1

After Friday's 16 run debacle, the Angels handed the ball over their big horse, John Lackey. Lackey responded with seven innings of one run ball, and was the beneficiary of a five run third inning as the Angels beat the Orioles 6-1.

All of the game's runs came in the third inning. After Brian Matusz started the inning by striking Jeff Mathis, he allowed the next five batters to reach base. Chone Figgins walked, Erick Aybar singled, and Bobby Abreu walked to load the bases. Matusz then walked Vladimir Guerrero to drive in the first run of the game. Juan Rivera singled to center, and Adam Jone's misplay allowed Aybar and Abreu to score. Howie Kendrick's ground out score Guerrero, and Robb Quinlan's single scored Rivera for the Angels' fifth and final run.

In the bottom of the third, a double from Nick Markakis scored Adam Jones, and that capped the scoring for the evening. John Lackey shut down the Orioles the rest of the way. He lasted seven innings, striking out six while allowing 8 baserunners. It's the type of performance the Angels expect from Lackey, and the type of performance they'll need if they make it to October. Kevin Jepsen worked a scoreless eighth, but Jason Bulger struggled in the ninth. He allowed a single to Melvin Mora and walked Felix Pie, creating a save situation. Mike Scioscia summoned Brian Fuentes, he quickly got three fly balls for his 33rd save.

Thoughts on the game:

• For John Lackey, that makes seven straight quality starts. He has an ERA under 2.00 over that stretch. Let's not forget that he's playing for a contract. And while he's had a rough go of it at times over the last two years, every quality start adds dollars to his next deal.
• It seems like I've written a lot of recaps lately in which I mention an inning in which the Angels see five, six, or seven straight batters reach base. Reminds me a lot of the 2002 offense.
• With Kendry Morales getting a rest tonight, the Angels offense had a mere five straight hitters in the lineup hitting over .300. Of those, only Bobby Abreu failed to get a hit tonight.

Three Straight: Angels 3; Orioles 2

After becoming the last team in the majors to win two games in a row, the Angels went out and won a third straight game, using the long ball and six strong innings from Shane Loux to sweep the two game set from the Orioles.

Loux had his strongest start of the season, lasting six plus innings, allowing one run on five hits. He allowed the run after loading the bases in the first, but limited the Orioles to a sac fly. In the second, he allowed a lead off triple to Chad Moeller, but got a ground out to first, followed by a comebacker the mound. Loux alertly froze the runner, and a short rundown ended with a Chone Figgins tag-out.

The Angels tied the game in the fourth inning when a Kendry Morales triple chased home Maicer Izturis. In the seventh, Orioles starter Koji Uehara had an inning he’d rather forget. He allowed back to back homers to Torii Hunter and Kendry Morales, and after retiring Howie Kendrick, he was drilled square in the chest by Gary Matthews. The injury forced Uehara’s exit.

Justin Speier continued his surprisingly strong bullpen work. He entered in the seventh with none out and Chad Moeller on second base. He promptly struck out the first two hitters he faced, and retired the third on a line out to end the inning. Jose Arredondo allowed a run in the either, but Brian Fuentes worked a perfect ninth for his fifth save, and preserved Loux’s first win of the season.

Thoughts on the game:

* In his last ten games, Kendry Morales is hitting .341/.372/.707 with four doubles, three homers, and 13 RBIs. It may be a hot streak, or it may be a sign of things to come, but he’s brought his season long production up to a pretty respectable level, with not awful defense. This is what the Angels hoped for when they realized Teixeira was gone.
* Speaking of Teixeira, he currently sits at .206/.363/.381 with 3 homers and 10 RBIs. Kendry, for the season, is at .275/.324/.464 with three homers and 14 RBIs. those numbers are actually fairly similar, thanks to Teixeira’s superior patience. I’ll take Kendry’s production for $20MM less.
* Justin Speier dropped his ERA to 2.08, and he’s rapidly making Scot Shields the fourth option out of the bullpen.
* Maicer Izturis made a diving play in the fourth inning on a Chad Moeller shot that makes you wonder why the Angels think Erick Aybar is the superior defender.

Orioles 4; Angels 9

After failing to push a run across last night, the Angels struck early in this afternoon's game. Vladimir Guerrero's two out two run homer in the first inning gave Ervin Santana a lead an early lead that the Angels would never relinquish. The Angels scored all of their runs in the first four innings, putting up crooked numbers in the first, third, and fourth. Jeff Mathis added his ninth homer in the second inning.

Ervin Santana sharp for the most part, allowing four runs over seven innings while striking out seven and walking none. He made two mistakes, and the Orioles took advantage of both. Luis Montanez drove the second pitch of his major league career over the left field wall for his first career home run, and Nick Markakis added a three run shot of his own in the fifth inning. Jose Arredondo took over in the eighth and retired all six hitters he faced.

The day's best...

1) Vladimir Guerrero went two for three, reached base three times, scored twice, and drove in four runs, two coming on his 20th homer of the season.

2) Mark Teixeira reached base three times in four plate appearances, and scored each time. He also delivered his first double as an Angel.

3) Garret Anderson added three more hits, one of them a double, pushing his batting average since the All-Star break to .426, and his slugging percentage to .639.

Jeff Weaver of the game: Howie Kendrick was hitless in four at bats, and left three men on base.

What to look for on Friday: Jered Weaver has had a couple rough starts over the past few months, but he's generally bounced back strong in his next outing. He'll try to get back on track against the same Yankees team that roughed him up last Saturday. The Yankees counter with young Dan Giese, making his third major league start. The Anaheim native is 0-2 as a starter, with an ERA over 5.00, but has put up better numbers out of the bullpen.

Orioles 3; Angels 2 (hits)

Bear with me. I'm doing a few recaps per week for another site, and I'm working my way back into it.

The Angels, it seems, have had a habit over the years of making guys who should still be in triple A look like Cy Young. And when that guy is a soft tossing lefty, you can guess that it's probably going to be a long night.

Chris Walters, making his major league debut thanks to a recent Hayden Penn mishap, befuddled the Angels all night with soft stuff away, getting 14 of his 24 outs via the ground ball, along with three strikeouts, the first of which coming on three straight that Chone Figgins watched sail right through the zone. He held the Angels to two hits on the night before coming out after eight innings and 104 pitches.

The Orioles picked up where they left off last night. After plating four in the ninth to tie the game the night before, they pushed two across in the first inning of tonight's game. The first four batters Garland faced all reached base, with Brian Roberts scoring on a Nick Markakis double. Markakis was subsequently driven home by Melvin Mora's single. Garland would induce a double play (one of three on the night) and fly ball to get out of the inning, but the damage was done, and it turned out to be all Walters and the Orioles needed. Luke Scott added a superfluous third run with a two out homer in the seventh.

The lone bright spot for the Angels was Shane Loux's debut. Called up to replace the struggling Darren O'Day, Loux tossed two hitless innings, allowing one baserunner via a walk.

Ervin Santana takes on Garret Olson and 5+ ERA tomorrow under the sun. Ervin has righted the ship on the road this year, but he's struggled during day games, going 1-2 with a 5.59 ERA.

Orioles 3; Angels 4

Apparently the key is to lose the first game of the series. For the second straight series, the Angels lost game one, and rolled the rest of the way. Kind of reminds me of a certain post-season in recent memory.

After a close victory Friday and a comfortable win last night, no doubt made better by the bitchslapping that the Senators gave the Ducks, the Angels needed some Vladimir Guerrero heroics, a two run homer in the ninth, to pull out today's victory. I missed Friday night's game because I was drinking with some friends, and I really just didn't feel like writing about last night's game.

58 games into the season, the Angels have baseball's third best record. They have some separation between themselves and the M's and A's, and Texas is completely out of the picture already. Apparently it's their best record ever after 58 games. Next up are the Twins, who've been hanging around .500, and are a solid 7-3 in their last ten games. Something about the Twins. The Angels always seem to play playoff style close games against the Twins.