Sorry

Rehearsal dinner/last night of freedom for my friend last night, so no game recap. Wedding and reception tonight, so it's not looking good for today's game, either.

Angels 6; Yankees 5

Well, that was a nice surprise. I was getting updates on my wireless web and on the White Sox out of town scoreboard. When I left the game it was 3-1. When I went into the subway, it was 5-2. When I got to my apartment, it was 6-5, and I arrived just in time to see the final out. Big win, since I'm not expecting much in this series. The Angels really struggle against good pitching, more than they should, it seems. Even a good pitcher who has been struggling can and will shut them down. But they apparently got to Randy, got to the pen, and well, that's why they pay Vlad $14MM per.

Bartolo was not good again, per the numbers (obviously I didn't see the game, so if anyone wants to fill me in on how he looked, please do). This is becoming an issue, and it would be a bigger issue if the other guys weren't stepping up. He's either nursing something, or he's lost it. Either way, the Angels are in trouble unless he gets it back together soon.

Good game at the Cell. White Sox went up early on an Everett homer. They extended on homers by Konerko and Rowand in the fifth, but poor defense allowed Red Sox back into the game, and eventually gave them the lead. Then Joe Crede just had one of those nights. He stroked the game tying double in the 8th. Then in the 9th, he dropped a popup in foul territory that he should have caught pretty easily. It was a tough play at first, as it looked like it was heading out of play. The wind blew it back in, and Crede camped underneath it. To me, it looked like he tried to make the catch with a little flair, and just flat dropped it. Bad idea. You don't give Manny Ramirez extra outs, and he showed why when he crushed a Luis Vizcaino for the game winning homer. On a side note, Red Sox fans weren't the huge assholes that they normally are tonight.

Missed it

Out with friends. I have a life, ya know.

Offense sucks. Wake me when we're good again.

Bleh

Good night for the game to not be on TV, and to have issues with my computer (it doesn't like to show the baseball game and have large Excel files over at the same time). Not much to say. Get 'em tomorrow.

Angels 5; A's 2

Tremendous effort from Santana tonight. Whatever he worked on over the all-star break, it worked. He worked down in the zone and was throwing strikes (albeit to a big zone). He took advantage, and except for a hiccup in the sixth, he was strong throughout. I especially liked the mental toughness. Maybe there's something to the conversations with Escobar. He was in trouble often allowing the leadoff runner to reach numerous times. All but once, he was able to work his way out of it.

Total team effort tonight, as the offense picked the kid up in the bottom of the sixth. That's really great to see. Magic man gave it all he had, and when he needed the help, the bats came through. Nice to see Cabrera step in and contribute. Look, we're stuck with the guy, so dammit, I'm gonna root for him when he's in there. Santana responded by working a very strong seventh before turning it over to 'ol rubber arm in the 8th. Getting those runs back had to be a big confidence builder.

Of course, genius that I am, I decided to sit Ervin this week, despite his two starts, in favor of a number of guys, notable Dave Williams, who got drilled by the Astros tonight. Then again, Santana goes against the Yankees on Saturday, who have been mashing lately, so maybe it wasn't such a bad decision. We'll see.

These games with the A's certainly aren't make or break, but they are big. It would be really nice to cool them off a bit and open a little more daylight during this rough stretch in the schedule. The key was not getting swept, and they accomplished that tonight. Tough matchup tomorrow against Harden. Lots of pressure on Wash, and it's at home, so that's not a good sign.
These game

Increasingly more fun with Sitemeter

I just discovered that someone visited here from a search on google for, I kid you not, "pitchers of kids dicks". I honesly don't know what's more disturbing, that someone was actually searching for this, that this person apparently doesn't know the word "pictures", or that this site come up under that search? For the record, it resulted from the post where I talked about Scioscia checking Nationals pitchers for violations, and called the Nationals dicks. Go figure.

And shout out to the Steve Physioc search guy (or gal). What up?

Angels 2; Twins 1

You should not win a game in which you get 2 runs on five hits, and during which you also make 3 errors. But the Angels found a way to get it done despite the weak offense and poor defense. John Lackey somehow avoided his Lackey inning, and Scioscia removed him before we had a chance to find out of if that inning would come in the 8th or 9th. Shields was Shields, and Frankie was Frankie, as the bullpen threw two perfect innings to preserve the one run victory.

Davanon stepped it up with a two run shot, but that was pretty much it for the offense, which continues to slumber. The pitching is only going to be there so often, so they really need to get the bats going. As for Lackey, he was great today, but even when he's had that crappy inning lately, he's been fun to watch. He's turning into a bonafide strikeout pitcher.

I don't know what was up with the outfield. Finley's error looked like it took a funny hop off of that turf, so I'm not gonna get pissed about that one, but Garret's looked like laziness, which means he allowed two extra bases with his laziness this afternoon. I thought he'd gotten away from that for a while, but maybe it's back.

Oh well, four great games with the Twins, with three of them wins. Not a bad start to the second half, but it's a good thing the Twins likely won't be in the playoffs, because I don't think my heart could take a full playoff series with these two teams.

Now I'm off to sweat my ass off at a concert in 95 degree heat. Fun.

Lack of posting

Sorry. Busy weekend. Probably more of the same tomorrow. I may have a review of the Intonation Festival tomorrow night. Saw AC Newman and Broken Social Scene today. The Hold Steady, the Wrens, and maybe the Decemberists tomorrow.

Angels 3; Twins 2

Another close one with the Twins. Nice effort from Washburn, who survived a rough fourth, but got picked up nicely by his offense in the fifth.

I'm a little disturbed by the numbe of opportunities the Angels squandered, but tonight they put enough runs across for Wash and the bullpen to get the job done. Shields picked right up where he left off, and Frankie looked very sharp. He needed the rest, although I'm sure Twins fans will be complaining about some borderline calls again. I probably would be if I were them.

Finley looked like he stroked it pretty well on a big double, and Izturis showed why none of us seem to be too excited about the return of Orlando Cabrera. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, though. Maybe the offense was struggling (more than normal) because of the injury. Let's hope that's the case. In the meantime, Ztu is getting it done.

Probably no game report tomorrow, as I'll be at a birthday barbeque for a friend. Saturday I'll be at the Intonation Festival, but Broken Social Scene should be over by 6:00, so I might be back in time to watch that game. We'll have to wait and see. Could be a big weekend, as I expect to be threatened with termination when I tell one of my senior managers that I will under no circumstances be in the office on Saturday. I'm past the point of caring.

Drinking

Yup. That's what you do on a night with no major league baseball. Normal junk to resume tomorrow. I will have processed much of the beer I consumed tonight by that point.

All Star Break

Honestly, I only watched the game until it got to be about 5-0, then I started watching Le Tour, then I played PlayStation. Once Colon had pitched, and Vlad had failed to hit, and Anderson had failed to hit, I kind of lost interest. Buy yay American League. Home field advantage if the Angels miraculously reach the world series (let alone the post-season).

So I'm gonna take this time to ask a couple of movie questions that have been bugging me:

1) I was watching Top Gun the other night, which is seemingly always on a cable station somewhere, and there's a part that I've never understood. In their first dogfight at the school, they refer to a hard-deck of 10,000 feet, under which engagement is not allowed (presumably for safety reasons). But first, they seem to be doing a hell of a lot of fighting below 10,000 feet. That's the ocean, folks. And they seemed to be darn near it, or at least near all of those mountains, which are nowhere close to 10,000 feet high. Second, when he does the "put on the breaks" thing, Jester heads straight for the hard-deck, below which they nail him. Isn't heading for the hard-deck cheating by Jester? That dude was a total liar. Tom Skerrit's character says "commander Heatherly lost sight of you and called no joy" (I looked this up). That's bullshit. He knew where he was the whole time. This isn't a game of tag where there's a 'safe' zone. What a dick.

2) I was watching "The Girl Next Door" last night, because, ya know, porn stars, and I had a few issues with the burglary scene. First, while the guy's (James Remar's character) house was nice, it wasn't what I'd expect of someone who was at the top of the porn industry food chain. Second, where did these people live? Obviously somewhere in SoCal, because, ya know, porn industry, but it sure didn't look like the Valley. Third, what kind of major porn king pin is going to be sleeping at home by himself, as in, not surrounded by chicks trying to break into the porn industry? Otherwise, what't the point (besides the money, I mean). And finally, this has nothing to do with the burglary, but are there that many SoCal kids that are that gung ho about going to Georgetown? Not saying it's impossible. Just saying it's unlikely. Maybe during the Patrick Ewing days, when everyone and their brother was wearing Georgetown gear, but whatever.

Anyway, baseball tomorrow.

Weaver wins again

5-4. 3 runs, all earned, on 3 hits, one a home run, in 5 and two thirds. Eight strikeouts to one walk. Brandon Wood is likely still enjoying the all-star experience, but Howie Kendrick had two hits.

Bill Buckner took the loss. All of the runs were earned, so reports of the winning hit going between his legs appear to be erroneous.

Recap.

Hey, it's a day off for me, too

Honestly, it's been a busy weekend and it's carried over into today, so I'm kind of digging a day with no baseball, minus the home run derby.

Caught some of the home run derby. They're better in person. I've been to two, and it's just not as fun on TV. It's also not that fun when none of the Angels are participating. It was pretty cool when GA won in Chicago a couple of years ago. At the actual game itself that year there was a guy in an Expos Guerrero jersey who kept badmouthing Troy Glaus, and you could tell he was doing it a little louder because I was seated so close to him. Granted, Troy was having a down year, but at the time, I kept wanting to ask "how many World Series MVPs does Vlad have." A year later, Vlad was in Anaheim. Expensive weekend for the all-star package, but a lot of fun.

Scary story for David Eckstein this weekend. Apparently he was on the phone with his dad when his dad started experiencing kidney failure, which looks like it runs in his family. Long story short, they got emergency assistance soon after and looks like he'll be back to normal, although he is awaiting a transplant (as he was before this incident).

To the extent that the Angels still have any shot at the playoffs, I'd really like them to play the Cardinals. Mostly, I just want to see the ovation that Eckstein would get from the fans in Anaheim. I think it would be a nice juxtaposition to what I hope would be a loud show of disdain for Jim Edmonds.

No comment

Didn't see one pitch. Played golf instead. Right now, I'd rather do just about anything other than watch this trainwreck of a team.

Fuck this fucking team

Seriously, it's one thing to go into a slump, but they're getting absolutely destroyed by a really crappy team.

I hope I'm wrong, but I'll say it right now. The Angels will not make the playoffs this season.

Your Questions Answered

Anonymous asks:

I need to know exactly what the bean bag tournament is and I was kind of hoping for a recap of how you got to the quarterfinals. Maybe over the all star break since you wont have a game to write about. Oh, and have you listened to British Sea Power at all?

I'm not sure if it's simply a Chicago thing like 16 inch softball and Italian Beef sandwiches, or if it's more of Midwestern thing in general, but I never played bean bag until I got to Chicago. It's basically a variation on horseshoes, or jarts (which was a totally awesome game as long as you didn't get impaled by a jart). You usually play with four people, two teams of two each. Partners stand on opposite ends of the court, or field, or whatever the hell you want to call it. You have four bean bags. You throw them onto an inclined board that's about three feet long and two feet wide with a hole about five inches in diameter near the top/back of the board.

If the bag lands on the board and stays, you get one point. If it goes in the hole, you get three points. There are probably other ways you can score it, but in our tournaments, the teams cancel each other out. In other words, if I get one on and one in, and my opponent gets two in, he/she gets two points (six minus four). You generally play to 11 or 15. At the block party I go to, we try to have guy/girl teams, but there are always more guys than girls, so there ends up being a couple of guy/guy teams. They have to play each other in the early rounds, so you can't get two guy/guy teams in the finals. Last year I was on a guy/guy team, and we had an epic choke in the semi-finals. We were playing to 11, and we had a 10-0 lead. We proceeded to lose 11-10.

This year it was pretty uneventful. A lot of people were out of town, and the weather sucked, so attendance was poorer than usual. My partner and I won our first round game pretty handily. The next round was the quarter-finals, and we got smoked. I think we lost 15-0. We lost to the team that eventually lost the championship to my former law school roommate/current co-employee, and the sister of the guy that invites us (she had home field advantage, as she lives at the house where we were set up for block party). I was disappointed in my performance, but I'm going to blame that on the wet weather. Also, I was drinking more heavily than usual in the early part of the day, so I was buzzing pretty good. And the bags were much heavier than normal. And the boards sucked, too. Given enough time, I can come up with more excuses.

The winners generally are required to spend their winning ($1 per person entry fee) on pitchers at the bar where everyone ends up at the end of the night. I can't comment on this year's winners, as one is underage, and the other bailed before being forced to pony up for beer. I'll try to give him a chance to defend himself.

With regard to BSP, I've listened to the new album maybe once, but it didn't grab me right away. I'll try again. They're a band that I know is in my sort of 'genre' I guess, but for whatever reason, I've just never got around to listening to them. I don't think the first album is available on Rhapsody, so if that's the one I should be listening to, I may be out of luck.

As for the All-Star break, I have something special planned (note to self: plan something special for the all-star break).

Mariners 10; Angels 2

Well, there's not much to say, really. Sometimes you get a game like this. You give up a ton of runs, and you get shut down by what is essentially a pretty crappy team. Baseball's weird that way.

Colon was not good. He got the first two batters of the game, gave up a couple of singles, and then turned back into Nibbler. He was afraid to pitch to Beltre, walked him, and Jeremy Reed made him pay. As it turns out, maybe he was right to be afraid of Beltre, as he would drill a three run double just an inning later, putting the game out of reach for all intents and purposes.

On the bright side, they got a great start on a night where they didn't need it. And Colon didn't waste a great offensive effort. If you're gonna lose, lose big.

Tomorrow night it's a kind of soft throwing lefty against a REALLY soft throwing lefty. Moyer always seems to pitch well against the Angels, but he's been pretty bad this year. If good Washburn shows up, then the Angels should win. Of course, they should have won tonight based on matchups, so who knows. I probably won't have much to say about tomorrow night's game, as it's looking like a date night. Sorry, but you're forewarned. I'll try to make it up to you somehow.

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Angels 7; Twins 6

What a great game. Too bad I was at work for the whole thing, but I snuck peaks here and there.........and there.......and here, and there, and here again. Santana is making me look very foolish for keeping him on the Guzzlers this year, and he's making me look foolish for not accepting the recent trade offer which could have landed me Clement and Carlos Silva. He is making me look smart for not starting him this week, though (we won't get into how Beckett and Dave Williams are making me look stupid this week).

I'll reiterate what I said last night. Kennedy has got to be the gold glove winner at second base. Is anyone else even close? Bengie continues to hit, Vlad continues to be Vlad, and GA.......what can you say about GA? The guy is awesome. For some kid watching the Angels, he's gotta be the Brian Downing of this team. Quiet, goes about his business, and gets the job done. Some great defense in the 9th made what could have been a rough inning a 1-2-3 routine frame.

Lots of things going on today. The Angels were screwed on the play at third where Morneau came off the bag. I missed it and only saw the replay, but Morneau was clearly out, and that cost the Angels two runs. Santana falling apart used to be a rare sight, but as his fantasy owners can tell you, it's becoming more and more common. He refuses to throw his killer change up with men on base. Paul Byrd reverted to his early season form, where he follows up any offense he gets by giving it right back, as he did after the Angels score three runs in the fifth to tie the game. Not to be outdone, Santana responded by giving up singles to Figgins and Vlad before Anderson smoked one to right field, almost the same place where Kennedy hit his home run off of Santana in the 2002 ALCS. Rivera followed with a solo shot of Jesse Crain that supplied the winning margin.

As if that wasn't enough, Anderson made a very good throw, and was helped by a nice play by Jose Molina, to cut down the tying run at the plate in the top of the 8th on the rare 7-2 double play. Turnabout is fair play. The Angels lost game one of this series when Kennedy was thrown out from center trying to score from second on an Erstad frozen rope of a single.

This is a nice win for the Angels. You can't really ever 'expect' to beat Santana, even in a rough stretch like he's currently going through. They start the trip with a series win and have a struggling Seattle coming in for four straight before the break. Win three of those, and the Angels could find themselves with a very healthy lead at the break.

Speaking of healthy, is anybody else dreading the return of Finley and Cabrera? Someone should tell them that the stadium moved, or give them a "revised" schedule with all games starting at 10:00. Let's roll with Maicer at short and Figgins in center. Who's with me?

Angels 2; Twins 1

This is the second time that Santana has struggled early, escaped, and gone on to pitch a pretty decent game. Maybe he's taking instructions from Washburn. One thing it tells me is that the kid has pretty good poise. That's a hell of a lot more than you could ever say for Ramon Ortiz. You have to admire the way he battled.

If Kennedy isn't the favorite to win the gold glove, especially with bat flip among the ranks of the released, there's something wrong. He's even got the offense to go with it this season, or at least a gaudy batting average. Boy, what a play he made in what I think was the fourth. Can't remember. But it was a great play.

It's easy to laugh about these things now, but Bengie Molina, despite the home run, and Maicer Izturis have a lot of explaining to do. Maicer I'll let slide this time, since he's been playing excellent defense, but geez, what an awful drop in the ninth. Bengie, on the other hand, just really sucks behind the plate. I've touched on this before, but he's just gotten lazy. I realize that he took a few foul balls tonight, so I'm not going to harp on it, but seriously. Block the ball, Bengie. You don't need to pick every ball cleanly.

More great work from Shields, although I was sure that Gregg was going to blow it. Nice to see him recover and pitch well. I think Lecroy should have been booted after striking out and arguing vociferously on what was admittedly a pretty bad call. The fact that it was a crappy call didn't keep Kennedy from getting run last night. Of course, running Lecroy would have been just as meaningless as ejecting Kennedy was last night.

Back up by 7.5 after Texas' loss tonight. I would be very comfortable with this lead at the all-star break. I'd be more comfortable if it was bigger. I don't think I'll ever be completely comfortable until all is decided, though.