Swept back to .500; Angels 0; Rangers 3

The Angels fell back to .500 and 4.5 games behing the first place Rangers, as the offense came up empty against Scott Feldman and a trio of Texas relievers.

Jered Weaver went the distance, lasting eight innings while giving up three runs, all in his final two innings. His ERA climbed to 2.59. He allowed six hits and walked three, while striking out seven.

On the offensive end, the Angels were ineffective all afternoon. They amassed only five hits, and left runners in scoring position multiple times. Arguably their best chance to score came in the 7th inning. Following a Gary Matthews single, Howie Kendrick launched a fly ball to right center field. Josh Hamilton tracked it down and leapt into the wall the make the catch, saving at least one run.

In the bottom of the seventh, Hank Blalock opened the frame with a double. He advanced to third on a Nelson Cruz single, and scored on David Murphy’s sac fly. It was all the offense the Rangers needed.

Thoughts on the game

• Darren O’Day hasn’t been with the Rangers long, but he lasted an inning and a third, retired all four batters, and struck out two. He might look pretty nice in a bullpen full of guys that can’t get anyone out. Too bad the Angels let him get away.
• Jered Weaver has elevated himself to ace status so far this season. He’s been good enough to win in every start.
• Mike Scioscia probably wished he’d let Weaver go the distance in his last start. Instead, he pulled Weaver with a lead after 98 pitches, and the bullpen coughed it up.

Rangers 5; Angels 7

Cross posted at SoCal Sports Hub.

I was starting to think I was a jinx. The Angels had lost all of the four previous games I've recapped here, and after the first inning last night, it looked like more of the same. But Jon Garland settled down, the bats woke up, and the Angels finished off a 7-5 victory, dropping their magic number to 13.

Garland started the game by finding a lot of bats. He allowed five hits in the first, and four runs, three coming in on Milton Bradley's homer to right center field. Mark Teixeira went deep in the bottom of the third for the Angels first run, but the Rangers pushed the lead back to four on Chris Davis' home run in the top of the fourth. The Angels responded with a run in the sixth inning on Garret Anderson's double (and Nelson Cruz's error), but continued to struggle getting runners home in clutch situations.

That changed in the bottom of the eighth. After singles from Vlad Guerrero and Torii Hunter, Joaquin Benoit proceeded to walk both Garret Anderson and Mike Napoli to cut the lead to two. Brandon Wood, fresh up from Salt Lake, couldn't add to the rally, but Juan Rivera, hitting for Sean Rodriguez, drilled a three run double to deep right center (just missing a grand slam), giving the Angels a one run lead. Two singles later (Figgins and Willits), the Angels had turned a three run deficit into a two run lead.

Francisco Rodriguez entered in the ninth. He opened by striking out Davis before giving up a single to Jared Saltalamacchia. He then hit Brandon Boggs, who quite frankly deserved it for the half hour he took to get to the plate. Frankie induced a double play ball from Michael Young to put the game away, and walked off with is 51st save of the season.

Top three Angels performers:

1) A night after one of his most disappointing games of the season, Torii Hunter delivered three hits, and scored twice. His eighth inning single was one of the keys to the Angels rally in that inning.

2) Juan Rivera's clutch three run double in the eighth was the most important hit of the night for the Angels.

3) I could go with Teixeira, who hit his 8th home run as an Angel, but believe it or not, Jon Garland gets the nod here. After his rough first inning, he lasted seven more, only gave up one run, and stuck around long enough to get the win.

Jeff Weaver of the game:

I hate to be too critical, but Brandon Wood and Sean Rodriguez gave a taste of why the Angels had the league's worst offense in May and June. They combined to go 0-7 with Rodriguez striking out twice.

What to look for tonight:

Ervin Santana brings a string of five straight solid (if unspectacular) starts to the mound against Dustin Nippert, who makes his second start of the season, and the seventh of his career. He comes in with an ERA near 8.00, and gave up seven runs in four innings in his other start last week.

Game time is 7:05 PST on FSN.

Angels Sweep Rangers

Finally a bit of a return to normalcy after the way the Rangers took the Angels apart in the second half of last season. They got a decent start out of Ervin Santana on Monday, who looked like the road version of last year's model in the first inning. From there he settled down and tossed six scoreless innings before turning it over the bullpen.

Yesterday they got a less than adequate start out of Dustin Moseley, who gave up four runs in four innings, and really did himself in with five walks. It was the type of start that normal teams expect out of a fifth starter. The good news for the Angels is that Moseley is their seventh starter. The key for the April Angels is to get this team into May without a lot of damage done so that when Lackey and (God willing) Escobar return, they'll be poised for the mid-season run that puts the division away in late July/early August.

Don't look now, but over the last two days, the bullpen has provided seven innings of earned run free baseball, the only blemish coming when Erick Aybar's throwing error in the eight inning on Monday led somewhat indirectly to Frankie Rodriguez's save opportunity. Speaking of Frankie, two innings, two base runners (both walks), two strikeouts, and two scoreless saves, yesterday's being of the 1-2-3 variety. They actually looked like the real Angels bullpen this series. And don't forget Scot Shields' 1.2 IP, 0 baserunners, 2 Ks performance in the two games. It's no secret that the bullpen is going to be essential to the Angels' success this year, and if they can get the 7-8-9 inning guys going, things may turn out OK.

On the offensive side of things, Chone Figgins picked up three more hits in nine at bats, and saw his average drop 10 points. After two straight games without a free pass, he picked up number 13 in 69 plate appearances yesterday. His ability to get on base (currently a .507 clip) is probably THE reason the Angels have the top scoring offense in the league to this point, well, that and the fact that they've played as many or more games than everyone else. Mike Napoli (four homers) continues to pour on the power when he's in the lineup, and Casey "he'll top out at 20-25 homers" Kotchman also hit his fourth of the season. Maybe the experts are right, but my gut tells me he's got 35 homer power in him. Maybe not this year, but at some point.

Next up will be a contrast in styles as the Angels head home to take on the surprising Royals, who aren't plating many runners (3.5 per game), but are allowing even fewer to cross (just over 3 per). Fortunately they miss Brian Bannister and Zack Grienke, but Gil Meche is better than his ERA shows to this point (though Brett Tomko likely isn't). The Angels counter with Jered Weaver and Jon Garland, who could use a game against a low scoring opponent just about now. Just a quick two game set before another showcase series with Seattle this weekend. It would be nice to see them keep the momentum going.

Angels 7; Rangers 2

This being a day game, I had to sort of watch while "working". Missed Kotch's grand slam, and since most of the fireworks came in that at bat (shout out to Napoli's double as well, and the two run single from Murphy), there wasn't a whole lot left to see on the offensive end.

That's seven safe trips to first base for Kotchman in the last two games. He's establishing himself as a somewhat streaky hitter, which isn't all that surprising for a guy who's only 24. Consistency should come with more experience and at bats.

Little Weav was strong again, pitching through a rain delay, and going seven innings with only 87 pitches, striking out five while allowing eight to reach safely. This was Weaver's 25th start, and maybe that's a good time to make a comparison to his brother. There's another guy out there who likes this comparison a lot, so let's see where we're at.

Jeff: 25 starts, 8-10, 5.23 ERA, 144.2 IP, 101 K, 1.304 WHIP, 22 Homers
Jered: 25 starts, 13-5, 2.79 ERA, 155.1 IP, 135 K, 1.127 WHIP, 18 Homers

If you follow those links, click on the red numbers on the right to get cumulative career stats through that particular game. Granted, the Tigers sucked when Jeff played for them, so pay as little attention to that record as you'd like. And in the interest of full disclosure, Jeff was a year younger (so you could make the case that Jered is MUCH better at this age than his brother), and those starts came over the course of one season, as opposed to two. But the rest of the numbers speak for themselves. Granted, Jeff had great numbers through 14 starts. We're now 11 starts past that, and Jered is still kicking ass, and if you take away his one awful start this year (a true anomaly through his first 25), his numbers get even more impressive.

Additionally, if we dig a little deeper, we find that Jeff was 6-3 with a 2.93 ERA after 14 starts. Jered was 9-2 with a 2.33 ERA. Both look pretty damn good. But one of the main cries of the skeptics has been "wait 'til the league sees Jered twice". Assuming that MLB teams actually have an advanced scouting budget, I'm guessing that most teams are prepared for Jered at this point. So let's see how each fared over his next 11 starts.

Jered: 66.1 IP, 3.26 ERA, 9 HR, 61 K
Jeff: 58.2 IP, 8.59 ERA, 16 HR, 40 K

So at what point do we stop making the "Jeff had a great start, too" argument? 30 starts? 50 starts? I'm serious, I wanna know.

Anyway, the Angels are now 8-11 on the road, which isn't that great, but consider they're 7-4 since that awful start, and they seem to have righted the ship somewhat. Aside from Santana's road woes (nice perspective given by the Chronicler over here), the starters have been fantastic. The bullpen has been spotty, or rather, most of the bullpen has been great, Darren Oliver sucks, and Scot Shields has not been reliable. The offense should get a jolt when Howie Kendrick returns, but all we can do is hope that it's not negated by Garret Anderson's return, which may very well lead to less time for Reggie Willits. Hopefully that's a net positive. And pending the eventual DFA of Shea Hillenbrand, the offense may improve from "terrible" to simply "not very good". With their pitching, that might be enough.

On to Seattle to hopefully open some ground on the M's. The good news? Santana's misses the series and his next start is on friendly ground.

Sheamful

If the Angels lose a game, chances are it has Hillenbrand's fingerprints all over it. Today, he may have homered, but he also left five guys on base, three in scoring position, in his last two at bats.

The guy sucks. Everyone knew he sucked before the Angels signed him, except possibly Bill Stoneman.

His failure to drive in a run in either at bat meant that Scot Shields was pitching the ninth, instead of Frankie, and Shields has more or less been about as reliable as a Trabant this season, and once again, he didn't even give his fielders a chance, serving up a game ending gopher ball to Nelson Cruz. Erick Aybar wasn't any better, going 0-5 and leaving six men on base. The difference, however, between Aybar and Hillenbrand is that Aybar can contribute defensively, and has played to a level that has warranted more playing time. Shea hasn't.

Santana was not good, but he kept his team in the game, though he continuously blew leads. Then again, if you expected Santana, against the Rangers offense, on the road, during the day, to even come close to pitching a good game, you're a moron.

On the plus side, Kotchman and HGHMJ each had three hits, and Napoli is up over .200. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Alfonso Maquez is a fucking idiot, not only screwing up a tag up play (in the Angels' favor), but also booting Carrasco for "throwing at" Ian Kinsler....in a tie game....with no one out....in the seventh inning....with a curve ball. Kinsler, of course, did nothing to move out of the way of the pitch, but that no longer matters to major league umps. Scioscia, for his part, got tossed while telling Marquez he's a fucking idiot.

It's looking like the Royals series. Weaver goes tomorrow, and don't be surprised if the Angels turn a good opportunity into a pile of crap yet again.

Angels 6; Rangers 3

I've been hard on John Lackey for the last couple of seasons because of his seeming refusal to put hitters away when he's ahead in the count. Time after time, he'll be ahead early, and let hitters off the hook, and even if he does get the out, he ends throwing 2-4 more pitches than he should have. Well, not tonight. Tonight he challenged guys, he got ahead, and he put them away. And guess what? He still struck out seven.

The proof is in the pitch count. He threw 95 pitches tonight, working eight and a third innings, and almost 73% of those pitches were strikes. That's efficiency, and that's not only going to allow John to work later into games, but it's going to help him enter his next start with similar sharpness.

Offensively, the Angels benefited greatly from an Ian Kinsler error, which would have started an inning ending double play, and instead allowed two Angels runners to cross the plate. As it was, the Angels still grounded into four double plays, with Kendry accounting for two of those, one on a shot back up the middle which took a fortuitous bounce off of Vicente Padilla right to Michael Young, or else it would have been an RBI single. Kendry was 1-4 and accounted for five outs, but still, he hit the ball hard every time up, which is more than you can say for the man he replaced.

Three straight wins, and just like that, the Angels seem to have turned it around a bit. It falls to big Bart tomorrow. I won't see this one, because a) I'll be playing golf, and b) it's a Fox regional broadcast, so I'd be blacked out anyway. Oh well.