Results tagged ‘ Juan Rivera ’
Guerrero, Morales Power Halos to Victory, 8-7
For any fan out there that isn’t a fan of good starting pitching, this game was definitely for you. Rays starter Matt Garza didn’t make it out of the 4th inning and Angels starter Sean O’sullivan didn’t fare much better, not making it out of the 5th. Despite the ineffectiveness of each team’s starting pitching though, this was quite an entertaining game.
Vladimir Guerrero reached a milestone on Monday night.
In a great example of baseball irony, Vlad hit his 400th career home run off of the right field foul pole. Earlier in the game he hit #399 off of an umbrella next to the center field cameraman. Kendry Morales kept pace, hitting 2 dingers of his own as well to help the Angels battle back from an early deficit, only to keep watching the Rays battle back to tie things up. Three separate times the Rays fought back to tie when the Angels had taken the lead the previous inning. However though, the Rays didn’t have one last comeback in their system, and the when the dust had finally settled, the Halos came away victorious, winning game 1 of this series 8-7.
Brian Fuentes came in to slam the door shut, retiring the Rays in order to record his 32nd save of the season. The save didn’t come easy, as Juan Rivera robbed Ben Zobrist of a game tying home run, near the short fence on the left field foul line, for the final out. A huge relief outing was turned in by Kevin Jepsen, who threw 2 innings of scoreless relief. Jepsen has been very effective of late, which was a big difference from how he was earlier in the year.
With both the Angels and the Rays having hopes this year of making the playoffs, this game exposed both of each team’s achilles heal. Starting pitching. Plain and simple, both teams need to solve this problem before the playoffs are reached.
Rays shortstop Jason Bartlett came within a single of being the second major leaguer on the day to hit for the cycle, as Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki had done so earlier in the evening.
The Rangers had the day off, so the Angels lead is now at 4 games. Game 2 tomorrow will see young Ray lefty phenom David Price take on the Angels Ervin Santana. Each starter hasn’t been pitching up to their talent, it will be very interesting to see how each will do. Both teams used their bullpens heavily tonight, it would be nice to see Ervin go at least 7 innings.
Until next time Angel fans.
Angels Trounce Twins 11-6
The Angels, simply put, beat the cream filled stuffing out of the Twinkies, scoring 11 runs for the second time in as many nights in Minnesota, beating the Twins 11-6. In fact, a performance this hot on a Saturday night was heard to make John Travolta jealous. Ok, all jokes aside, the Angels crushed Twins pitching all night long like Stevie Wonder. Ok seriously, all jokes aside, the Angels offense is scary. Scary, because they’re not only coming at you with batters 1-9 in the lineup, but scary because they’re doing this without two of the biggest mashers they have, as Torii Hunter and Vladimir Guerrero both continue to heal from injuries.
Where do we start? Well, I’m sure Mike Scioscia and staff are breathing a little easier after Joe Saunders tossed 6 innings, only allowing 4 runs on 9 hits. Not that this is a strong start by any means, but we need to acknoweldge progress when it’s made, even if it is measured in baby steps. Saunders recovered after 2 rough innings much like Ervin Santana did the night before, to win for the first time in over a month, his 9th win of the season. The game was in question going into the 6th inning with the Angels up 6-4, but the Halos offense blasted the game wide open, keyed by 3 home runs in the inning. The first of the three was courtesy of Maicer Izturis, a 3 run blow, and then Juan Rivera and Kendry Morales went back to back, giving the team a nice 7 run cushion that the Twins couldn’t recover from. And no, Twins fans, tonight wasn’t a case of dejavu’. Also amongst the offensive contributors were Gary Matthews Jr. and Mike Napoli who each had 3 hits in the attack. Napoli now has 7 hits in the first two games of the series. Sean Rodriguez, making his first career start in left field, had two hits and scored twice as well.
Tomorrow, the Halos go for the sweep as Jered Weaver takes on Glen Perkins. Weaver went a solid 7 innings in his last start against the Twins, back on July 23rd, and didn’t figure in the decision. The Rangers finally lost a game, to Seattle 7-2 and now trail the Angles by 4 games in the AL West. Also, the Halos now own the best record in the American League, at 62-40. It’s amazing that for much of the first half of the season, the Angels hovered right around the .500 mark, and due to their torrid play of late, claim the top spot in the league.
Until next time Angel fans
Indians Relentless in Attack, Defeat Halos
On this Monday night, not even John Wayne himself could have been much help against these Indians. Simply put, the Tribe was on the war path. The Angels held them as best they could, at bay for eight innings. The ninth inning though, was when the Indians broke through the Angel lines, scalping Brian Fuentes for four runs before an out was recorded, keyed by back to back home runs by Victor Marinez, (a three run shot), and Jhonny Peralta, (a solo shot) to knock Fuentes out of the game, and the Indians enjoying a 8-6 lead after entering the ninth down 6-4.. With how great Fuentes had been lately, you had to figure he was due for a bad night. Once the dust had settled, the Tribe had collected 20 hits, with four apiece coming from Shin-Soo Choo and Jhonny Peralta. Every single Indians starter had at least one hit. And, all of this came as Indians first baseman Ryan Garko was traded just before the game to the San Francisco Giants. Yeah, it was one of those nights. Let me re-cap for you, how the night started, as initially the Angels looked like they would hang on for the victory.
With his last start before the July 31st trade deadline, Joe Saunders showed the Angels something. He showed them, that they need to go out and get a starting pitcher of some sort because he, along with Ervin Santana, comprise 40% of the Angels starting rotation, and right now, neither of them can be trusted to go out and get the job done. That’s a big potential land mine for a club looking to keep the Rangers, who really are closer than they appear, out of sight in their rear view mirror. How Saunders didn’t give up more than 4 runs in his 5 innings of work (if that’s what you want to call it) is beyond me. Justin Speier, Darren Oliver and Kevin Jepsen all managed to throw scoreless relief, wiggling out of jams of their own, and Brian Fuentes, well, we already covered that.
Speaking of the offense, Juan Rivera came back to the lineup in the DH role, after missing the previous 8 games with a hamstring injury. Rivera didn’t show any signs of rust, hitting a home run in his first plate appearance in the 2nd inning, and was promptly followed by Kendry Morales and Mike Napoli who hit solo home runs of their own,as the threesome went back to back to back, giving the Angels a 3-2 lead. Morales added another solo home run off Indians starter Carl Pavano in the 6th, giving him a club leading 20 for the year. Despite the showing of power, the better offensive team was clearly the Indians, as they battered Angel pitching all night long. In fact, the Tribe did a pretty good Angel impersonation of their own, as this formula has been the blueprint for many Angel victories during their recent hot streak.
Kerry Wood came into the ninth to slam the door on the Halos and pick up the save, as the Indians held onto an 8-6 victory. The Rangers on the other hand, beat the Tigers, meaning the Angel lead is now sitting at 2.5 games. It’s somewhat hard to believe, that after the club’s recent play, that the Rangers are still hanging around. These Rangers are doing their best to show they’re not typical of past Rangers teams, who usually would fade out of contention along with the summer heat.
So, where do we go from here Angel fans? I think it’s pretty apparent that the club needs to take a pretty serious look at getting some sort of reliable starting pitching to help down the stretch. The only names we’ve been hearing that are on the market have been Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and ex-Halo Jarrod Washburn. If anything, the recent hot play by the club has only been masking their true needs. Perhaps, this game will allow the front office to see the club for what it truly is, and in the playoffs, it all starts with strong starting pitching.
In Game 2 of this series, the Halos hope to cool down the streaking Indians who have won a season high 5 games in a row as Indians lefty David Huff takes on Jered Weaver. Weaver will be searching for his 11th win of the season.
Until next time Angel fans.
Streak Ends as Twins Thump Angels in Finale
They say all good things come to an end. And in the Angels case, it meant the end to their 8 game winning streak as they dropped the final game of a four game series to the visiting Minnesota Twins Sunday afternoon, 10-1. The Twins leave town, still licking their wounds from a brutal road trip, but managing to take with them some dignity in avoiding the four game sweep at the hands of the red hot Halos.
Angels starting pitcher Ervin Santana again disappointed, lasting only 3 2/3 inning to pick up the loss. It should be noted, that Santana has yet to pick up a victory this year at the Big A, a place where he has normally pitched very well. Santana surrendered a first inning home run to Twins slugger Justin Morneau, the first of two for him on the day, and from there, things only got worse. An Angel lineup filled with supersubs who have done nothing but overacheive in the absence of starters Torii Hunter, Vladimir Guerrero and Juan Rivera, helped make Twins starter Anthony Swarzak look like the best thing since sliced bread, as the big right hander went 6 2/3 innings to pick up his 3rd win of the season. There was definitely an attitude amongst the Angel fans that the Halos, who have 32 comeback wins this year, would somehow get themselves back into the game as has been the case for nearly the past month, but that comeback never came. Besides a solo home run by Kendre Morales in the 4th inning, the Angels, for the most part, went down faster than a North Korean Missile.
Combine the Angels loss with a Rangers victory over the Royals, and the Angels lead over Texas now sits at 3.5 games. The Halos next welcome in the Cleveland Indians, who have been heating up of late, winners of four in a row, but are still sitting 12 games back in the AL Central. The Indians have been involved in many trade deadline rumors involving last year’s Cy Young Winner Cliff Lee, and catcher/first baseman Victor Martinez. Game One of this series will see disabled list All Star and Yankee extortioner Carl Pavano take on Joe Saunders. Saunders, who hasn’t won in over a month will undoubtedly be looking to regain last year’s form as the Angels and Indians hook up for the first time this year.
Until next time Angel fans.
Hunter and Guerrero placed on DL
The Angels announced today that both Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter were placed on the disabled list, effective until July 22nd. So, what exactly does this mean? No, don’t hit the panic button just yet, (trust me, I thought about it) but these next couple of weeks are going to be huge for the club, obviously. Brought up to replace them on the team were Brandon Wood and Bobby Wilson. For Mike Scioscia, he’s got some decisions to make. Will he move Chone Figgins to second, and give Brandon Wood some solid time at third? Or will he pull a Sean Rodriguez with him? If you remember, Sean Rodriguez only got a handful of starts after he was called up for Howie Kendrick. If Wood can catch fly balls, why not throw him in left or right field? With the call up of Bobby Wilson, you would tend to believe that Mike Napoli is going to see some time at DH.
The time is now for several Angels. Gary Matthews Jr., will get the playing time he has been lobbying for since last year. Howie Kendrick will be counted on to help pick up the slack on offense. Also, Juan Rivera and Kendre Morales will be depended on to keep producing along with Bobby Abreu.
This next couple of weeks can very easily mean the division. We’ll have to wait and see.
Until next time Angel fans.
Christmas in July Courtesy of the Halos
In case anyone missed it, apparently the powers that be reorganized the typical calendar and swapped Christmas 25th, with July 8th, as Angel pitching was lit up like a Christmas tree, and gifts were be given to nearly every Ranger hitter. Let me mention this before I forget, the Rangers walloped the Angels 8-1. The Angels pitching was in such the giving mood, that they gift wrapped three home runs to Andruw Jones, and one each for Marlon Byrd and some guy named Taylor Teagarden. Try to bear with me Angel fans, I didn’t really just make up that name, there really is a guy on the Rangers named Taylor Teagarden.. it’s not the newest brand of tea being sold at stores across the southland. I will try to get through this as nicely as I can for you, much like the Angels pitchers strategy Wednesday night - nice and easy.
Ervin Santana, again, struggled mightily. The right hander entered the game with a fabulous 1-4 record and an ERA of 7.43 – which only got worse after his start. After going four uninspired innings, giving up seven hits and six runs, (3 home runs) the ball was handed over to Rich Thompson who fared no better, allowing two home runs of his own in 1 1/3 innings. Kevin Jepson and Matt Palmer apparently were the only Angels pitchers who don’t celebrate Christmas, delivered solid relief.
The Halos were already in a bind going into the game, missing Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter who both sat out with injuries. It remains to be seen the severity of Hunter’s, but it more than likely will cause the leader of the team to miss the All-Star game and possibly more time. Gary Matthews, who is always quick to say he deserves more playing time, again, didn’t come through when needed. Gary, perhaps next time you want to cry about playing time, you’ll look at your anemic average and overall play and figure it out. Oh Juan Rivera, how you will be counted on heavily until he’s back.
Also, while I’m at it, I think the “vote Figgy” campaign is officially over (as I write this, Rex Hudler, among others, is still campaigning for Figgins), and wonder how much of this talk distracted the club in what was the most important series of the season. The Rangers continued to dominate, improving their mark to 7-2 this year again the Halos. This year’s Angels also are struggling agains the rest of the AL West this year – a part of their game they have excelled at in seasons past.
So, Angel fans, here come the Yanks. Here comes Mark “insert your very own expletive here!” Teixeira, and the rest of the newly competetive Yankees. I truly hope the Angels show up for this series, as they should be embarassed over how easily the Rangers walked over them in this last one. Going into the All-Star break, a series win would be a great momentum builder heading into the second half. Joe Saunders will take the hill against over-hyped Joba Chamberlain in the first game. Saunders has been mediocre at best lately, and a solid start will do well to quell some fears amongst the Angels faithful as we head into the second half. As for me, I’m going to go drink a few beers – I hope you’ll join me.
Until next time Angel fans.
Angels and Weaver Return Favor, Dump Rangers
This time, (as best put by Sasha Baren-Cohen in his famous movie, Borat) he get this. This, as in revenge against a Texas Ranger team that put him through his worst outing of the season last start out, in which the Rangers beat up Weaver and the Angels, 9-7. This time however, Weaver pitched seven solid innings, giving up three earned runs while fanning nine to earn his ninth win of the season, and, spoiled the return of Ranger’s Slugger Josh Hamilton, who had missed nearly 5 weeks with an abdominal injury. Even allowing two runs in the first wasn’t too much of a problem for Weaver and the Halos, as they demonstrated for the third game in a row, that being down early is no reason to hit the panic button. In fact, it’s quickly becoming a calling card for this first place club.
After spotting the Rangers 2 runs, Jeff Mathis, in the bottom of the second, put the Angels up for good, hitting a three-run home run off the Ace of the Rangers staff, Kevin Millwood, who, unbeknownst to him, was embarking on a titanic of a start, which would be his worst start of the year, and tie a career high with nine earned runs allowed in 5 innings of work. Mathis’ home run came on yet another fastball from Millwood, his sixth in a row that he threw him, and was neatly deposited near the rock pile in left center field. Chone Figgins, always the table setter, walked in three consecutive plate appearances, which Torii Hunter, Vladimir Guerrero, Juan Rivera and Kendre Morales were all too eager to cash in for runs. In the end, clutch hitting by the teeth of the Angels order (the Angels 3-5 hitters went a combined 7-12 with 5 RBI’s) proved to be the Rangers downfall, and was just what the Angels and Weaver needed to start this all too important series which now sees the Angels in sole posession of first place.
What was once the achilles heel for the Angels this year, it’s bullpen - turned in another scoreless relief outing, with Justin Speier and Kevin Jepsen each throwing an inning of shutout baseball.
Tomorrow’s game pits big John Lackey against little known Dustin Nippert, who will make his first start of the season. You can be sure that revenge will be on the mind of Lackey, as his first start of the season was cut short against these Rangers back on May 18th, after only 2 pitches. Pay special attention to his matchups against Ian Kinsler, who snapped an 0-24 streak with a seventh inning home run on Monday.
Until next time Angel Fans
In Dramatic Fashion, Angels give one away to Rangers
Let’s be honest Angel fans, the halos not only lost their 2nd straight to the Rangers, but they practically gave this one to Texas on a silver platter. Granted, Hank Blalock’s walk off home run was what won the game, but four huge baserunning blunders by the Angels set Hank up for his mighty shot.
Juan Rivera, despite hitting his most clutch home run in his big league career of Frank Francisco (who hasn’t seen anything fly so fast out of the park since he threw a chair at a fan in Oakland years ago) in the 9th to tie things up, only to have their heart’s broken moments later, was involved in two of these all by himself. And when you thought the worst was over on the basepaths with those, we then witnessed Vlad Guerrero decide to try to steal second while the Angels were trying to get something brewing, in the top of the 7th, only to be thrown out while Torii Hunter was on 3rd. This was followed by Chone Figgins leading off the ninth and trying to stretch a double into a triple only to change his mind halfway in between 2nd and 3rd, resulting in the first out of the inning.
Jerrod Weaver looked like the solid Jerrod Weaver we’ve seen all year long, but over the course of the next two innings, he did his best big brother impersonation, finally being taken out to Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” (just like Joe Saunders the night before) lasting 5 1/3 innings, and yielding 7 runs on 8 hits. Kevin Jepson and his soon to be demoted to AAA 12.34 ERA then came in, allowing 2 more hits before the last out was mercifully made. Matt Palmer provided two innings of solid relief, only to hand the ball to another of the bullpen regulars, Justin Speier, who put the final touches on this Angels Masterpiece. Despite the baserunning blunders, something has got to be done with the bullpen. It seems as if every lead is as safe as a bulldog under Michael Vick’s care – and how much longer this is going to be tolerated is anyone’s guess, but hopefully not too much longer.
Furthermore, Angel fans, the halos are 1-5 vs Texas and 10-14 against the AL West so far this year – typcially something, much like their bullpen work, they are much better at. Let’s see if Vlad can keep up the hot hitting away from Texas, as the Angels come back home to open a huge 10 game homestand against Baltimore, Texas, and the hated Yanks. John Lackey will get things started, taking the ball in game one tomorrow night.
Until next time Angel fans.
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