Wednesday, September 13, 2006
4.5
The Angels, somehow, pulled out another come-from-behind win last night, shortening the A's' lead in the west to four-and-a-half games.
It was a bit of an arduous journey; for the second straight night, our starting pitcher had a pretty good game, which just seemed a little bit less good because all three runs allowed came in one inning. But John Lackey and Ervin Santana have combined for a 3.60 ERA over the past two days, which isn't mind-bogglingly spectacular, but gets the job done.
The game almost got out of hand with Frankie Rodriguez on the mound in the ninth; after an odd walk of Paul Konerko (The K threw him a 3-0 slider, as though he wanted no part of him, thinking Paulie might be sitting on a fastball, I guess), K-Rod got AJ Pierzynski to line the ball to right. The ball was hard-hit, but all Vlad had to do was take three or four steps back and catch it -- with the pinch runner on first in motion, an inning-ending double play seemed inevitable.
But instead of taking three or four steps back Vlad took two or three, and when the dust settled runners stood on first and third with one out.
It looked like K-Rod's scoreless inning streak might come to an end, through little fault of his own, but he induced the strikeout and the groundout to get out of it, and the Lads were still in the game.
The other big moment came in the bottom of the eleventh; when Howie Kendrick hit a slow chopper to short with men on first and second and one out, it looked like another double play might derail an Angel rally. But Adam Kennedy slid into second like a house afire and Howie busted his tail down the line, assuring that the ChiSox could only pull one out out of the play, and setting up Legs Figgins for the game-winning hit in the subsequent at-bat.
I don't know if you've noticed this, but AK has been doing pretty decently of late. He was hitting 254/310/352 at the end of play on August 24; since then he's hit 356/453/556 in 45 at-bats. Now, three of the six walks he's received have been intentional, and it helps that 39 of those 45 at-bats have been against right-handed pitchers, but that's still getting it done down the stretch, and hopefully he can keep it up.
We're the hottest team in baseball over the last ten games, and we'll need to maintain that. I'd like to see us pick up one more game before taking on the A's in the last week plus of the season. There's no real analysis left -- our guys just have to go out there and win ballgames.
The Angels, somehow, pulled out another come-from-behind win last night, shortening the A's' lead in the west to four-and-a-half games.
It was a bit of an arduous journey; for the second straight night, our starting pitcher had a pretty good game, which just seemed a little bit less good because all three runs allowed came in one inning. But John Lackey and Ervin Santana have combined for a 3.60 ERA over the past two days, which isn't mind-bogglingly spectacular, but gets the job done.
The game almost got out of hand with Frankie Rodriguez on the mound in the ninth; after an odd walk of Paul Konerko (The K threw him a 3-0 slider, as though he wanted no part of him, thinking Paulie might be sitting on a fastball, I guess), K-Rod got AJ Pierzynski to line the ball to right. The ball was hard-hit, but all Vlad had to do was take three or four steps back and catch it -- with the pinch runner on first in motion, an inning-ending double play seemed inevitable.
But instead of taking three or four steps back Vlad took two or three, and when the dust settled runners stood on first and third with one out.
It looked like K-Rod's scoreless inning streak might come to an end, through little fault of his own, but he induced the strikeout and the groundout to get out of it, and the Lads were still in the game.
The other big moment came in the bottom of the eleventh; when Howie Kendrick hit a slow chopper to short with men on first and second and one out, it looked like another double play might derail an Angel rally. But Adam Kennedy slid into second like a house afire and Howie busted his tail down the line, assuring that the ChiSox could only pull one out out of the play, and setting up Legs Figgins for the game-winning hit in the subsequent at-bat.
I don't know if you've noticed this, but AK has been doing pretty decently of late. He was hitting 254/310/352 at the end of play on August 24; since then he's hit 356/453/556 in 45 at-bats. Now, three of the six walks he's received have been intentional, and it helps that 39 of those 45 at-bats have been against right-handed pitchers, but that's still getting it done down the stretch, and hopefully he can keep it up.
We're the hottest team in baseball over the last ten games, and we'll need to maintain that. I'd like to see us pick up one more game before taking on the A's in the last week plus of the season. There's no real analysis left -- our guys just have to go out there and win ballgames.
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