Series Rewind: A Royal Letdown – KC Takes Two of Three From Halos

An Angel series loss to the Royals in which the Angels suffered a royal letdown and some minor embarrassment.

Game 1 – Royals 2, Angels 1

Game 2 – Royals 4, Angels 2

Game 3 – Angels 11, Royals 0

Los Angeles Angels of AWESOMENESS

• At least Torii Hunter took this bed crapping of a series personally.  His two-homer, 7-RBI explosion on Sunday was tremendous and hopefully will spark the Halo offense again.  Or maybe Torii was just ecstatic to hear that he made the All-Star team again.  Either way, he better keep it up since he pretty much has to carry the offense since Abreu and Matsui have both gone in the tank recently.
• Their efforts may have gone to waste, but Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana both looked great in their starts.  If they can both (and Joel Pineiro who also was fantastic but actually had the good fortune to get some run support) keep pitching like that, the bullpen issues may not be a problem for the Angels since they would be used to minimally.
• Don’t look now, but Erick Aybar has a seven-game hitting streak going and he has collected two hits in six of those games.  If the middle of the order could just catch fire again, the Angel offense could really catch fire with Aybar setting the table for them like this.

Los Angeles Angels of FAIL

• Screw you, Brian Fuentes.  I finally start to warm up to you a little and then you go and blow a save to the freaking Royals.  I know that you inherited one of the runners, but you just have to do better than that.  If you can’t slam the door against the likes of Mike Aviles, then maybe the Angels just need to admit you aren’t really a closer, something many of us concluded months ago.
• I joked before the series about how it would stink for the Angels if after getting clubbed by Vladimir Guerrero they would get beat up on by former Angel (and current asshole) Jose Guillen.  Sure enough, Guillen delivered a big hit two break up the dueling shutouts on Saturday, essentially winning the game for KC.  What I didn’t count on was that former Angel prospect Alberto Callasapo would also get in on the revenge angle by robbing Howie Kendrick of what should have been a walk-off RBI single.  I really hope the Halos don’t have to face anymore former players for a little while.
• This series was very close to being ultra embarrassing, but ended up being just moderately embarrassing.  How the hell do you nearly let Bruce “Journeyman” Chen throw a perfect game against you?  This is a guy who Victor Rojas seriously said (and this is a whole other rant that he would actually say this, “maybe after playing for ten teams he has finally figured it out.”  That quote may not be exact, but it was very close.  The point is that Chen probably shouldn’t even be in the majors but still dominated the Halos.  This is the exact kind of effort I warned about before the series when I cautioned against a letdown by the Angels and they most definitely turned in a letdown performance.
• Can we please trade for some god damned bullpen help already?  Jepsen and Rodney have been worked so hard this first half of the season that Mike Scioscia actually deigned to turn to Scot Shields to try and keep the game tied in extra innings.  I’m not sure Shields has any business pitching in the big leagues anymore but I am sure that he has no business pitching in such high leverage situations.  Paging Tony Reagins.  Get on the horn and get AT LEAST one more quality reliever to add to the pen and do it now.
• You know your team is struggling on offense when you have to call up Paul McAnulty and Corey Aldridge to provide a boost.  Of course, that probably wouldn’t be necessary if somebody would remind Hideki Matsui that he is supposed to be a big game hero and not a guy who ends consecutive games by striking out to end the game, foiling comeback attempts.

Angel A-Hole of the Series

This one is on you, Sosh.  Try and do better next time.

I hate to take a leak on the steps of Mount Olympus, but Mike Scioscia pretty much had his head up his ass this series.  Problem number one, the aforementioned use of Scot Shields in the tenth inning of Friday’s game.  I get not wanting to burn out Jepsen or Rodney, but Jepsen was fresh as he hadn’t pitched the previous two days.  Why did he not get the call first?  What are you saving him for?  Problem number two, which is also related to bullpen distrust, is letting Santana pitch the ninth inning on Saturday.  He had just gotten roughed up in the eighth and was clearly running out of gas, yet he got to start the ninth inning, only to allow two quick base hits.  That just didn’t make any sense at all.  The only thing that made less sense was bringing in Francisco Rodriguez to try and save the day and keep the game close even though Rodriguez hasn’t pitched well in weeks.  He ended up allowing two more runs to score which proved rather fateful as the Halos wound up losing by two.  Oops.  My final complaint is the decision on Friday to pitch around David DeJesus to get to Willie Bloomquist.  On paper, this is absolutely the right move.  However, am I the only one that remembers that Bloomquist has always been an Angel killer?!?!  I remember this guy inexplicably torturing the Halos back when he was with Seattle, but I must be alone in that memory.