Series Rewind: One Out of Ten Ain’t Bad, It’s Horrible – Angels Lose Series to Red Sox

An Angel series loss to the Red Sox in which one out of ten ain’t bad, it’s absolutely horrible.

Game 1 – Red Sox 6, Angels 0

Game 2 – Red Sox 7, Angels 5

Game 3 – Angels 7, Red Sox 2

Los Angeles Angels of AWESOMENESS

• Congratulations Torii Hunter, you’ve got your very first right field home run robbery.  It wasn’t quite a Spiderman style catch, but it was still mighty impressive.  Not impressive enough to move you back to center though, but hey, it counts.
• Alright everyone, it is officially time to start digging Alberto Callaspo.  He started off slow when he came back to Anaheim, but he seems to be settling in.  If the Angels had won this series, he definitely would have been the Halo Hero with his three-run homer on Wednesday and two clutch RBIs on Thursday.  Add the several spectacular defensive plays he made and it really wouldn’t have even been close.  This is the player the Angels promised us originally, and I definitely like what I am seeing and so should you.
• At least the players only meeting before the final game of the series worked.  Amazingly, they were able to pick up a game on the Rangers by the end of this series, so maybe they need to make these players only meetings a regular thing.  I’m thinking once a week.  They’ll probably run out of things to talk about before long, but maybe they can start doing show-and-tell or something.  Or maybe start up a Madden 11 tournament; that is always fun.
• Well, at least the Angels avoided the season sweep.  Boston definitely seems to have re-established ownership over them, but going 1-and-9 is a much easier pill to swallow than 0-and-10.
• Two homers in the series for Hideki Matsui.  Is he getting hot (finally) or was he just channeling his Boston-killer persona from his days with the Yankees?  I hope it is the former.

Los Angeles Angels of FAIL

• I said before the series that this would be a big test for Scott Kazmir, and I think he passed, but only barely.  Like D-minus type of passing.  His control wasn’t good, he got hit hard, but he at least was challenging hitters and able to limit the damage.  That is a big step up from the passive and scared Kazmir we saw before his DL stint.
• The Halos didn’t suffer a total season sweep by Boston, but they did by John Lackey who beat the Angels in all three of his starts against them.  I’d say more about this, but I’m so frustrated that I can’t stop myself from smashing my forehead into the keyboard. ;bn’skalng ‘nM~!:<R%#T $@#  ‘apskngsr kn5
• Erick Aybar got one day off this series, but I think he might need more.  Frankly, I’m not sure his head is in the game right now.  Not only did he go o-for-the series and leave a small village on base in those at-bats, he also had a very telling error tonight in which he simply dropped the ball on the transfer when fielding a fairly routine grounder.  Focus has always been an issue for Aybar and he might be well served to sit a few days in a row to get his head straight.
• Michael Kohn might need to be sent back down to the minors.  His ERA of 4.15 isn’t that bad, but he isn’t MLB-ready and I’m not sure he is actually all that close.  His command is poor, at best.  I can see that he has great stuff, but that doesn’t count for much when you have no idea where the pitch is going to go.

Halo Hack of the Series

Holy hell, what happened to Kevin Jepsen?!?!  That meltdown on Wednesday was epic.  A wild pitch and a hit batter to force in a run each?  Are you trying to make me kill myself?  That is just too much for any fan to take.  That one inning will forever be Exhibit A in the case for Kevin Jepsen to not ever be promoted to closer.  And then he comes in the next night and uncorks a near wild pitch on his first pitch.  I thought he was about to go Mark Wohlers on us or something.  I’m glad he settled down, but I no longer trust him and he is going to have to do a whole lot to earn that trust back.