Game Rewind: First Place is Long Gone – Rangers 8, Angels 1

And just like that the Rangers have knocked the Halos out of first place by knocking the ball out of the park.

Ervin Santana and Rich Thompson took turns throwing meatballs down the middle of the plate to Ranger hitters, especially the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man Andruw Jones who, judging by his waistline, hasn’t seen a meatball he hasn’t liked in a long time.  Honestly?  Three home runs for Andruw Jones?  You have to be kidding me.  Did we travel back in time to 2005 and nobody told me?

Worse than falling out of first place last night is the fact that the Angels are letting the Rangers walk away feeling like a superior team and carrying that confidence into the second half of the season.  The last thing they wanted to do was give an overachieving rival a reason to feel good about themselves, especially one that typically fades after the All-Star break.  From a mental standpoint, the Halos could be really kicking themselves over the way this series turned out by season’s end.

Good News:

• I make fun of Kevin Jepsen a lot, but he really does look good out there lately.  His strikeout of Josh Hamilton was very impressive.  That new cutter/slider pitch of his has the potential to be devastating.

Bad News:

• I knew Vlad was going to be out, but Hunter too?  And then to find out they each underwent MRIs, I’m ready to vomit.  I am just hoping that Hunter got one just because Vlad was getting one and the MRI center was offering a 2-for-1 deal or something.
• Nice to see that Sosh is still lame enough to bench Napoli when two of his other primary sluggers are also out of the line-up.  Sometimes I think he throws out these weak line-ups just to drive me crazy.
• It didn’t take long for the Human Rally Killer to find his old form with Howie Kendrick grounding into an inning ending double play.  In a weird way, I almost kind of missed him.

Halo Anti-Hero:

• Ervin Santana

Remind me again why it is a bad idea to have an ailing pitcher work out his rust and command issues on a minor league rehab assignment instead of getting clobbered in the majors?