Weekend Rewind: Third Times a Charm – Angels Take 2 of 3

The third time was a charm for the Angels in Charm City (by the way, has a town ever had such a mismatched nickname as Baltimore aka Charm City?  That place is a stinking hole of a town).  Just when I thought I had seen everything in baseball, the Angels twice had the bases loaded in extra innings Sunday only to hit into inning ending double plays without scoring a run.  That they could then load the bases a third time and finally cash in (and for nine runs at that, talk about venting your frustrations) to win the ballgame tells you a lot about how relentless the Angel line-up is (not to mention how bad the Baltimore bullpen is).

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

While the weekend ended on a high note, there were a lot of bad notes leading up to it, starting with Friday’s debacle.  Just when everyone was starting to feel good about the Angels’ starting pitching on the heels of Ervin Santana’s shutout, Jered Weaver had to go and have a total meltdown on Friday night.  It is like freaking whack-a-mole with the Angel pitchers.  Just when one guy gets fixed, another one pops up with all sorts of troubles.  Weaver got absolutely shellacked to the tune of eight runs in 3.1 innings while also helping Felix Pie hit for the cycle in the process.  Scioscia can’t be feeling good about Weave now that his command issues have resurfaced, but maybe he can get straight again real fast.

Fortunately, John Lackey stepped up and stopped the bleeding on Saturday with a fine performance, giving up just one run over seven innings.  Only the bleeding started all over again on Sunday when Sean O’Sullivan turned in yet another ugly start, failing to get out of the fifth inning, making it official that Lackey is now the only useful starting pitcher right now.

Of course it wasn’t all bad for O’Sullivan as he avoided the loss thanks to another impressive showing by the Angel offense which got an extra four innings to show just how impressive they are thanks to Kevin Jepsen and Brian Fuentes being unable to protect a late two-run lead.  All in all, the Angels have to be glad to survive the weekend winning two of three, but with so much going wrong with their pitching in the process, there will definitely be some concerned faces in the LAA front office during Monday’s series finale.

Good News:

• You know Vlad is back when he is golfing pitches that bounce a foot in front of the plate for base hits.  Let’s not go making a habit of that, but that is definitely something the old Vlad would do.
• In his first game back, Torii Hunter delivers with the game-winning hit.  Not too shabby, though it is interesting that Scioscia was more than happy to plug Vlad back into the line-up at the cleanup spot with out any rehab starts yet Torii spent three games rehabbing and had to hit sixth in his return from the DL.
• Jose Arredondo looked very sharp in his two relief appearances this weekend.  He might just be the most important guy for the Angel bullpen the next several weeks as he could really give them some nice middle relief depth if he can recapture his 2008 form.
• Of course, Dondo won’t get many hold opportunities if Jason Bulger continues to pitch like he did Sunday.  Dude struck out five batters of the six batters he faced in extra innings to pick up his sixth win.

Bad News:

• A stiff leg for Vlad?  Is this just some kind of bad joke with him and all his injuries?  You have to hope that this is just a precautionary move after he got plunked by a pitch in that leg on Saturday night.
• Thanks for coming out Shane Loux.  Loux, who has been categorically awful since being recalled in July, got tagged for seven runs in just 1.2 innings of work Friday and might very well have signed his own death warrant.  By all rights, his 40-man roster spot should be in grave danger right now, but having just two weeks until rosters expand might buy him a stay of execution for a little while.

Halo Hero of the Weekend:

• John Lackey

The Angels really needed that pick-me-up that Big John gave them on Saturday after the Friday night fiasco.  The rest of the pitching staff might be in shambles, but at least they have one ace they can count on down the stretch.