Series Rewind: Gimme Morales – Angels Take Series from Yankees

An Angel series win over the Yankees in which we want more Morales.

Game 1 – Angels 6, Yankees 4

Game 2 – Yankees 7, Angels 1

Game 3 – Angels 8, Yankees 4

Los Angeles Angels of AWESOMENESS

• If the monkey is ever going to get off Brandon Wood’s back, now is the time.  He finally broke through on Sunday with his first extra-base hit of the season, a key two-run double.  That has to give him some much needed confidence at the plate and will hopefully turn his season around.  If it doesn’t, then the Halos should probably just pull the plug on him because it isn’t going to happen.
• I almost don’t want to mention it because I don’t want to jinx it, but the Angel bullpen pitched 9.2 innings this series and only allowed one run.  In fact, they only allowed three hits and five walks.  Really the only spot of concern was Scot Shields, but even he looked much better in his Sunday appearance.
• Remember that slow start Bobby Abreu was being plagued by?  After going 5-for-11 with two doubles, one homer and two walks, I think we can go ahead and assume that he is back to his old self.
• By the way, this was the first series loss of the season for the Yankees.  Yeah, that’s right New York, the Angels are still your nemesis (ALCS not withstanding).

Los Angeles Angels of FAIL

• The hot topic of the series was, of course, the collision at home plate between Mark Teixeira and Bobby Wilson.  My two cents on it, and I know some Angel players and fans disagree, is that Teixeira plowing Wilson over was a clean play.  He didn’t necessarily have to run over Wilson and might have tried to go around, but it was smarter for him to try and go through him.  Angel fans probably only think it is dirty because Wilson got hurt, but to me, it was just like the play several years ago when Darin Erstad destroyed Johnny Estrada of the Braves at home plate.  Everyone knew it was clean, except Brave homers, because Estrada got hurt.  Nonetheless, this just gives Halo fans another reason to have Tex and I have no problem with that.
• Joel Pineiro dominated the Yankees the other week, but they really had his number this series and that is one of my biggest concerns with Joel, that teams will adjust to his approach after seeing him for the first time.  Pineiro really started to fade in the second half of last season with the Cards and I always believed it had to do with hitters getting familiar with him and his start on Saturday did nothing to allay that concern.
• Speaking of concerns, how does Kazmir allow four earned runs on just three hits?  Oh, right, crappy command, I forgot.  Kaz might have snuck away with a win on Sunday, but his performance was definitely a step backwards for him.
• Can we just agree that the Angels cannot beat Andy Pettitte?  And while we are at it, can we also agree that the Halos should just stop pitching to Robinson Cano as well?

Halo Hero of the Series

C’mon, who else would it be?

How could the Halo Hero of the Series be anyone other than K-Mo?  Kendry was flat-out the man this series, hitting a game-winning homer on Friday and then giving the Angels some breathing room on Sunday with a late three-run blast (although Damaso Marte was out of his mind for grooving him that 3-0 pitch).  Twice Morales went 3-for-3in the series and both of those games were wins.  That isn’t a coincidence and it isn’t a coincidence either that Morales is hitting just as well (if not better?) than he did last season, so all those people that thought he would regress in a big way this year can go ahead an apologize for being so stupid now.