The Angels have tacked on another win to an ever growing streak that looks more and more like an unstoppable force at the wins continue to pile on. I've been saying this team has the potential to go on a 15 win streak and get in the playoff race in a matter of weeks, not months like everyone has been speculating. Everything is clicking with this team, as it should be. The pitching isn't a complete disaster as it was in the past month and the offense is finally putting up the important runs in tight situations.
This series has shown that this team is capable of putting up early runs while the pitching can keep the lead in the teams hands. Most importantly, this game has shown that the team is capable of putting runs late in the game without letting the opposing pitching put them out of the game. The biggest problem with this team was their inability to mentally keep themselves in the game long enough to put something together.
Now that they've been streaking hard I think it's apparent the Angels mental problems have put far behind them.
Game Notes
–Even though the Angels fell behind early on due to some questionable fielding Jerome Williams was able to keep the damage under control long enough for the offense to battle back and eventually take the lead they would hold onto to win the game. Williams allowed only 2 runs across 6 innings and it very well may have been more had the bullpen not been able to come in and shut it down immediately. A horrifically blown call at 1B on a Trumbo putout gave the Royals the chance to play the game on their terms again, but a terrific job by the bullpen kept them out of it. Even though the defense was terrible today the pitching was able to keep everything under control, whereas in the first month of the season the defense absolutely killed the pitching. Good showing by the team to show they can keep it together in tough spots.
— While the offense seemed terribly overmatched by Wade Davis early on a 7th innings leadoff bomb by Josh Hamilton quickly put the Angels back into the game. After Davis allowed a couple base runners he was pulled for Bruce Chen, who was hilarious pulled after allowed 2 runs on 2 hits on just 2 pitches. Two clutch hits by J.B Shuck (who had a monster 3-4 2 RBI game) and Erick Aybar put the Angels on top where they would stay the remainder of the game.
— I feel that I should take a little time to go over how horrible the officiating was not only this game, but this entire series. Multiple blown calls across the series seemed to put a lot of pressure on the umpires, specifically home plate umpire Marty Foster who multiple times felt the need to rip off his mask and yell into each dugout a few times throughout the game. It was just ridiculously unprofessional to see something like that, moreso the fact that he was practically yelling at the top of his lungs. He was going at the Billy Butler, and later Mike Scioscia, so hard that you could clearly hear what he was yelling through the broadcast. It seems as if the bad officiating is reaching a peak this season, I can't remember any other season in recent memory that placed so much attention on how badly the officiating has been throughout the league. I'm sure at this point MLB is going to have to make a move to ensure the umpires can be held in check. One can only hope…
Halo Hero
A huge game by Shuck not only kept the Angels in the game, but put them ahead in the 7th inning. Shuck made a fantastic game saving catch on a leap to barely nab a ball over his head while he later followed that up with the go ahead RBI that gave the Angels the win. It's great to see him hunker down strong until Bourjos come back, especially since so many expected him to be dead weight throughout Bourjos DL stint. Here's to hoping for more games like this from Shuck.
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