C.J. Wilson was challenged to get “back on the beam” in this game and he did, for like an inning or two. Wilson was able to make it through 5.2 innings, but he didn’t look particularly sharp. His velocity and stuff looked fine, but he just couldn’t #throwstrikes. It wasn’t even that C.J. got hit hard, he really didn’t save for the Uribe double, but he was constantly behind counts resulting in four walks, a hit batsman and a wild pitch.
So, yes, Wilson was able to remount the beam, but his stay there was a wobbly and short-lived one.
Of course, Wilson isn’t alone in his wobbliness. The Angels offense no-showed yet again. One can only give so much credit to the starting pitching here. Haren and Ryu were good, but the bats just aren’t getting it done right now. They are bound to come around before long, but it sure would be swell if it were in the very near future so that they can make a real push at the AL West title.
Run Expectancy Rundown
David Freese, your only offensive contributor of the night. He and Pujols both doubled for the only two hits of the night for the Halos but Pujols had the indignity of GIDPing in one of the rare times that someone got on base. Josh Hamilton brought up the rear, which is a bit unfair. Everyone was bad, but he had the misfortune to flyout to the warning track the one time the Angels got an actual scoring opportunity.
The Angels almost got through the whole series without getting hurt by Adrian Gonzalez and Hanley Ramirez, but they both got theirs in the finale. It wasn’t really an impressive offensive performance by the Dodgers, but with all the walks and a bunch of weak singles, they just kind of stumbled into seven runs.
Starting Pitcher Scores
Wilson took a baby step forward, but he still has a long walk in front of him. Hyun-jin Ryu was just plain strong. Not dominant, but definitely in control the whole game.
Bullpen Battle
The Dodgers bullpen finally had a rock solid night while the Angels bullpen really faltered. Cory Rasmus got in trouble and the Cam Bedrosian once again confirmed that he just isn’t MLB-ready. He has flashes from batter-to-batter, but they just aren’t frequent enough yet.
Game Flow
Yeah, this was just depressing. Things were fine for the first two innings, but then C.J. fell off the beam. It was literally all downhill from there with the Angels barely even ticking the line upwards at all the rest of the wy.
Halo A-Hole
C.J. does a lot of things outside of baseball, balance beam gymnastics does not appear to be one of them.
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