Wooohooooo, I actually happen to be a pretty smart guy. Not only did I predict a Zito beatdown, but I also called for it to get the ball rolling on some strong offensive production for the Angels. A lot of things when right tonight; the small ball, the long ball, the starting pitching; and speaking of the starting pitching wasn’t it awesome to see fresh off the DL Jered Weaver dominate the Giants for his 7th win of the season.
Yup, it was just another one of those nights.
Jered Weaver came into tonight’s game after having not made a start since May 28th, and he came away with 6 hits of 2 hit shutout ball. It’s not a surprise to see his K-BB ratio a little off (3K’s-2BB’s), and he could have gone much deeper if it weren’t for the tight pitch count he was put on tonight. It’s comforting to know that in these kind of situations the Angels have a bullpen that they can rely heavily on, a much different change of pace of the past two seasons. Izzy, Downs, and Walden came in to a minor pressure spot, with the team up by 3 and the starting pitcher out in the 6th, though strong performances by these relievers and a offensive burst that gave them an extra 3 runs to work with made their jobs much easier tonight.
About that offense, you might not have realized it but Aybar has raised his average to .245 after hovering around .210 for the majority of the season. Another 2 hits including a clutch RBI may give the indication that he’s breaking out of his slump, but we’re all aware of how ridiculously streaky Aybar can be so it’ll take at least a month of consistent hitting to give way to the indication that he’ll be playing up to his contract. Speaking of streaky hitters needing to live up to their new contract, Kendrick had another big multi-hit game after going through a horrid month that left him with zero extra base hits. He’s currently turned it up with another 2 double game, the last one coming on the 16th against the D’backs, though he still has a long way to go seeing as how he’s only recorded 4 extra base hits in the month of June, though he’s been racking up some consistent base hits. After going to first quarter of the season with their new contracts hanging over their pathetically bad performances it seems like they might be easing up and getting back into the game of baseball. About 2 months behind the other hitters.
Oh yeah, and Trout had two more hits after his 4-4 games last night in addition to Trumbo and Morales back to back jacks. Trumbo now has 17 HR’s on the year which makes you think he’s going to easily surpass his team leading 29 HR’s last season, and eclipse 100 RBI’s with little effort, especially with Trout hitting a few spots in front of him. Trumbo and Trout have been the more consistent hitters on the Angels this season, and even though Kendrys has been wishy-washy so far he’s been showing flashes of his 2009 season prior to his devestatingly sudden ankle injury. Tonight was another flashback to that season, although his ability to hit for average is still far behind what he’s capable of the power is still there, although a little erratic. With his 8th HR of the year he could surpass 20 with consistent hitting, maybe even 25 if he turns it up a notch.
Halo Hero
Not even the DL can stop Weaver as he’s shown tonight, but then again not even ANYTHING can get in the way of Weaver and total domination. It was great to see the team carry on without Weaver, but it’s even better to see them dominate with him back on the mound once again.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
