Game Rewind: Vlad Stiffs the O’s – Angels 8, Orioles 5

I am going to go ahead and guess that Vladimir Guerrero’s leg isn’t feeling stiff anymore, though David Hernandez and Cla Meredith might have stiff necks after having to whip their head around to watch the two homers Vladdy Daddy cranked off each of them.

Puny Orioles, you can’t stop Vlad.

Little did anyone expect that Vladimir Guerrero, the slugger who was supposed to be heading into the twilight of his career and coming his second disabled list stint of the season, would return to the Halo line-up with such a vengeance.  Super Vlad has now notched his second multi-homer game since being activated 12 games ago and has six dingers, 10 RBIs and a .370 average over that span.  At the rate he is going, I would only be mildly surprised if he found a way to bust 15 more home runs before season’s end to keep his 11 year streak of hitting .300 with 25+ homers alive despite it being a mathematical improbability.

For all of the great offensive performance that the Angels have gotten from their roster this season, the return of Vlad to his peak performance level has to be the single-most important development.  While Kendry Morales is a burgeoning offensive force and Torii Hunter and Juan Rivera enjoying career years, none of them scare the living piss out of opposing pitchers like Vladimir Guerrero.  The rest of the Angel order can all hurt opposing pitchers, but none of them are the type of hitters that opponents strategize around.  In his heyday, teams deliberately worked everyone else in the Angel batting order just so that they didn’t end up in a position where Vlad could deliver the killing blow.  Having a scary monster like that in the middle of your order only makes every other batter that much better.  A frightening thought when you consider how devastating the Angel offense has become already.  As long as Guerrero can stay healthy, there may not be any stopping them now (until the playoffs and Vlad forgets how to hit again).

Good News:

• Ervin Santana wasn’t exactly a world beater tonight, but he was still solid, which is a big improvement for him.  It did take him 116 pitches just to get through six innings, but 73 of those were strikes and he allowed only one walk.  For a guy who has struggled with fastball command, that is a great sign of progress.
• With all the praise the Angel PR staff has been forcing on Kevin Jepsen and Jason Bulger, it seems like everyone has forgotten how good Darren Oliver has been this year.  He had two more shutout innings tonight and has only allowed five runs since June 12th.  Not too shabby for a guy who was just supposed to be a soft-tossing lefty specialist.
• Remember when everyone thought offense would be a problem for the Angels?  Ah, the memories.  With tonight’s win, the Angels have now scored 8+ runs seven times this month alone (15 games total).

Bad News:

• Really, I can only blame myself for Jose Arredondo’s poor outing.  I should have known better than to praise him for two good outings.  He’s barely put together three straight quality appearances all season, including the minors.  He’s going to have to really get hot to convince me he is all fixed now.
• How shaky has Brian Fuentes been lately?  Shaky enough so that my sphincter clinched up a bit when he came into the game with two outs in the ninth inning and a three-run lead.  Of course, I can always make myself feel better by checking out Franky Rodriguez’s recent performance with the Mets (2 blown saves, two losses and 11.05 ERA in August).  Ahhhh, I feel better.

Halo Hero:

• Vladimir Guerrero

Two homers and five RBIs gets Vlad Halo Hero honors