This is the guy Arte Moreno envisioned he was signing back in December of 2012. While we can dwell on the too-little-too-late-ness of Josh Hamilton's resurrection from the dead, it's just plain nice to see him hitting the ball with authority again.
With the Angels trailing the A's 4-2 heading into the ninth, Hambone stepped into the box against closer Grant Balfour and launched a game-tying blast into the right-centerfield seats. Two innings later, Hamilton stayed back enough on a Jerry Blevins breaking ball to loft a sacrifice fly into left field, bringing in the go-ahead run.
This game had many great individual plays leading up to Hamilton's heroics. Mike Trout launched his third home run in three games, the first time he's ever done that in his career. J.B. Shuck, terrible defensive outfielder that he is, made two pretty impressive plays to save runs. The bullpen also picked up a sluggish Jason Vargas, combining to shut the Athletics down after the the sixth inning.
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Game Notes
— Josh Hamilton's ninth-inning home run was his fourth this season that either tied or gave his team the lead in the 9th inning or later. The last Halo to do that in a season was Troy Glaus during his epic 2000 season. (Thanks to Jacob Jaffe for this tidbit)
— Mark Trumbo drew two walks. Any time this happens, it's worth a mention.
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Halo Hero of the Game
He's been an absolute bust in 2013, but this particular Angels blogger is rooting hard for him to come back to respectability in 2014. Today's performance is at least encouraging.
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