Winning three of four games in a road series is exactly the doctor ordered for the struggling Angels… well, almost. Though the Angels were able to take advantage of the inept Royals to get themselves off the schneid, the Angels still can’t seem to figure out why they can’t score anymore.
This whole run scoring thing is still proving difficult for the Halos.
Twice the Angels had to pull off comeback wins from that oh-so-intimidating 1-0 deficit that Kansas City kept jumping out to. Amazingly, this actually proved rather difficult at times for the Angel bats who needed a minor bullpen meltdown on Friday to score their two runs, on just three hits all freaking night, and then couldn’t close out their comeback on Saturday until the 11th inning. At least on Saturday they had the excuse of facing impending Cy Young winner Zack Greinke.
Their seven-run outburst in Sunday wins seemed like a sign that the Angels bats had finally broken through, but that wasn’t to be the case. Once again the Angels offense failed them on Monday in the series finale, scoring just three runs thanks to hitting into three double plays. Granted, the Angels were probably too busy making bone-headed errors in the field to focus on performing well at the plate and finish off the season sweep of the Royals. Oh well, nine out of ten ain’t bad.
Mike Scioscia certainly has to be pleased to have his team get back to their winning ways and increase their divisional lead, but there definitely must be some concern that their once powerful line-up is stuck in a brownout that they just can’t shake.
Well, at least they still know where home plate is. I was starting to get worried.
Angelic Accomplishments:
- John Lackey looks ready for the playoffs to me. He stepped up his game in his start versus Zack Greinke to give the Halos a chance at winning, just like he’ll need to do in the post-season.
- Joe Saunders snapped the quality start streak and looked a bit shaky, scattering ten hits over 5.1 innings with just two strikeouts, but at least he had the mental resiliency to fight through a start where his stuff wasn’t up to snuff. There is no way in hell that he is going to earn a post-season start, but at least he is pitching well enough to not be a liability in the divisional race.
- Hooray! Jason Bulger is back! The Angels bullpen needs that additional depth badly, especially since it doesn’t look like Jose Arredondo is ever going to be trustworthy this year.
Devilish Details:
- Ack! Bad Ervin Santana was back on Monday. He reverted back to his lousy mid-season form in his start after he made that bone-headed error in the first inning and rattled himself permanently.
- A lot of good giving those days off to Juan Rivera are doing. He came dangerously close to going hitless on the series and certainly isn’t doing anything to stop the Angels hitting woes.
- Can someone please remind Kendry Morales that he is really slow? He got caught stealing third on Friday and then foolishly tried to advance on a flyball on Monday only to get gunned down at third base again. No, Kendry! Bad, Kendry!
Halo Hero of the Weekend:
- Erick Aybar
Aybar won the game for the Halos on Saturday and made so many spectacular defensive plays in the entire series that I lost count.
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