There has always been one constant when it comes to the Angels. Mike Scioscia is the manager now and for the foreseeable future. He is widely regarded as one of the best managers in the game. Most people believe the Halos would be insane to get rid of him since it would be an inferior replacement coming in. However, this season has highlighted a few flaws in that thinking. Scioscia's game decisions have been suspect over the first month of the season and tonight showed that there might be some real traction to the "change is coming" arguement. Time will tell if Mike can right the ship and get this team to the playoffs.
Game Notes
— Joe Blanton was pitching with his usual flair for the dramatic when it came time to pull him. Afte working out of jam after jam through six innings and getting the Angels to a tie ball game, Scioscia decided to bring him out to start the seventh. Blanton had not thrown this many pitches all season and, despite the score, had been hit pretty hard. After two leadoff hits, Blanton exited and one batter later the winning run came across. It's easy to second guess the move but it seems the right call would have been to have Michael Roth enter in a lower stress situation without those runners on base. This is the error in Mike's thinking. He doesn't have a reliable bullpen of vets, he has a bunch of not quite game ready kids. He needs to be smarter.
— One more note on Blanton. He seems to be exactly what you would expect from a fifth starter. He goes six innngs, gives up a ton of hits and generally keeps you in the game. Unfortunately, he's the Angels' #3 not the #5. Might want to fix that JeDi.
— The reality is this is a game the Angels probably should lose. Felix Hernandez was dealing and when that happens teams don't usually beat him. This is what makes tomorrow all the more important. It is not a good thing to lose 3 of 4 to a team like the M's. The offense has to start clicking regularly if the Angels are going to get back into this race.
Halo A Hole
As much as I want to blams Scioscia for this, it's so much easier to pin it on Joey. Do you realize he has yet to work a clean inning this season? How is that even possible? Even bad pitchers run into a 1,2,3 inning every once and awhile. But not our Joe. He likes to make sure the opponent gets every chance to score. Keep it up Joe, you are making sure Major League Baseball has it's own offensive renaissance.
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