Series Rewind: Angels Lose Slug Fest of Series to Brewers

An Angel series loss to the Brewers in which a home run derby broke out and the Angels came up short.

Game 1 – Brewers 12, Angels 2

Game 2 – Brewers 7, Angels 1

Game 3 – Angels 5, Brewers 1

Los Angeles Angels of AWESOMENESS

• Attrition caused Brandon Wood to make a surprise return to the lineup, and yes, I consider that a good thing even though I tend to give Wood a lot of crap.  Let’s face it Kevin Frandsen is a nice player, but he isn’t good enough to start for a contender, and Maicer Izturis, as we found out today, just can’t handle the physical rigors of playing on an everyday basis.  So getting Wood back in the mix gives the Angels more options as well as another potentially powerful bat to fill the void left by Kendry Morales.  I don’t even have a problem with Wood playing shortstop for a little while either.  He actually seems pretty capable there, though he is far from a Gold Glover.
• I guess it is just feast or famine for Joel Pineiro, eh?  He has been either terrible or outstanding the last few weeks and mercifully chose to be outstanding Wednesday to help the Halos avoid a sweep.  But even in all of his sinkerball glory, he could not avoid giving up a long ball to the homer happy Brewers.
• Congratulations to Bobby Wilson on his first MLB home run.  Enjoy it my friend, especially since it might be quite a while before you get another start.

Los Angeles Angels of FAIL

• Homers just killed the Angels in this series.  They only gave up four total, but they were genuinely backbreaking whenever they occurred.  The Braun grand slam opened the flood gates on Saunders, the McGehee homer (via a Torii Hunter assist) was just plain demoralizing and the Fielder homer off Santana go the game off on a really bad note for the Angels.  The Halos have power too, and it helped them win their one game this series, but they just don’t have the kind of pop necessary to try and outslug a team like the Brewers.
• Speaking of Torii Hunter’s home run robbing FAIL, that hurt on a deep personal level.  Seeing Hunter turn a potential out into a home run rather than the other way around nearly blew my mind, and judging by Torii’s reaction, it did blow his.  That whole sequence was tantamount to witnessing Superman get shot but then actually start bleeding.  It just shouldn’t happen.  It, it’s just unnatural.
• I talked about this in the links after it happened, but it needs to be discussed.  I definitely was not happy Aybar got hurt on takeout slide by McGehee, but I think it was just a hard play and nothing more.  If it was a close game at the time, I doubt it would have even been a controversy and even then you can’t fault the baserunner.  When you play a sport everyday, a lot of your actions are based off instinct and you just can’t shut it off sometimes.  McGehee just naturally knows to slide hard to break up the double play and isn’t going to be able to turn that part of his brain off just because his team has a cushy lead.  Nonetheless, it never would have been an issue at all if Frandsen had just made a better throw to Aybar to begin with and not hung him out to dry like that.
• Trevor Bell might want to double check his plane ticket before the Angels leave on their road trip to Chicago tomorrow.  I think there is going to be a pretty good chance that his ticket is actually booked on a different flight that make one stop and one stop only, Salt Lake City.
• Just a piss poor effort from Ervin Santana.  The Angels really could have used a good bounce back effort on Tuesday, but when the starting pitcher comes out and surrenders six runs in the first two innings, it just sucks all the life out of the position players.  Maybe it was just me, but Ervin didn’t look like he was focused and ready to pitch at the start of the game, and that is just a shame considering what a roll he had been on of late.
• If you told me at the beginning of the season that there would be a game this year where Mike Napoli would bat second and play first base, I’d have checked myself into a sanitarium.  I know he has a good eye, but why not bump Abreu to the two-hole?  Hitting at the top of the order it about getting on base, true, but it is also about good situational hitting and Naps is pretty bad in that area, which is a big reason Scioscia has always been hesitant to move him any higher than seventh in the order.  That was definitely a puzzling move for Sosh and I will be curious to see if he does it again, even though Napoli had a good game.

Angel A-Hole of the Series

I’d hang my head too if I were you, Saundo.

Ervin Santana was probably worse overall, but Joe Saunders turned in a brutal effort as well in his start.  The one thing the Angels didn’t want to do was lose all that momentum that they had built up on their stellar road trip that just ended and Saunders comes out and lays a total egg.  He competed hard and all that good stuff, but he coughed up a two-run lead and set the Angels up for an ass whooping that the Brewers were happy to deliver.  Now the Halos need to take a step or two back and try and get all that mojo going again.  Thanks for nothing, Joe.