Series Rewind: If You Can’t Say Anything Nice… – Angels Drop Series in Cleveland

An Angel series loss to the Indians in which if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

Game 1 – Indians 4, Angels 3

Game 2 – Angels 7, Indians 0

Game 3 – Indians 3, Angels 0

Los Angeles Angels of AWESOMENESS

• Since it is still optimism week, I am going to refrain from saying anything negative about this series, which won’t be easy considering the outcome of the series.  For example, instead of complaining about Callaspo’s error costing the team the series, I am merely going to express my joy that he was able to prevent another 16-inning marathon with his actions.  Good work, Alberto!
• Scott Kazmir may have taken another loss, but if you remove Shelley Duncan from the equation, he really wasn’t half bad.  Duncan counted for three of the seven hits Kaz allowed as well as all four runs scored.  You’ll get ’em next time, Scott!!
• This one won’t be sarcastic, I swear.  How about that Hank Conger, huh?  He finally got his first start, and one can’t help but be impressed.  Not only did he plate two runs with his first career base hit, but he also was the catcher in the Angels two-hit shutout victory.  Conger’s bat figures to be his best asset as a pro, but much like Mike Napoli, his defensive work is going to determine just how much playing time Scioscia permits him.  I didn’t really get to see much of the game, so I don’t know if Conger was calling a good game by himself or getting a lot of help from the dugout, but a shutout is a shutout and has to get at least some of the credit, enough credit to earn him some more starts in these final weeks (I hope).
• A lot of people are only going to remember from this series that Peter Bourjos struck out without ever taking the bat off his shoulder with one out in the ninth and the tying run on third in the first game.  I, however, will choose to focus on him coming up clutch in his previous at-bat with an RBI triple to bring the Halos within one.  The triple showed that he clearly has some of that magic clutch hitting ability the Angels love.  He is still a rookie though, so we should cut him some slack for his unclutch strikeout.  That is a lesson he learned the hard way, which he did, judging by the pained and shamed expression on his face after that at-bat.
• The starting pitching was pretty good in this series, but don’t overlook the fact that the Angels bullpen didn’t allow a single earned run this series.  It seems like all of these kid relievers are working out extremely well so far and may very well wind up saving the Angels from having to spend several million dollars this winter to overhaul a bullpen that was a true weakness as recently as three months ago.

Los Angeles Angels of FAIL

• This section left empty due to Optimism Week.  Please check in with us again on Sunday when this section will be open for business.  WIDE open.

Halo Hero of the Series

Normally, we don’t have a Halo Hero during a series loss, but, again, Optimism Week.  As such, the award simply has no other choice but to go to Jered Weaver who was simply lights out in his start.  More importantly, he finally got back on the winning side of the equation for the first time since August 6th.  It is probably too little too late for Weaver to make a Cy Young push, but at least he isn’t letting down despite some recent hard luck and the team falling out of the race.