Series Rewind: No Relief – Angels Drop Two of Three to Athletics

An Angel series loss in which the Halos got no relief from the bullpen as they looked to end their skid.

Game 1 – Athletics 10, Angels 4

Game 2 – Angels 4, Athletics 3

Game 3 – Athletics 9, Angels 4

Los Angeles Angels of AWESOMENESS

• Hideki Matsui certainly earned himself a few fans with his heroics on Saturday.  That is the kind of clutch performance at the plate that the Angels have needed in post-seasons past.  They just need to actually start winning some games so that they can actually make the playoffs again.
• Power isn’t looking like a problem for the Halos after this series.  Abreu, Matsui and Rivera (twice) all went deep this weekend and the team had 12 extra-base hits total.  It is actually kind of puzzling that they only managed to score a combined 12 runs in the series.
• At least Jered Weaver is starting to hold up his end of the bargain.  His starts are the only ones that the Angels have won thus far and Weaver was certainly impressive in his performance Saturday, even though the bullpen ended up costing him the win.  His ascent to ace status is definitely on track.
• Joe Saunders took the loss on Sunday and allowed four runs in six innings of work, but he definitely looked much better than his line suggests.  He cruised through those first six innings before tiring in the seventh.  By all rights he still should have ended up with a solid stat line and probably a win for the game had Kevin Jepsen just done his job (are we noticing a trend here?).

Los Angeles Angels of FAIL

• Oh, Brandon Wood.  You are just killing me.  Not only did you take the collar in both of your starts, but your throwing error Sunday allowed the A’s to crack the game wide open.  You are making it very difficult to keep supporting you, but I am going to do my best.
• While it might be Wood drawing the ire of fans thus far, Kendry Morales is just as guilty of underperforming early on.  K-Mo had a rough, rough series.  He did collect two hits and an RBI, but he also stranded several players on base and was generally a non-factor the entire series.  He might be the one hitter the Angels most definitely need to get going if they ever hope to score more than four runs in a game.
• It just seems like whenever things go bad for the Angels, everything goes bad, including their normally reliable defense.  The last thing the leaky pitching staff needs is a shoddy defense backing them up.
• OK, it has officially been a full week of listening to Victor Rojas, but I still can’t get used to it.  I am so unaccustomed to hearing his voice that I often find myself thinking that I am listening to the opposing team’s broadcaster on MLB Extra Innings by mistake.  Don’t take that as a knock on Victor, it just goes to show how difficult an announcing change can be.
• Where the hell did Mike Scioscia go?  The Angels attempted just one steal the entire series, and it failed.  The Mike Scioscia I know would have been sending baserunners every chance he got in order to try and jumpstart the offense, not reverting to station-to-station ball.  I am just so confused.
• Is it too early to declare Matt Palmer’s 2009 season a total fluke?  I think we all kind of knew it was, but he really removed all doubt with his piss poor effort on Friday.  I still think that he can be a useful reliever, but next time the Halos need a spot starter, maybe they should dip into the minors instead.

Angel A-Hole of the Series

Are you sure that knee is feeling OK, Scot?

The entire bullpen could have gotten this but one guy had to be singled out and for this series it is Scot Shields who blew a save on Saturday night and then came back on Sunday to erase any hopes of the Halos making a comeback after Kevin Jepsen blew a save of his own.  I never thought anyone would make me pine for an appearance by Brian Fuentes, yet that is exactly what Shields accomplished with his weekend train wreck.