Series Rewind: Shutting Out the Naysayers – Angels Sweep Athletics

An Angel series sweep over the Athletics in which they shutout out the naysayers.

Game 1 – Angels 4, Athletics 0

Game 2 – Angels 12, Athletics 3

Game 3 – Angels 4, Athletics 0

Los Angeles Angels of AWESOMENESS

• Nothing makes a fan feel better than seeing your team sweep a division rival while allowing just three runs.  And with the Rangers getting swept up in Toronto this weekend as well, the Angels are once again back within striking distance of the AL West lead.  Pretty much everything that could have gone right this series did for the Halos and I think there is a very good chance that we will look back at this weekend at the end of the year and say this is when things really turned around for the Halos.
• I like this new look line-up for the Angels, mostly because I have suggesting it for nearly a month.  Putting Howie in the two-hole gives them a little more of an action guy at the top of the order, breaking up all the pitch-taking fun of Aybar and Abreu and pushing some run producers down a bit to maybe give the line-up a little more depth.  Honestly, this line-up is going to look great, especially when Izturis returns from the DL and puts Brandon Wood out of his misery.
• Godzilla is alive!  He hit his first homer in 19 games on Friday and then added a double on Saturday.  Wow I knew it had been awhile since Hideki went deep, but didn’t realize it was that long ago.  Nonetheless, it is good to see Matsui showing some signs of life at last.  The Angels definitely need him to start knocking in runs again and provide some protection for Kendry Morales.
• Not that K-Mo needed the protection, at least not on Saturday night.  Morales had a huge night, going deep twice and driving in five runs.  He is now in the top five in the AL in both stats again and I am sure all the “experts” who were certain he was going to regress this season are going to be double-checking the math in their projections to figure out where they went wrong.
• Loved that Joe Saunders got the ol’ shaving cream pie in the face in the post-game interview.  It may seem inconsequential and juvenile, but what it tells me is that this team is loose and having a good time out there despite their struggles, not letting their slump get them down and tense.  If they can maintain that positive attitude and putting those positive vibes out there, eventually things are going to turn around and be good for them again.  I’m pretty sure I just unwittingly described The Secret there and I am not sure that is a good thing.  Mixing Oprah and sports is like mixing pickles and ice cream, it doesn’t make much sense to anyone except hormonal pregnant ladies.
• It took nearly a month but Joel Pineiro FINALLY got his third win of the season.  Poor Joel has actually been rather good for the Angels this season but has been the victim of both poor run support and some shoddy relief work.  I have to admit, I wasn’t a huge fan of his signing at the time, but everytime he takes the mound I feel like the Angels are definitely going to have a good shot at winning the game.  Hopefully he won’t need to twirl another complete game shutout in order to get his next win (though I am not going to complain if he does).

Angels of FAIL

• There really isn’t anything to complain about this series.  Heck, the bullpen didn’t even give up a run (not that they had a chance to pitch very much).  But I feel like I have to pick one thing and that is Erick Aybar.  While it seemed like every other batter in the line-up was making contributions and starting to heat up, Aybar managed to reach base just once in twelve plate appearances.  This new look line-up or any other line-up isn’t going to work unless he figures out how to get himself going again.

Halo Hero of the Series

I don’t know what you did with the real Saunders, but you can stay as long as you like.

Who was that pitcher throwing for the Angels on Friday night?  He looked a lot like Joe Saunders, except this guy was actually good, like, really good.  I know Joe Saunders used to be able to pitch like that but he hasn’t done so in quite some time.  Whoever he is, I hope that he sticks around for awhile because the Angels definitely need him.  In all seriousness, Saunders was absolutely lights out in his complete game shutout Friday night.  This wasn’t one of those shutouts where Saundo got lucky and escaped a few jams along the way, Oakland never even really threatened as they never got more than one baserunner on at a time.  Really, only Rosales and Donaldson had any kind of clue of how to solve him and Joe made Gabe Gross look like an absolute chump.  Big ups to Joe, hopefully this is the beginning of him turning his season around.