Thumbs UP & Thumbs DOWN (Red Sox Series)

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By Jeff Flinn – AngelsWin.com Contributor
Thumbs Up
* Not a whole lot of good news came out of this four game series, as would be the case when swept and outscored 20-5 and shut out in games 3 and 4.
* Chatwood gave the Halos another solid start, pitching 6 innings and battled through some bad calls by the homeplate umpire all night long.
* The defense was solid, except for one hiccup each by Hunter and Bourjos in Friday night’s game, misjudging a FB.
* Bourjos continues to have some success at the plate, and still has an .849 OPS. He also had two bunt hits in the 4 games. Eventually, 3B are going to play him tighter, and he can then line them over the 3B’s head or ground them by them.
* Aybar had some hitting success in the series, going 6-16 with just 2 Ks.
* Walden had another scoreless inning on Thursday night.
* Palmer settled down after a bad 1st inning, and pitched into the 6th inning today.
Thumbs down
Where to start?
* Let’s start with the Halos lineups, which if not for Hunter’s 2 run homer on Thursday night would have seen Red Sox starters throw 30 scoreless innings in this series. Other than Bourjos and Aybar, no one hit with ANY consistency in the series.
* Trumbo is definitely scuffling now. He’s swinging at most of the down and away breaking pitches and letting strikes go by. This is where having a terrible bench hurts. He needs to sit, but who can play 1B and hit?
* This has to be as bad of an April as Abreu has ever had (just 4 XBHs in 75 at bats and hitting just .240). 
*  The less said about Hatcher the better!
* Aybar may want to look at his 3B coach in the future, instead of looking back at the ball TWICE when rounding 2B. That might have cost the Halos the game on Thursday night.
* Santana again was up and down. He struck out 9 on Saturday night, but also allowed some hard hit balls (3 doubles and a HR). He had better stuff than in his previous start, but still needs to find some consistency.
* Izturis hurts his hamstring for about the millionth time, or so it seems. This guy will never stay healthy enough to get 500 at bats in a season.
* As much as Willits has worked to make it up here, he just doesn’t have the same skill set that he had back in 2007. Is his time here coming to a close soon?
* Losing 13 out of the past 14 games to that despised Red Sox franchise leaves me feeling something akin to FURIOUS!
* Was Thursday night’s home plate ump on the Red Sox payroll? Eleven walks for the Red Sox and two walks for the Halos? Really? Really? Really?
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