Jered Weaver has rounded back into form as the season has worn on, but tonight, he didn't quite have his sharpest command. The ace surrendered two long home runs to Rays rookie Will Myers, and just didn't seem to ever get his fastball control quite where it needed to be. Still, the pitcher didn't really ever give in and battled the whole night through.
Opposite him, Jeremy Hellickson spun 5 1/3 innings of shutout baseball, keeping the Angel hitters off-balance with a solid fastball/change-up combo. This was a guy who was demoted to Triple-A for a couple weeks to get rested, and it appears the time off helped him a lot. The bullpen behind him finished the job, and the Angels are now looking like they're ready to go into their final tailspin of the season.
It's almost over, folks.
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Game Notes
— Talnted Angels intern Jacob Jaffe tweeted that Mike Trout is the first player in American League history to have a season in which a player reached 36 doubles, 9 triples, 23 home runs, and 31 steals. Pretty specific numbers, but this just further emphasizes just how great an all-around player the kid is.
— Jeremy Hellickson has struggled mightily this season, but just a year ago, he had a 3.10 ERA. While his 4.60 WHIP in 2012 pointed to the possibility of regression (this year), he has by no means been an awful starter. Could the Angels potentially target him as a buy-low, young (he's only 26), controllable rotation piece to slot into the No. 5 slot? I suppose we shall see.
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Halos A-Hole of the Game
Mark Trumbo had another stinker of a game, and left four men on base. He is tonight's A-Hole of the game. Yikes.
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