Not so fast Angel fans, it turns out this team has some work left to do after all, better postpone the championship parade. Not all is fixed with the Halos just yet.
Those pesky boys in blue came to town and had to go and bust up the party. That seven-game winning streak that had everyone so excited… busted. Jered Weaver’s evolution to ace-hood… busted, and by his older brother no less. The hot Halo bats… busted. And worst of all, the Angels opportunity to show the hotshot Dodger dorks who the real baseball boss of SoCal was also busted.
The weekend started off so promising with the Angel offense finding the Rally Monkey magic once again and toppling the Dodgers and their ace Chad Billingsley, capped off by a solo shot by burgeoning cult hero Juan Rivera. Yep, Los Angeles was there for the Angels’ taking, poised to be painted red…
…but by the end of the weekend it was the Halos who ended up feeling blue.
That epic (term epic used incredibly loosely) showdown between the brothers Weaver seemed like a mortal lock for the Halos to win seeing how baby bro Jered was the rising Cy Young contender and big bro Jeff was just glad to be getting a paycheck. Instead, Jeff collected his big brother tax on Jered and out-dueled his younger sibling and snap the Angels winning streak. All that was missing was Jeff adminsiterin a post-game noogie and purple nurple to Jered. On the bright-side, the Weaver parents did unveil some great new jerseys for all the LA baseball fans who just can’t make up their mind on which bandwagon to jump on later this season.
Then it all came crashing down on Sunday night. Those clutch-hitting Angels that were so unstoppable just a week ago completely disappeared and were replaced by their punchless predecessors. Clayton Kershaw kept pitching himself into trouble only to have that oh-so reliable Angel “situational hitting” bail him out by swinging at bad pitches. The end result, another Halo loss and a season series split with the Dodgers.
Good News:
- Maybe I am just drinking the Halo Kool-Aid, but seeing Vladimir Guerrero make a straight steal of second is a real positive sign that he might eventually come around. If he’s feeling healthy enough to run again, the power can’t be far behind right? Right? Anyone? Bueller?
- For once the Angels’ failings weren’t the result of shoddy relief work as the Halo relievers gave up just one earned run over seven innings of work this weekend.
Bad News:
- The Angels gagged away an opportunity to steal first place in the AL West from the Rangers. All they had to do was remember not to ground into double plays with the bases loaded on Sunday, but clearly Bobby Abreu did not get the memo.
- When did the Angel pitchers catch gopheritis? Not only did the Halos get victimized by the long ball, they let themselves get touched up by otherwise powerless hitters. Rafael Furcal cranked just his third homer of the season, Russell Martin hit his first dinger of the year and James Loney homered twice despite having just two home runs on the season coming into the series. If your going to give up homers, at least give them up to someone respectable.
- Erick Aybar is about to start giving new life to the Free Brandon Wood campaign, going 0-for-the series, striking out four times and leaving nine runners on base.