Alright, this whole comeback thing is just getting silly. Doing it to the Royals is one thing but pulling it off against the Twins and super-closer Joe Nathan is a horse of an entirely different color. The Angels had absolutely no business beating the Twins last night. Twice they closed the gap on the Twinkies only to allow them to tack on another run the very next inning. It just didn’t look like it was going to be there night… until the ninth inning.
A seemingly harmless walk to Bobby Abreu started off the ninth. No biggie, happens all the time. Then with one out a fastball got away from Joe Nathan and grazed Mike Napoli. Things were certainly getting interesting, but still nothing too alarming from the Twins perspective. After retiring the red-hot Erick Aybar all Nathan had to do was get out Gary Matthews. At this point I pretty much figured I should just shut off the TV and head to bed, especially after Nathan made Private Matthews look foolish on two consecutive sliders. Fortunately I chose not to go to be and Joe Nathan inexplicably chose to throw Matthews two straight fastballs rather than just finishing him off with a slider. With the count now full Matthews knew the slider was coming and poked it into center to cut the lead to one. As improbable as that was, so was what happened next. Howie Kendrick stepped up and decided to play pinball instead of baseball, bouncing what looked to be the third out back to the mound only the ball ricocheted off Nathan’s glove, caromed off second base and then glanced off Nick Punto’s glove. Base hit. Tie game. Unbelievable.
Winning it in the tenth inning was pretty much a foregone conclusion for the Angels. Even the Twins seemed to sense that it was just inevitable. There just isn’t any stopping the Halos right now (hmmm, sounds like a certain 2002 World Series team I know). No lead is too big to overcome. No closer is too intimidating. No team should even dare stand in the path of the Angel juggernaut.
Good News:
- I thought the Angels were in big trouble after Jered Weaver got touched up for three runs in the first inning, but he really showed some huevos by pretty much shutting down the Twins the rest of the way. With Joe Saunders’s season circling the drain, the Angels didn’t need another starting pitcher to worry about.
- The Halos are finally understanding the virtue of patience. Scott Baker was mowing them down the first four innings, but the Angels just kept grinding the count against him and eventually got to him in the fifth and worked him out of the game.
Bad News:
- Hey, Mike Scioscia, feel free to pitch around Jason Kubel anytime now. That guy is a freaking Angel killer. 10 of his 55 RBIs on the season have come against the Halos, that is just bonkers. Walk, bean him, whatever. Just don’t let him swing the bat.
- Brandon Wood pinch-hitting to lay down a sac bunt, seriously? I know it worked but what a tease. I would have bet money that he was going to hit a game-winning homer when he stepped to the plate. Oh well.
- Really the only thing that didn’t go right was Kendry Morales’s hitting streak coming to an end (which I predicted), even when the Angels bought him an extra at-bat with the extra inning. Oh well.
Halo Hero:
- Mike Napoli
Napoli one-upped himself with the game-winning hit last night after tying the previous game with a two-run homer. Napoli = clutch.