I have almost run out of words to describe just how bad this defeat was. The offense was non-exsistent, the defense was suspect and the pitching was mediocre. Oh yeah, and I actually sat through the whole thing on a live chat (supporting our fearless leader Garrett) with a bunch of Red Sox fans. What a way to spend a Saturday Night!!
Two flipping hits. That’s it. That is all the Halos could put up on Daisuke Matsuzaka and Daniel Bard, and neither of them got out of the infield. I know I ranted about the offense a lot the last two days, but this was by far one of the worst performances I have seen from a collection of talented athletes in a long time. The batters struck out a total of 11 times and advanced a runner to second base only once. The lone threat in the game came in the second inning when they managed a single and a walk before Vernon Wells flew out to end the “threat”. Throw in a less than stellar pitching performance by Ervin Santana and some shaky defense at the outset of the game, and suddenly the Angels need to beat John Lackey, who will be on a mission to crush his old team’s spirit, to salvage one game in this series.
Game Notes
— Where is the energy? The Angels have looked flatter than a stack of IHOP dollar sized pancackes for the past three games. Usually, the blood gets pumping when Boston hits town but the whole team looked disinterested. Maybe with all the new kids on the block playing, the venom for the team that continually crushes Halo playoff dreams isn’t there anymore. Maybe this humiliation will spark them to play with a little more passion tomorrow.
— Bobby Abreu should not play the outfield under any circumstances. He misplayed two balls that led to runs and just didn’t have he footspeed to make plays subbing for Torii Hunter. Abreu is in the twilight of his career and should really just get his four hacks a game as a DH and be content with that.
— How to describe Santana’s outing? He went seven innings and struck out nine, but gave up nine hits and gets the loss. Santana was around the plate all night and outside of the Youkilis homer really didn’t get in much trouble. But on a night when the Angels needed a command performance, his work was a bit lacking.
Halo A Hole
Who do single out on a night when the entire offense was epically bad. Mark Trumbo, Hank Conger and Reggie Willits all had two strikeouts and 0-3 nights. Torii Hunter and Vernon Wells both left three men on base in the 0 for the night. Did I mention the team struck out 11 times!! So the whole offense gets the A hole award. Just a horrible, horrible night. I will now down four valium, a ffth of vodka and hope the erase the game from my memory.