Congratulations to Jered Weaver, who reached a career high 17 victories yesterday, and also to Mark Trumbo for notching his 27th homer of the year. That’s just 4 away from tying up Salmon’s illustrious rookie record he set with the Angels during his RotY campaign. But who cares about tying records? I want to see records broken, and with 13 games left for the Angels Mark Trumbo’s time is quickly running short. 5 home runs in 13 games? Not impossible, in fact, if Trumbo were able to do it he would effectively seal the ROtY award for himself. Plus, a huge power trip like that would work nothing but wonders for the Angels playoffs chances, but when you couple that with Howie Wowies incredible power surge you have a recipe for disaster. At least for the Rangers.
With the Angels creeping closer and closer to the final series of the season against Texas trailing 3 games they’ve set themselves up for a dramatic AL West showdown. The thing is, if the Angels stay 3 games back or even hit 2 games back they would have to sweep Texas to win the division or send it to a one game playoff. The Angels get to face Texas in Anaheim, a concept which comes across as a very sharp double edged sword. The Angels get homefield advantage, which is huge for our pitchers who thrive in the pitcher friendly confines of Anaheim. There’s also the fact that Texas could very well clinch the division on our own home turf, which would be extremely embarassing and frustrating for the Angels organization and fans, yet poetic justice for the Rangers, who saw the Angels clinch the division in Texas back in ’09. All that I ask for the Angels is to either enter the final series at least 1 GB if not in first place, or let the Rangers clinch the division before they show up in Anaheim.
Game Notes
- Mark Trumbo notched his 27th homerun yesterday, a new career high. He also stole his 9th base of the season, which is also a career high for him. How funny that he happens to set all these great career highs in his, get this, very first full season in the majors. That’s what a real slugger does for you, Texas, take some notes. I noticed something funny on Trumbo’s home run yesterday, it came on an 1-2 count. I did some researched and noticed that 10 of Trumbo’s home runs came on 2 strike counts, meaning that there’s a solid 37% chance that he’ll hit a home run on a 2 strike count. That’s some clutch power we have in the 5 hole, I haven’t seen anyone display as clutch power as Mark Trumbo this entire season. Torii Hunter’s done some great things with his bat lately, but not as long or as consistently as Trumbo has been doing all season.
- Weaver pitched yet another fantastic game yesterday, even though he clearly wasn’t on top of his game. That might come off as a little insulting, but when you’re off your game and you can still throw like Weaver threw yesterday it shows how truly “ace” you are as a pitcher. That being said, Weaver went 7 innings last night, giving up only 1 run which came off Willingham’s 26th knock of the year. His control wasn’t spot on as usual, striking out only 1 while walking 2, but it was enough to get the Angels out of Oakland still on their feet. Hopefully the upcoming series against Baltimore can go much smoother than this series.
Halo Hero
I wanted to put Weaver as today’s hero, but all my instincts told me Trumbo is the real champion of yesterday’s game. I’ve put up so many pictures of Trumbo in this section this season, at this point I’m just trying to find as obscure a picture of him as possible. It doesn’t get any better then rookie cards of a future All-Star 1st baseman.