Pretty fancy shmancy game by the Halo’s today. Trumbo bounced back from his horrible 4 strikeout game yesterday with two big blasts, funny timing with those homeruns as Robinson Cano was recently named AL home run derby captain. Trumbo is the kind of guy to make statements about his playing ability, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see him playing himself into not only the Home Run Derby, but the All-Star team as a reserve most likely.
Oh, and that Garrett Richards kid ain’t too bad himself, if he keeps this up I wouldn’t be surprised to see him wrestle Santana’s rotation spot away. Let’s be real, with Santana performing so poorly in a walk year the Angels don’t really have much to lose with pushing him to a bullpen spot or even one of Scioscia’s special extended DL trips.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, one start is just one start after all. Nothing to get too crazy about.
Then again….pretty much anything could be better than Santana.
Game Recap
- Garrett Richards is a big boy now! He finally graduated to the adult pants with his first MLB win today, though I would much rather see him in Ervin Santana’s pants. He’s going to prove over time that he’s much better fit for the rotation as a fifth starter than Santana is as a fourth, as good of a fit as me and obliviously made innuendos. Again, I know it was just one start, but in this one start Richards went 7 deep (something Santana hasn’t done in the last 4 starts), walked only two while striking out 8 and giving up only 1 homerun and 1 earned run (something that I don’t need to tell you Santana hasn’t done in a while). The fifth spot in the rotation is always best ultilized to developing a young starter, in this case it would be incredibly beneficial to do this for Richards while bumping Williams to number four in the rotation, a spot he is more than deserving of. I wouldn’t mind seeing Scioscia run with this rotation for a week or two experimentally, and deep down inside I know you wouldn’t either.
- I already mentioned back there how Trumbo hit two homeruns in tonight’s game, but I figured I might as well mention it twice…for obvious reasons.
- Sweet baby Jesus, Conger got his first start of the season today and recorded his first hit! Thank god we didn’t have to watch that one drag itself out for some time. Now if only he can start getting some real quality major league hits so I can roll the King Conger tag out again.
- The only thing that came close to touching Mark Trumbo’s 4 hit, 2 homerun, 4 RBI game was Torii Hunters follow up blast to Trumbo’s first shot in the 2nd inning to make it the first back to back homer games for the Angels in over a year. When Torii Hunter slumps he slumps hard, but when he’s hot he’s the best hitter on this team next to Trumbo and Pujols. It’s all just a matter of how many slumps he gets dragged into this season and how long he lets them drag him down. Right now he’s having trouble staying ot of slumps, but as the season progresses they’ll begin to become less frequent.
Notable offensive performances: M.Trout 0-3 1BB, M.Izturis 1-4 1R 1K, A.Pujols 2-4 2R 1RBI 1K, K.Morales 1-4 1K, M.Trumbo 4-4 1R 4RBIs, T.Hunter 1-4 1R 1RBI, A.Callaspo 1-4, H.Conger 1-3
Halo Hero
It was really a toss up between the two of them, both hitting and pitching their way to career first milestones (Trumbo’s first 2 HR game, Richards first MLB win). I didn’t feel like having any internal struggle about this, so I just gave it to both of them. That and their numbers just match up perfectly side by side.