The good news is I finally got a prediction right, the bad news is that I wish I didn’t.
Mike Scioscia finally saw the light and took eighth inning duties away from Fernando Rodney and handed them over to Rich Thompson. On paper, this was a good idea. The man they call Chopper has been tremendous this season and hadn’t allowed a run to score since April 21st, unlike Fraudney who allows runs in every other apperance, if not more frequently.
Instead, Chopper done got chopped and so did the Angels. Needless to say, but Rich picked a really bad time to lose his control. He’d walked only three batters all year coming into the game and somehow walked the first two batters he faced. The real question is why it happened? Was he nervous because of the pressure of the situation? Did he just have an off day? Will he get another chance to be the righty setup man or did he blow his only audition?
Personally, I think Thompson should get another shot, if only because the Halos have no other real alternatives. Scioscia though, I’m not so sure he is going to agree.
Game Notes:
- OK, so it wasn’t like Takahashi gave up a screaming liner, but why in the world was he called into the game instead of Downs? Taka has been lousy this year and Downs has looked great. What am I missing here?
- How crazy is it that out of Aybar’s 16 career homers, seven have come against the Rangers and four have been hit in Arlington? And we used to think that Vlad dominated Texas.
- The RISP drought continues 1-fo-11 in this one and Mighty Maicer was actually the biggest villain for a change, leaving six men stranded.
- Sometimes I think baseball “common knowledge” needs to have some exemptions made. take for example the final play of the game. Everyone can agree that going for the 3-2 hit-and-run with one out made a ton of sense. Scioscia was right to send Howie… the first two or three times. But at a point one has to realize that after trying to steal second four times in a two-minute window is going to make Howie tired and thus in poor condition to steal the base should Callaspo swing-and-miss. Guess what happened?
- By the way, I hate to complain about umpires, but he blew the final Callaspo at-bat. That 3-1 pitch was so clearly a ball and the Pitch F/X confirmed it. I’m not sure what Trumbo would have done after that, but give the Halos runners on first and second with one out and it could have been an entirely different outcome.
Halo A-Hole
Sorry, Chopper, but I vouched for you and then you let me down, so you must pay the price