Jered Weaver is the man. Forget all the talk about Sabathia and Verlander, Weaver is the AL Cy Young frontrunner in my book. I know that I’m a tad biased here but based on his performance tonight, if he loses out on the hardware then no west coast baseball player will ever win another award. Weaver took the ball and inspired his team to a rather easy victory. But it was not his pitching that did it but his demeanor on the mound and his tone throughout the game. He was barking at the umps, yelling at his team and breathing fire like a madman from the first pitch. It’s exactly what I want in my ace. Even when he got some run support, he didn’t let up and finished with a solid 8 innings. I sure hope Arte starts saving his pennies because he is going to have to pay Weaver a lot of them to keep him in Halo Red.
Game Notes
— Vernon Wells continues to be the power bat the Angels need. Granted he still only hits about once a game but his homer in the third was all the breathing room the Angels would need. It seemed to rattle Kershaw and allowed everyone else to relax and go out and hit.
— The Angel offense was solid tonight on a night where everyone in the building forsaw a pitcher’s duel. It looked like Kershaw shrunk a bit from the moment and couldn’t match Weaver’s intensity. That gave the Angel hitters a chance to get a few seeing eye singles through and capitalize on the Dodger poor defense. Erick Aybar was his usual stellar self and I think his infield hit in the first set the right tone.
— Props to Jeff Mathis. He called a great game for Weaver and even chipped in with two hits and scored the first run of the game. His play on Dee Gordon’s bunt is the reason I think Scioscia has so much confidence in him. He could be one of the best overall catchers in the game if he could ever figure out how to hit. Too bad that will never happen.
— Everything that stunk about last night’s game was brilliant tonight. The Angels ran the bases with intelligence and poise. They made all the right situational hits. They got solid pitching and good defense. That is why this team is so perplexing, the seem like a bunch of little leaguers one night and the best team in the AL the next.
Halo Hero
Weaver was an absolute bulldog out there. You could sense from the first pitch that he was not going to let this one get away. It was awesome to watch.