2-GAME RECAP

SWEEP!

Ah, it's so nice to get the sweep again. It's been a while. And it's been a while that the Angels have won a road series. Killed to birds with one stone on this one. These wins will definitely boost the confidence and give some momentum to the team in a much needed stretch here to October. Not to mention, a 5-game lead. It's actually a really good cushion right now, especially since the Angels will go back home for 17 or so games mostly with clubs under .500, while the Mariners go on a pretty difficult road series with several decent clubs. I'm hopeful that those games will hold up, and the Angels will hold onto the division lead for all but 10 games of the entire season. That's actually pretty amazing, if you ask me. Which you didn't ask me, but I'm telling you anyway. So deal with it.

The pitching has been doing pretty well, aside from a minor defect in the rotation... but I won't speak of that JUST yet. Escobar the other night, superb as usual. Lackey the other night, superb as usual. Weaver today, totally back in his groove, his last year groove, and now I'm starting to become much more at ease when he pitches. It's almost a 1-2-3 punch now, as Hudler keeps calling it. Yesterday's game, pitching wise, not so good. I had a feeling Santana would fall apart, but NOTHING like he actually did. 5 runs in 1/3 inning... wow. That's all I have to say about that. His ERA is probably inflated to something like, 10.00 or so now. But Weaver today, oh yeah. Beautiful. One earned run, over 8 innings, the most he's ever pitched in the bigs. I was kinda hoping myself that they'd leave him in for the ninth. But it's ok, Bootcheck did his job. Actually, in game 2 of this series, Moseley did a great job. Held the Mariners to their five runs, and allowed the offense to do its work.

The game reminded me so much of a game I actually attended at the end of last season. We were at Angels stadium, playing a four game series against the A's, the last four games of the season. It was just after the Angels had met the magic number and been eliminated from the possibility of winning the division. But that didn't stop them. Saunders was pitching, and we were sitting back behind the right field foul pole. Saunders only pitched 2/3 of the first inning at most, and gave up something like 7 runs. It was ridiculous. They finally pulled him, and I can't even remember who they pitched at that point. It was a totally different bullpen then. But somehow, the Angels came back and won that game, 9-7. It was amazing. Especially since it was one of the very last games Tim Salmon played. We were just waiting for that last home run... it never came, but I remember how it felt being in the stadium. So emotionally charged.

I digress.

Back to the games. The defense has been really picking it up lately, backing the pitchers. With those few 1st-3rd situations, 2 outs, sometimes 1, they've really been able to pull the double plays and get the outs when needed and really pull the pitchers out of jams relatively unscathed. It's nice to see Kendry Morales back from the minors really taking charge, whether at first or as DH. And it's definitely nice to see Kotchman back, too. He's still on a roll. He's one of the most underrated defensive players. Mark Teixeira, yeah you may be doing really well for the Braves (even though they're still losing with him hitting home runs, batting over .312 and raking in the RBIs), but Kotchman, unsung hero. And Anderson is still on a hit streak. I hope it'll last, I'm going to log the progress of that one.

so a random tangent here: I had the weirdest dream last night that I was watching a Dodger game and all of a sudden Aybar was playing short stop for them. What the hell???

Oh yeah, and Kendrick is still meh.

Day off tomorrow, then back to the Big A for some more at-home dominance. I'm waiting to watch Vlad pummel the Rangers. It's a typical trend. Very common. They hate him there. But that's ok, Texas is blah anyway. How many games back are they now? Like, a billion?

19. So what if I exaggerated. Does it really matter? I think not.


In Other News:

I'm actually watching the Boston vs. New York game right now. This was a good week in series. Angels @ Mariners, Red Sox @ Yankees, Diamondbacks @ Padres... lots of division match-ups. The Yankees, if they play these last innings right (as of right now, they lead 4-1 over the Sox in the top of the 8th) Will tie the Mariners for the Wildcard. That will put the Sox at 80-53, while the Angels are second in the MLB with 79-54. One game behind the leaders. This will be a very close post-season. I won't even try to call it. Even though, we all know who I hope, want, and think will win. Ha!

A-Rod hit number 44, I knew it would happen. The guy really is much bigger than I thought he was. He looks, just, buff as hell standing at the plate. He's built.

But I still don't like him.

So Beckett won't get win 17, so that leaves him and Lackey and Wakefield tied at 16 for most in the majors. Good, I'll take it. Also brings the Yankees back within six games.

So I'm really looking for some kind of publication to write for, that's why I'm trying to watch as much baseball as possible with cable TV in California. If I had mlb.tv, I'd probably watch all the out of market games I cared to. Which is a lot. Trust me. A friend sent me a bunch of stuff about Peter Gammons, and said he should be my hero.

I'm really thinking about the possibility of sports analysis for myself. It's never really been a thought for career paths in my life, I've never really found myself interested in journalism. But I love baseball. I mean, REALLY love baseball. And what better to do than take something I'm relatively good at, and something I really love, and actually enjoy what I do with my life? So if anyone has any ideas of what I should do to get started, a free-lance opportunity, or some hints about this, I'd really appreciate the feedback! Thanks!