Write On Sports LLC - "Here Come the Halos; Don't Count the Angels Out Yet" by David Crowe

Here Come the Halos; Don't Count the Angels Out Yet

2006-09-12 01:45:07 | By: David Crowe

With less than a month left in the season the Angels are 5.5 games (6 games in the loss column) behind the Oakland Athletics, but the Angels are playing the best baseball they have all year. Their pitching is terrific and their offense is coming through. The Angels have won their last 6 games and the team is playing like they did in 2002 when they won the World Series.

In winning the first game, of a 3 game series against the Blue Jays last night (Friday), the Angels played like a team. Their starter, rookie Joe Saunders, went 7 and 2/3rds and only allowed one run. Saunders has 5 wins and 2 losses since joining the Halos starting rotation on July 18th and in his last 2 starts (allowing one run in each game) he’s only walked one batter (his final batter in last night’s game before being pulled in favor of Scot Shields). However, Saunders was shaky in the early going of last night’s game and was saved by some very nice defensive plays. The first batter Saunders faced in the game, Reed Johnson, doubled to center field. The next batter, Second baseman Aaron Hill, hit a rocket down the third base line that Maicer Izturis made a nice grab to get the out. The third batter also hit Saunders hard; Vernon Wells singled to right field, getting the Blue Jays only RBI of the night, but was caught in a run down when Vladimir Guerrero hit the cutoff man perfectly and caught Wells trying to take second. For the third out of the inning, Izturis made another great play at third base to knock down a Troy Glaus line drive and throw him out at first. By the third inning Saunders settled down and retired 15 of the final 17 batters he faced.

Although the Angels defense has been poor this year, last night Izturis showed that he is learning how to play the hot corner. He repeatedly made great play after great play last night including a nice barehanded play on a chopper to third to barely throw out Alex Rios for the final out in the top of the 4th. It’s safe to say the Halos 3rd baseman is getting comfortable at his position.

The Angels big two offensive weapons came up big last night as well. In the bottom of the 4th Vlad and Garrett Anderson hit back-to-back doubles to start the inning off and Juan Rivera followed with a single (it appears Rivera has recovered from his hand injury and will continue to help the Halos down the stretch run). Although the two runs scored by Vlad and Anderson would have been enough, rookie catcher Mike Napoli added a booming home run in the bottom of the 7th inning and Anderson added a long ball in the bottom of the 8th. The Halos beat a pitcher, in A.J. Burnett, that was throwing well. They did so with good pitching, great defense and timely hitting. The Angels have it all coming together at the right time.

The Angels starting rotation is doing great. In the last 6 games, the starters for the Angels have 4 wins and have pitched at least 7 innings in each game. With Scot Shields and Francisco Rodriguez (who had his 40th save last night – last year, his first year replacing Troy Percival as the closer for the Halos, he had 45) in the bullpen, the 8th and 9th inning are givens for the Halos.

Jered Weaver is continuing his phenomenal pitching and Rookie of the Year claim (10-2 with an ERA of 2.16) and threw 7 shutout innings in his last game against Baltimore after. Weaver, in his 15 starts for the Halos this season, has had one outing where he allowed 5 earned runs, one outing where he allowed 4 earned runs, two outings where he allowed 3 earned runs, two outings where he allowed 2 earned runs, 4 outings where he allowed 1 earned runs, and 4 outings where he allowed no earned runs. He’s been consistently fantastic and Manager Mike Scioscia has protected this rookie’s arm by not allowing him to pitch more than 7 innings in any outing.

The other starters are looking good too. Kelvim Escobar has been consistent and has pitched a minimum of 6 innings in all of his stars since July 1st. Lackey has a 3.54 ERA and has struck out 162 batters already this year. And with the other youngsters rookie Saunders and second year pitcher Ervin Santana (the team leader with 14 wins), the starting pitching is one of the best, if not the best, in the entire league (this with losing last year’s Cy Young winner Bartolo Colon to injury).

The Angels schedule is favorable the rest of the way. They have two more games against the Blue Jays, 3 against the White Sox, 7 against Texas, 2 against Kansas City, and 7 against, the team they have to catch, Oakland – including a 4 game series to end the season in Anaheim. The Athletics, in contrast, have a much more difficult schedule down the stretch. After finishing their 3 game series against the Devil Rays (they won last night), they too have 3 games against the White Sox. They also have 3 games against the hot Twins, 4 games against Cleveland, 3 against Seattle and the games against the Angels.

This is the first season in team history that the Angels have been variously 10 games under .500 and 10 games over .500; the Angels are currently a season best 11 over .500. The turnaround and growth of the team is apparent. The young players like Weaver, Saunders, Izturis, Napoli and Howie Kendrick are coming through. The veterans are playing well too (Vlad for instance is batting .380 since July). The Angels have 11 of their 20 remaining games of the season at the Big A where they have won 13 of their last 16 games (including the all important 4 game set with the A’s to end the year). Before the last week and a half of the season, when the Angels play the A’s 7 times, the Angels have time to make up a little ground. With the way they’re playing and the talent they have, they’re going to do it. The American League West will be going down to the final weekend and beware of the Angels when they make the post season. Pitching wins championships and the Angels are loaded.

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