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Mike Scioscia may have his outfielders shagging fly balls and fielding balls on the bounce in earnest during batting practice today. Last night two players flubbed playable balls that led to Red Sox runs. In the second Jarrod Saltalmacchia floated a liner to left with two down and Jonny Gomes and Daniel Nava at second and first respectively. Had J.B. Shuck played the ball properly he could have caught the final out. At worst a single run would have scored if he didn’t let the ball by him, but the left fielder failed to gather the ball after the bounce and two runs scored. Saltalamacchia reached second on the error. Shane Victorino led off the seventh with a liner to center. C.J. Wilson secured the next two outs neatly enough: Dustin Pedroia flied out on two pitches and Mike Napoli whiffed on the fifth pitch he saw. Wilson would have exited the inning unscathed had Josh Hamilton properly played Jonny Gomes’s fly ball. Victorino scored from first to give his team a 3-2 lead and also chased Wilson from the mound. Mike Scioscia, the master of over-managing, for some reason didn’t intentionally walk pinch-hitting David Ortiz in the eighth with...
He’s too sexy for Pawtucket. Since his return to the majors on July 21 Jed Lowrie has had hits in four out of six games and enjoyed his first multi-extra base hit game of the season last night. His first-inning double wasn’t converted into a run but his seventh-inning two-bagger put his team on the board and ahead of the home team. With two men on and two out, Lowrie’s late inning hit sailed over Juan Rivera’s outstretched arm and bounced to the left field fences. Better defensive positioning or speed on Rivera’s part would have robbed the visitors of the runs, but the Angels clearly underestimated the returning infielder’s power stroke. Jeremy Hermida may have taken a bribe from an Angels fan in the left fields stands to butcher his play on Hideki Matsui’s fly ball knowing that John Lackey would react vociferously. There isn’t a single pitcher, not even the emotionally intense and most recent owner of a no-hitter Matt Garza, who reacts so obviously as Lackey does when fielders don’t do what they should. The Anaheim fans must have been nostalgic seeing Lackey’s explosive reactions to his defense’s exploits. Hermida redeemed himself in the fifth, or rather,...
Game 144: September 16, 2009 Angels8H: Kevin Jepsen (15)BS: Darren Oliver (1)BS, L: Brian Fuentes (7, 1-5)86-59, 3 game losing streak Red Sox9BS: Ramon Ramirez (4)W: Daniel Bard (2-1)86-58, 7 game winning streak Highlights: Rick Reed may shoulder some of the blame for the Angels’ loss, but Fuentes carries the dubious distinction, along with Mike Gonzalez and Mark Lowe, of being third in the majors for blown saves. Only Brad Lidge (10) and J.P. Howell (8) have failed to close out more games. Fortunately for Paul Byrd this see-saw of a game started with a stiff wind blowing in. The gales kept Bobby Abreu and Vladimir from going deep in the first inning. The Angels scored the first run of the game in the third using their signature smallball way. Juan Rivera led off with a single and advanced to the keystone bag on Mike Napoli’s ground out to third.Casey Kotchman displayed his mad ups, elevating to nearly 18 inches in his attempt to field Erick Aybar’s liner. While Kotchman’s Brian Scalabrine-like vertical leap knocked the ball from its intended trajectory to right field, Rivera trotted home for the first run of the game. Perhaps this sprint home tuckered him...
Game 6: April 12, 2009 Red Sox4L: Josh Beckett (1-1)2-4, 1 game losing streak Angels5W: Dustin Moseley (1-0)H: Jose Arredondo (4)H: Scot Shields (3)S: Brian Fuentes (2)3-3, 1 game winning streak Highlights: Moseley was one of the Angels who gave a press conference to talk about Nick Adenhart. They were friends and minor league teammates. Even though Adenhart replaced Moseley on the major league roster last year there was not a trace of animosity. It may sound like a cliché, but they were more like family than friends. I don’t begrudge Dustin Moseley and the Angels their victory in this game or their series win. It must have been some small consolation given the events of the past week.It was apparent their nerves were raw. They overreacted to Josh Beckett’s plunking of Bobby Abreu in the bottom of the first, clearing the benches to stand behind their new right fielder. Perhaps Beckett’s throw was meant to hit Abreu, but it should be noted that pulling up in mid-delivery is potentially dangerous to the pitcher. There is a reason for the extreme annoyance you see on hurlers’ faces when batters call for last second timeouts.Torii Hunter flew off the handle and...
Game 107: July 28, 2008 Angels 7 W: Jered Weaver (9-8)H: Jose Arredondo (11)S: Francisco Rodriguez (44) 65-40, 1 game winning streak Red Sox 5 L: Daisuke Matsuzaka (11-2) 61-46, 1 game losing streak Highlights: Folks with Boston accents would feel comfortable with the Japanization of certain English words as they elide the alveolar approximant (a.k.a the English “R” sound). Āchi is the transliteration of “arch” and means home run in Japanese baseball slang. Matsuzaka surrendered two of them in the sixth inning and the Red Sox never recovered. At least Jerry Remy stopped caviling about Daisuke Matsuzaka’s bases on balls for one night. Instead Matsuzaka ceded seven hits, the most harmful of them being the extra base knocks in the sixth inning. The now former Angel Casey Kotchman knocked in Chone Figgins and Torii Hunter blasted a three-run shot a couple of batters later.Nothing in Matsuzaka’s five prior innings of work hinted at this disastrous inning. Although he only struck out three batters, he didn’t surrender anything past second base until the sixth, right after he walked Figgins. I wonder if John Farrell’s attitude towards Matsuzaka’s walks has impacted the pitcher negatively; rather than take in stride as...
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Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library’s Sports Temples of Boston.