Ervin Santana pitched well enough to leave the game with the victory in his grasp, but it was Kevin Jepsen and/or Erick Aybar that sealed the Angels fate today. The game started off rather slowly, with the only bang from either teams' bats coming from a solo homerun by Torii Hunter. A towering shot to left field, it gave a glimmer of hope for some offense that has been sorely lacking the past two games against the similarly anemic Kansas City Royals.
The offense never quite materialized, however, until the Halos put on a surge in the top of the 6th inning, mainly due to the fact that they were successfully pulling off the types of things MLB teams that win do so well: timely and patient hitting, and smart baserunning. Pulling ahead of the Royals in the sixth behind both Alberto Callaspo and Vernon Wells' first RBIs of the season(as well as Well's first as an Angel), the sunny day in Kansas City seemed to have a silver lining. That feeling was to be fleeting.
The bullpen wasn't ENTIRELY terrible. We did see Hasanori Takahashi get put in one of those cardiac situations the Angels' are now becoming well known for, but he got out of it with a superb strike out of Alex Gordon. It was the first time our bullpen has shown us that they can do what's expected of this level's relief pitchers. Takahashi even went as far as do some fist pumping and show of excitement. That excitement was short-lived in the dugout, however.
In the top of the 8th, Kevin Jepsen came in and managed to already have two men on with only one out, and then it happened. What could've been an already-best of the year contender DP was basically botched by Aybar. Izturis' magnificent flip to the bag went for nought, as Aybar proceeded to get the lead runner, but then threw the ball well over Howie Kendrick's head. The game was then tied, but considering Jepsen would also go on to give up a total of 4 hits and 2 runs that inning, and thus the lead, it's kind of hard to forget. This team will hopefully find it's pop, hitting-wise,soon. Or maybe it'll take the return of Kendrys Morales for that to happen. Either way, today was full of gaffs and guffaws, and it was Kansas City who had the last laugh.