It’s Father’s Day, and what’s Father’s Day without some baseball? Today we were served up a piping hot rendition of the 2015 Angels squad, showing off not only their maddening offense woes, but also flourishes of power, brilliance and hope from Albert Pujols. Going against Scott Kazmir, on top of everything else, should have boded well for the Angels, since he has been historically rocky against his former team. But in the honor of the holiday, if there is one thing dads know it’s that things can often go against expectations or plans, and such it was today on the field in Oakland.
Garrett Richards got the start today, and went six innings. He gave up three runs, all earned, eight hits and three strikeouts. One run came off of a Billy Burns single in the third, and the other two came in a tumultuous sixth inning and were served up via Brett Lawrie and Ike Davis RBI singles. It was just a 3-0 ball game, and Garrett looked otherwise fine today, but it would be one of those games where three runs might has well have been 15.
Scott Kazmir has apparently worked through whatever it was that got into his head against the Angels prior, or he just had some Father’s Day luck on his side, I don’t know. All I know is that Kazmir made the Angels look silly for most of the day, and he finished by going 7.1 innings, one run, six hits and six Ks. Of course, it could also have to do with an anemic offense that, for Halos fans across the country, iis becoming a torture device that’s administered through your television and computer screens.
The only bright spot of the day came when Albert Pujols came up to bat in the eighth, and with a man on, almost walked on a 3-1 pitch but the umpire at first said he failed to check his swing, so Albert would go back to his AB with a 3-2 count. This displeased The Machine greatly, as he then crushed a ball deep into the left-center bleachers, and brought the Angels to a 2-3 score instead of a 0-3 shutout. Albert continues to attempt to put this team on his back; some nights it works, some nights it’s admirable, but just not nearly enough.
Angels come back home to Anaheim now for a long homestand, and first up is division leader Houston Astros. It will be a great time to make up some ground...unfortunately, this is true for both teams. The Angels better have their A game ready.