Somewhere in my baseball learning, I heard that breaking stuff works better in humid conditions. With tonight's pleasantly warm and bone dry climate at the Stadium, John Lackey's curve ball was MIA.
That is really the whole story, a pitcher with 18 wins held us to 4 hits, Lackey limped through less than 80 pitches, three at bats were wasted on Steve Finley and we lost. But it really wasn't so bad, the White Sox were borderline dull after Konerko hit a lobbed tomato in the First inning.
For all of the talk about their small-ball pizzazz, they are easily as overachieving or more than the Angels, and with a weaker bullpen and shakier starting pitching, I'm as confident as ever in the Angels. Vlad is obviously sore, but the team is more likely to bounce back than fold at this point.
As frustrating as it was to watch the team waste at-bat after at-bat, since I know we will be playing the Chisox, it just doesn't seem like the end of the world. Tonight could, in fact, quite easily be our final loss of 2005.
Don't believe what you heard on Angel Talk after the game tonight, the crowd was loud and into it. Having the plug pulled early in the First Inning lowered the intensity, but it did not kill the buzz and Cabrera's homerun produced a mighty roar.
Oh, and Doug Eddings got a consistent stadium-wide dose of come-uppance. Meanwhile Josh Paul got the loudest ovation of his career in the pre-game team introduction.