When Tyler Chatwood is "on", he is ON...like Donkey Kong. Or perhaps a prawn that yawns at dawn. All jokes aside, today was one of those days. The youngster, while admittedly facing a not-so-great Dodger lineup, proved his mettle by not only looking good pitch-wise, but by getting out of a couple self-induced jams, showing the sort of grit that you appreciate in a starter, regardless of age. Some would say that this is nothing out of the ordinary for this 2011 Angels club, but one thing that was different in this outing was the fact that he had that elusive Run Support behind him.
If you were one of the brave souls that endured the Fox broadcast of this game, I want to be the first to welcome you here, with a warm blanket and some hot cocoa. I know...I know. It was rough, but it's over now, sweetie. Seriously, this guy is a joke and why they even let him near a broadcast booth is beyond me. It started in the early innings, and not to mention on a scoring play. Tyler Chatwood gets a single(which I totally called!, by the way) and goes on to get the run scored via Erick Aybar's triple. Two Things: Karros spent at least 2 minutes talking about not only how dumb Erick Aybar's baserunning was, but also Chatwood's. Yeah. The guy that got to third and the pitcher that got home were lambasted by this Roger Lodge lookalike. It only got worse from there, as Karros convincingly shell-shocked the Halos faithful with the lamest, most useless witticisms ever heard on FCC airwaves. What did we do to deserve this?!!!
The good news: Tyler Chatwood was solid as a motherflipping rock. The kid pitched into the 7th, and got of out some considerably tough jams. It was in the bottom of the 5th when he started to hit some snags. After Matt Kemp got ejected for berating the home plate umpire(Eric Karros thought he did nothing wrong, and the ump was just overreacting...go figure), the wheels seemingly began to fall off of the Chatwood Express. The young kid just couldn't find his strike zone and ended up loading the bases, and then walking in the lone run the Dodgers would put on the scoreboard today. After a few visits from Mike Butcher and Hank Conger, he sort of settled down, and was eventually saved by an absolutely amazing catch-then-DP by Howie Kendrick. I wasn't there, and only watched via television, but I swear Howie had a 55 inch vertical leap on that one. Damn, do I love that guy...when he's not in LF.
Now, that offensive deluge. It started with Tyler Chatwood getting a single and subsequently scoring a run by Aybar's triple. But then Mark Trumbo added a solo TrumBomb in the 4th to get the go ahead. Throw in a pinch hit double by Russell Branyan, followed by a clutch Howie Kendrick RBI single and you got a 3-1. This is the Angels, after all, and that should be enough. BUT NO!!! Vernon Wells piled on the offensive surge with a HR of his own. Yes, Vernon Wells hit a home run. Like a couple others of his this season, it was when it didn't necessarily matter. But I aint complaining, and neither should you.
Great game, great outing by Chatwood, Karros should shut his piehole, Mark Trumbo rules, Vernon Wells drools(but sometimes hits bombs).
This song is dedicated to Tyler Chatwood: