Jered Weaver had a shutout going through seven innings in Anaheim in his first start since signing a five year, $85 million contract extension. He had thrown 96 pitches (64 for strikes) and with a season average of 110+ pitches per game would have ordinarily been left in with the chance to record a complete game shutout. Leading 4-0 going into the bottom of the 7th inning, the Angels bats tacked on four more runs and under almost any circumstance Mike Scioscia would have left Weaver in to try to finish the game.
With the deficit in the AL West likely trimmed to 2.5 games with the second consecutive slaughtering of the Rangers by the Red Sox, though, Scioscia had his eyes on the upcoming series with Texas and pulled his Ace of Aces in favor of reliever Bobby Cassevah. Weaver had an animated but pleasant conversation with Scioscia that included a bro-bonding fistbump. His final line in the night: 7 IP, 4H, 2BB, 8K, 0R. UPDATE: And the W.
Look for Jered to take the mound in Arlington on Sunday.
Are they listening to any good music in the hundred degree Dallas suburbs? Here is our theme song by way of Manchester...