Dan Haren Decertified as Angels Ace in Texas Bootstomping

Final Score in Arlington: Rangers 11 Angels 7 and it wasn't even that close.

Dan Haren pitched 4.1 innings of 11-hit, 7-run baseball. That just ain't gonna cut it. Vernon Wells and Erick Aybar contributed with sloppy defense, but Dirty Dan was fooling nobody and the Arlington Nine took it to the good guys hard. He is the Number #3 even with the almost forgivable grand slam hit by David Murphy being quite close to the Fort Worth foul pole. It sent the former Diamondback to the showers and sealed the team's fate for at least one night.

The Rangers were up 7-0 over the Angels when I gave up on this one and started writing this here critique, but after six straight wins it is impossible to be too harsh on the Angels or lose the accrued hope of making up five games in the standings in seven days.

Jerome Williams melted down and made it 11-0 in the 6th and Vernon made sure to spread the bad leather equally for both pitchers. The march of the subs saw Russell Branyan hit a too-little-too-late bomb and our death by a thousand frustrating cuts offense was on! Howie Kendrick followed a ninth inning Bobby Abreu double with a homerun to tie what would have been the 7-0 game Haren left, but again... it was just too little, too late.

For all the ink spilled bemoaning the plight of the Rangers having to play in games over a hundred degrees, the Angels proved one obscure theory tonight: Both teams have to play in the same temperature at the Ballpark in Arlington. The Angels were showing the effects of the Texas heat far more than their opponents tonight. What can you say but Bummer in the Summer...