Angels Win Another Series, Stay on Texas Toes

Final Score in Anaheim: Angels 7, Twins 1

So we had dinner with friends and missed the game. Get in the car. Twelve minutes of Angels Talk and Terry Smith never says the score. Two calls about Mark Trumbo and his chances at rookie of the year along with Terry sounding upbeat tell me that the Angels won with Trumbo being integral to the victory.

And that was exactly the case - the Angels won on Skater Hat night and Trumbo leads baseball's rookies with his 21 HRs after tonight. Can't argue with a postgame show that makes you feel like you have psychic powers any more than you can with your team getting 7 runs on 11 hits.

As much as we bash Tony Reagins, his trade for Dan Haren paid off for the Angels again as he threw 111 pitches in 8 innings and allowed only 5 hits, the only run being the 598th HR of Jim Thome's poker-party-free/steroid-free career, a solo shot late in the game. Jim you are a class act and we all know that Dirty Dan served it up to you as part of the other chapter in the great unwritten rule book: When a future Hall of Famer is up late in the game with an 8-run deficit and chasing a milestone, you be a class act and say "here ya go, bro, grooved for your hitting pleasure". Justin Verlander probably never read that chapter before he graduated kindergarten on a lemon-scented scholarship.

Francisco Liriano probably won't have to read about how to be cool on the mound with a big lead late any time soon as he made the light-hitting Angels come alive with offense. Torii Hunter had three hits, Peter Bourjos had a double and a single but the big blast was from Trumbo's Clown Room, his 21st HR of the season, a three-run bomb with 2 outs in the bottom of the third. At 5-0, the game was pretty much out of reach and the Rangers went from having Halos on their Heels to having Halos on their toes. The Texas Halotosis of Arlington cannot rest with Jered Weaver starting for the Angels tomorrow night.