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Final Score in Detroit: Angels 2 Tigers 5
Rookie sensation Mike Trout finally got a hit in the Motor City and scored a run in the first inning but the Sports Illustrated slump remained in gear otherwise, spreading in fact to the rest of the team.
Ervin Santana was good in a season where that alone is great considering the number of terrible outings he has had. But with Tigers starter Max Scherzer dealing, poor Ervin would have had to be perfect to deliver a win. Alas, the Angels righty took a 1-1 tie into the bottom of the sixth only find the Michigan Big Lumber of Detroit rolling out with no warning. Two homers later it was 4-1 and although Tigers closer Jose Valverde allowed a run in the top of the ninth, all of the pretend hot air excitement on the part of mumble-mouth jabberjaw Angels telecaster Mark Gubicza could not hide the fact that the middle of the Angels lineup would have been over-matched against the Cal State Fullerton Titans pitching staff (and that is not a compliment to that once great program, now allegedly reduced to giving scholarships to Red Sox fanboy trolls).
If Mark Trumbo's batting average were his weight he would be Jenny Craig, as he has lost what now, seventy pounds, er... points... and then he couldn't even cleanly field a bang-bang pick from a barehanded slick-fielding Maicer Izturis (whose name Gubicza's swollen tongue butchered at least three times today, can you tell my mute button was not working). Late in the game, down 4-1, Scott Downs in to face a lefty, Trumbo asleep on the bag, soon it is 5-1 in the bottom of the 8th, Scioscia has removed Downs and the pen is at psychological war with itself.
34 games left, four back from a Wild Card slot, Albert Pujols with a sore calf, the league chess game against Mike Trout shifts to starting him off soft inside and finishing him off with heat, pulling him below .340 and the second half of our once great T-n-T combo turning int a dud faster than you can say "4th of July charity fireworks stand in the mall parking lot". If Anaheim had an NFL team would the stadium sell another hot dog before 2013?
