Angels Lose Twentieth Game in 31 Chances

Final Score in Anaheim: Angels 4, Orioles 8

Faced with an aching Albert Pujols and the opportunity to give their quarter-billion dollar man two days off with tomorrow's scheduled off day, Mike Scioscia went with a creative lineup. He built the batting order so that every right-handed batter would be followed by a laft-handed batter.

Scioscia looked like a genius early on when the Angels sent nine men to the plate in the bottom of the first inning, scoring three runs and stranding three men as J.B. Shuck made the final out - finally the Peter Bourjos injury could be blamed for the Angels woes instead of Scioscia! Without Bourjos in the lineup, there was Shuck leaving SIX men on base in the first three innings. Trout, Mark Trumbo and Howie Kendrick all left three men on base and Howie also Grounded into a Double Play. And that three run rally was courtesy of a blown call on a Trout "steal" of 2B as replays showed he was out - So given four outs in the fist inning the Angels scored three and stranded three. Smells like the recipe for 11-20 to me.

But reality intervened and the offense went to sleep quite quickly, save for a Mike Trout solo homerun. Meanwhile the great Halo shifting of pitching gears - swapping Garrett Richards in the rotation for Jerome Williams - failed miserably on both sides, Williams giving up five runs in less than five innings on four hits (the walks the walk the walks keeled him) and Richards blowing the 5-4 game open in the seventh by allowing his inherited base-runners to all score.