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The slumping Angels had been helping other teams bust slumps, so it was high time an opponent of theirs returned the favor. On Tuesday night, the Angels stopped their four game losing streak with a decisive, relatively entertaining win that saw Matt Shoemaker continue to tell the coaching staff, via his performance, that they can't send him down to AAA again.
The Angels knocked out A's starter Cody Martin early, with a big, four-run third inning. Kole Calhoun had an RBI single to kick things off, and then the Angels worked into a bases loaded situation, and while they did plate some more runs, they did it in a less-than-mind-blowing way. Albert Pujols was beaned in the ribs, and a run came across. Then they got another one on a David Murphy ground out, and one more via C.J. Cron sac fly. Still, they had a nice inning and knocked out the starting pitcher. From their, they sliced and diced through a tomato can Oakland bullpen, adding on a couple more to the tally and giving The Cobbler a nice comfy cushion.
Matt Shoemaker dominated tonight, pitching 7.0 innings, allowing just one run(a solo shot from Brett Lawrie in the first inning) on five hits, and five Ks. In Shoemaker's last two starts, he's had 14.1 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 SO. Always glad to see Shoemaker do well, especially after that little stint with Salt Lake. Two recent additions to the roster, Mike Morin and Wesley Wright, were called in to pitch the eighth, and both did the job admirable and without incident. We've seen Morin, but now we got a nice look at Wright, who recorded his first two outs with the club. Huston Street had things slip away from him a bit in the seventh, which is becoming a regular nuisance at best, a predictable disaster at worst. New baby must be keeping him up all night or something.
It's one game in a row. It'll do. Bad news is Texas won, New York won and Minnesota won. No ladder climbing today.