Los Angeles team loses back-and-forth 7-5 slugfest to Brooklyn team

Angels 5 Dodgers 7

What more could you ask for on a Labor Day at the Big A, than Zack Greinke and the Dodgers taking on Nick Tropeano and the Halos? Perhaps make it a little bit of a back and forth slugfest, with over a dozen pitchers used? Please and thank you.

Scott Van Slyke was first to draw blood, with an RBI double in the second. The Angels would answer the call of the run scoring wild in the bottom of that same inning, as C.J. Cron hit a solo bomb(his 11th of the year) and tied the game at one apiece.

Both pitchers continued to work their best stuff past their opponents, but Nick Tropeano had a short leash and only made it 4.1 IP before Mike Scioscia began his quest to deplete the bullpen. In the fifth, with Jose Alvarez pitching, Justin Ruggiano hit a tough, two-run double and gave the Dodgers a 3-1 advantage. But once again, the got hit in the face and answered with a big punch of their own. This time, in the bottom of the fifth, Kole Calhoun hit a two-run shot off of the esteemed Zack Greinke, and with the crowd going nuts and the Red Baron handling the heroics, we had a tie ballgame once again.

Adrian Gonzalez would get a sac fly off of Cesar Ramos in the sixth, and in the seventh, Trevor Gott on the hill, Scott Van Slyke had yet another double, this time driving in two and the Dodgers were back up 6-3. Round and round and round we go.

The Angels countered in the seventh with an Albert Pujols RBI single and a run scored off of a Jim Johnson wild pitch. 6-5, Dodgers...but of course they’d add to that in the eighth with, you guessed it, a hit from Scotty Van Slyke. An RBI single gave the Dodgers a 7-5 score and the Angels were left reeling, wondering how many uppercuts they can eat before getting put to sleep on the mat, for good.

The Dodgers’ relief pitching in the eighth and ninth would suppress any Halos comeback efforts, and the long, grueling nine innings of crosstown rivalry baseball was over. The Brooklyn guys beat the Los Angeles guys, in a game that say the Angels set a record for most pitchers used in a 9 inning game(nine). Both teams combined for 16 pitchers used, which is tied for second most ever in a 9 inning game(Pitt & Stl in 2007).

We saw a little bit of everything in this one: a Matt Joyce sighting, another horrible and costly play in the field from Taylorr Feather(hands mand of)ston(e), a veritable parade of Angels pitching, ups and downs...and the agony of defeat. It was a tough matchup to begin with, but the Angels held their own with Greinke, and perhaps if they didn’t have to throw out the kitchen sink of relief pitching, they could have held the Dodger bats in check.

All of the guys that we would want to lose, didn’t lose today. They won. So let’s not focus on that. Let’s focus on the next game. Oh, Kershaw? Let’s find something else to focus on.