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WHOA! That was a fun game to watch/listen to, huh?! The Angels Spring Training offense unloaded on the hapless A's, getting 17 hits and scoring 8 runs, and grabbing the W in their first "home" opener of camp. There was some excitement going into the game today because we were not only going to see the Chosen One, Mike Trout, for the first time, but Mike Scioscia also had penciled in newcomers like Yunel Escobar as well as usual suspects like Kole Calhoun. I knew we'd see some cool stuff today, but not THAT much cool stuff. Allow me to completely and irrationally overreact now, yes?
1. Mike Trout is a god: Trout started off the game by running down a fly ball in center and needed to fully extend and tumble to the ground to pull it in. But he snagged it, and looked pretty dope doing so...just another day at the office for Trout. At the plate, he was 3-3 with one RBI and one run scored. If you can find a sports book that's taking bets on 2016 MVP, let everything you have ride on Trout, per usual.
2. Pretty much everybody got hits, OMG: The Angels got so many hits today, man. I was listening to the game in my office, and eventually started feeling like a baseball version of Gyp Rosetti, shouting out loud "What's that? A hit? Trout got hits. Kole Calhoun got hits. Daniel Nava, Ji-Man Choi and Roberto Baldoquin got hits. EVERYBODY GOT HITS". Great thing to see in Spring Training...now do it again tomorrow, okay?
3. Garrett Richards was aight...JUST aight: Richards pitched two innings, did OK, had his usually troubles with being too wild. Not much to glean here, but if i'm going to stick to the overreacting theme, then i'd say i'm kind of worried about the guy that's supposed to be the ace of the staff and lead all Angels pitchers in WAR(according to all projections i've seen, at least). C'mon, Garrett. Give me a reason to believe.
4. Relief pitching did their jobs: Guys like Lucas Luetge, Mike Morin, Tyler Deloach and Cory Rasmus did good jobs in holding the A's at two runs. It's pretty nice when the bullpen does what it's supposed to do. No standouts yet in those bullpen/relief question marks, but it's still early.
5. Ji-Man Choi doing things is rad: Choi had a good game today, on the heels of an OK game yesterday, and continues to carve a space for him into my Angels-loving heart.
All in all, a good Spring Training game. The fans in attendance were treated to some cool plays and a bevy of runs scored. Two games into Cactus League contests...who do you like? Who do you hate?