Jered Weaver throws a beauty and Angels beat A’s 2-1

Angels 2 Athletics 1

Tonight, the Angels started their final home stretch of the season, and it all began on quite the somber note. The stadium’s jumbrotron paid tribute to Jose Fernandez, while everyone in attendance, players included, had a moment of silence. It was the life of Fernandez and the joy he gave that were on display, emotions were hight; third baseman Yunel Escobar had scrawled JF16 on the side of his hat with marker.

The game must go on, though, and with heavy hearts, we got down to the root of this beautiful community and fellowship: baseball. We were treated to another killer outing from Jered Weaver, showing he may have something left in the tank for 2017.

Weaver was actually perfect through four innings, and only gave up one hit in his entire 5.0 innings pitched, with no runs crossing the plate. Vintage home Weaver in full effect; pure guile and a lil bit of magic will do the trick every time. Of course, he eventually got lifted for Deolis Guerra (he was only at 71 pitches but was having back tightness), who would quickly give up a solo homer to Stephen Vogt, so you can be sure there was a Weaver death stare in the dugout going on.

Of course, the Angels already had their solo shot of the evening, from one Mike Trout. It was in the bottom of the fourth, traveled 436 glorious feet, and it was his 29th of the season. He’s flirting with 30/30 club (needs one more homer, and three more stolen bases), as well as close to finishing a season hitting .300, 30 HR, 30 SB, 100 RBI, 100 R and 100 walks. Oh, by the way...currently only four players in MLB history have ever done that (Bonds twice, Abreu and Bagwell).

Oh, and Trout would have a couple walks in this game, which would put him at 112 on the season. He’s now tied for second most in a season for the Angels’ franchise (Troy Glaus, 2000), and he’s sporting career highs in OBP (.400) and OPS (1.000) right now. Yay Trout!!!!!

Oh, back to the game. So with those two solo homers, one for each team, there was a 1-1 tie going into the later innings. In the bottom of the eighth, the Angels got a single from Yunel Escobar, a double from Kole Calhoun, a walk from Trout and then a groundout RBI from Pujols. That scored Escobar, and the Angels had retaken the lead to the tune of 2-1.

Last-man-standing-closer Andrew Bailey was the closer, and he allowed one man on but had no problems getting three outs on Oakland, and the Angels continued to look good here at the final stretch of the season, getting the 2-1 victory.

We saw some baseball, the Halo was lit, and the Big A paid tribute to losing one of the best arms in the business. Emotions coming from all angles; that’s baseball for ya.