EYJ & Parker Bridwell, two of 2017’s best stories, lead Halos to 6-2 win over Mariners in season finale

Angels 6 Mariners 2

OK, now it’s official ladies and germs. The Angels’ 2017 season is done and in the record books. The Team of Destiny, as we called them so fanatically and passionately thanks to a slew of unbelievable endings, extinguished their flame with a nice 6-2 victory over their AL West rivals, the Seattle Mariners. The Halos finished with a final W/L tally of 80-82, making it the franchise’s first time going consecutive sub-.500 records since they did it from 1992-1994.

Not all destinies are created equal. We’ll get to a lot of season recaps, thoughts, and give some of our ideas about where the Angels will go from here later in the week, so stay tuned. As for this particular game, it was mostly going through the motions for both clubs, it seemed, but Eric Young Jr. NEVER just goes through the motions, and I’m thankful for that, because he gave us a great reminder of why he was such a great story earlier this year.

With Parker Bridwell doing some brilliant work on the bump, the game was at a 0-0 stalemate as the Angels entered into the bottom of the seventh. Then, the home town dudes, with one more burst of baseball badassery left in them, mounted a genuine Halo Blitz; I like to think of it as a nice parting gift for the fans in attendance at the Big A.

Of course, not many fans are knocking down the gates to get in and see a rally featuring Cliff Pennington, Ben Revere, Juan Graterol and EYJ, but it’s the last game of the year, Mike Trout and others were already resting on the bench, so I gave it a pass. All of the aforementioned Halos drove in singular runs in various ways, but it was Eric Young Jr. who put the exclamation mark on today’s final Big A beatdown, as he parked a three-run jack into the bleachers, and gave the Halos a 6-0 lead.

Seattle would get a homer in the top of the eighth and an RBI double in the top of the ninth, but that’s all they could do in their attempt to play last-day-of-the-season spoiler, and the Angels got to light up our beloved Halo one more time, one more friendly and exuberant “Drive home safely!” from Victor Rojas.

Parker Bridwell would get the W, making it his 10th of the season which is tops among all AL rookies. He’s just another story that we’ll have to remember from this wild and wacky team. Who knows what the staff or lineup will look like next year, in totality, but today (and throughout 2017) we saw some great performances from EYJ and Bridwell, two guys who are in different points of their career arcs, but who also gained mad respect from me and the rest of the fan base.

So, the final out came and went and it was over. Angels baseball is gone till next spring. It seems like it went by super fast, but most of the best things in life share that same unfortunate time-bending characteristic. I know one thing for sure, and it’s that I had an unbelievable amount of fun doing this whole Angels blogging thing here on HH this year, and that’s mainly due to YOU guys, the amazing community, and my top-notch staff.

We’re family, and I am so lucky to have all you folks. Maybe this community was the Team of Destiny after all?!?!