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A good night at the plate by Kole Calhouun, and a 3-run jack by offensive hero Kaleb Cowart, and the Angels KC'ed the Rangers. AP pushed the game out of reach with a 3-run homer of his own in the 7th. Mike Trout scored 3 times, which should count for something noteworthy.
When all was said and done, every Halo batter got at least one hit except Andrelton Simmons. 16 total hits for LAA. 41 At-Bats. The game itself lasted an eternity. At 3 hours and 58 minutes, officially, it was the 7th-longest game all season, and only the 2nd-longest 9-inning game. That other 9-inning game, though, saw 21 total runs scored. Not a mere 11. So this was the slowest-pace game of 2017 that the Angels have participated in.
By the way, Ricky Nolasco didn't make it out of the 5th inning, but he was burned with only 1 run (earned) and collected 6 strikeouts against 5 hits and 3 walks. I'd take that over "innings eater" any day.
Enjoy some In-The-Hunt Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
The Angels are a playoff-contending force that has to be dealt with. It's getting far too late into the season to ignore their presence in the standings. So articles like this one from Tim Brown (typing with his mouth open) are a fun milestone that this is not just our imagination.........
Andrew Bailey is just as frustrated with his contraction of LA Angels Syndrome as we are...........
Andrelton Simmons might be the best defender in an LA Angels uniform we have ever seen.............
It was made official. Yesterday the Angels actually did ink the deal to sign Fernando Salas to a minor league contract..........
Once upon a time the LAA farm system was considered a dry lake. Now it's considered an actual lake, just an extremely shallow one. That counts as progress, people. Real progress.........
Josh Mayhood's Library of Mike Trout Hagiography
How about some anti-Trout to mix things up? How about Mike Trout has no chance to be MVP because he had the audacity to miss 40 some games? Who cares if his awesomeness ends with him making all that up while Altuve tanks for the same number of games? Let's just surrender now, Dorothy............
When a Cubs fan site asks Cubs fans who their favorite non-Cubs player is, notice how little love Trout gets. It's not really a matter of most talent, so what we see here is the impact of Mike Trout being a good guy, solid citizen, non-controversial, full-time baller. Just being a pro. The very best pro any of us have seen in at least 50 years. Fans elsewhere don't find that interesting. And MLB and the MSM don't find a way to make that interesting...........
With a 6 Plate Apeparance evening, Trout now has 358 PA's total and needs only 144 to hit the 502 "qualifying" mark. If he plays every remaining game, he needs now to only average 3.89 PA's per game.
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Everywhere In Baseball
The AL Wild Card is the Big Thing to be watching right now. That's a big reason the MSM has tripped over the existence of a team playing out of Anaheim...........
And baseball fans, not just Angels baseball fans, should be rooting for the Halos. It's the right thing to do..........
But the Twins, man, that's the team to beat...........And the odd thing about the Twins is that they actually tried to surrender, being sellers at the Trade Deadline...........
Listen up people! You are all going to be required to mind your manners in Baseball stadiums starting next season. Look for Jumbotron tips from Commissioner Manfred advising on proper and League-approved etiquette...........
Rule #1 in the Big Book Of Proper Fan Behavior shall be the "Baseball in the Stands" rule. The party that picks up a ball hit into the stands shall be the owner. Any person, including any woman, who snatches a ball so collected from the grasp of another fan shall be arrested for theft, publicly shamed, and immediately escorted away for one night of post-game janitorial duty..........
In other Commish news, Manfred is still dealing with robo-ump questions. I was gearing up to do yet another snark run on this subject when the thought struck me that cricket has this figured out. Low tech, works like a champ, and hundreds of years without worrying about any "human factor"...........
Oh goodie. One of my favorite MLB things is back. Dusty Baker and his questionable pitch management..........
Aaron Judge's slump is really really bugging the media. All they have left to do is analyze the shit out of it. Keep in mind that young Mr. Judge is still so new to MLB that none of know what his "normal" is, or shall end up being. This might not even be a huge slump. Or it might be the only couple of months in his whole career that he is not Babe Ruth. But we gotta study the window as if we have something to 'fix'...........The only other thing we have to do is throw a party when he goes a game without striking out..........
Vertically Arched players names on the backs of sports jerseys. Fascinating read that exists only because some people really really care about such things...........
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The Duffle Bag
Atlanta and Seattle engaged in Little League Baseball...........That crappy 2014 KC Royals team that barely lost the WS? The one that swept the Hambone abandoned Halos? The Dodgers could lose every game from here on out and still match their regular season record............Brandon Phillips with another magic slide for your 2017 collection...........Good for the culture of Little League. These kids are, after all, still just kids...........Sure he uses a metal bat. But when a 13-year old kid can hit a baseball out of a pro stadium, it's time to rethink the idea of a 13-year old being playing at Little League dimensions..........Doug Fister does something good. Of course he does...........
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Jordan Serena Destiny Watch
Serena DNP again...........
But, dropping the fun for a moment, Jahmai Jones was 4 for 5 with a triple and 3 runs scored as the IE 66ers came up one run short versus the Lancaster JetHawks and lost 9-8.
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