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The last time we saw Andrew Heaney in a regular season game it was September 26th, a one-run 3-2 team victory at home (no decision) over the Rangers. 7 innings, 2 Earned Runs allowed off of 2 hits and 1 walk against 10 strikeouts.
Which brings us to yesterday. Andrew Heaney again. A one-run 7-6 team victory at home (no decision) over the Rangers. 5 innings, 2 Earned Runs allowed off of 2 hits and 1 walk against 8 strikeouts. Sweet symmetry.
But the weekend, though, what a hash. 3 not-so-pristinely-played games with 3 late-inning comeback wins where 2 Friday went in favor of the Rangers and Saturday & Sunday went in favor of the Angels. In my line of work, we say that those games “had a lot of hair of them”.
All in we had: 7 errors (a particularly costly one by Mike Trout!), 7 wild pitches, 7 home runs, Pujols 0 for 7, 56 strikeouts, 46 runners stranded on base, 5 GIDP’s - all by the Halos. And 1 passed ball. Before and after each game we had rain because it always rains every day in late May in Southern California. But we did have a Jared Walsh pinch-hit walk-off seeing-eye bloop single.
Wet, Wild, Woolly Weekend with tWWo Wins.
Halos go to Oakland, a team rolling in W’s of late. 9 in a row including 3 over the weekend off of a Seattle Mariners team that has lost 15 of their last 19, and 6 in a row. Skipper Brad leads with Trevor Cahill tonight
Let’s come together with these Take-A-Moment-To-Think-About-The-Price-Paid-For-You-To-Get-To-Think-Anyway-You-Want-HaloLinks:
A Little Bit Of Angels News
Good to see Mike Trout showing any signs of life...............(Interesting factoid that reveals Trout’s BB power, which I find far less interesting and I am waiting for Shohei Ohtani to start rectifying.)..........And it’s BB power, because he is seriously unlucky and his HR power is seriously dragging..............
Tommy La Stella with some sweet D..........
The Angels have played 52 games. What does that say about how the season will end up? Just click the chart to watch..........
$$ - The inside story of the making of Hansel Robles’ walk-in video. Much celebrated but completely confusing to yours truly............
Skipper Brad has figured out a way to keep Matt Harvey from making a hash of things for the next couple of weeks. Get him to confess to having a back problem. Convenient timing for a most convenient kind of injury. This sends Harvey to the IL and takes him out of the rotation at least twice............This put Jaime Barria back on the plane after being just sent back to SLC to make space for Heaney?............
We had our IE California Burritos game. The unis are interesting, but I still prefer my Fresno Tacos jersey from several seasons ago............
Weekly Mike Trout Career WAR Perp Walk. With any luck, when BBR updates their data overnight Mike just passed the great Ernie Banks. Took long enough...............
Everywhere In Baseball
MLB teams combined to hit a ridiculous 59 home runs on Friday. Second-highest single day result, ever...........
We had a pair of legendary lineages make their way onto MLB fields and leave a dent. First off we have Mike Yastrzemski, grandson of the great Carl Yastrzemski. Taking the field for the San Francisco Giants, GrandBaby Yaz got his first MLB hit, and then promptly got picked off of first base. Ups and downs, baby.............And then Cavan Biggio, Craig’s son, ran out for the Toronto Blue Jays and got his first hit, too. But he followed that up with his first home run. Dad Biggio was very pleased.............
The great folks who conned Atlanta taxpayers into building them a shiny new stadium for their money-making multi-billion dollar corporate jollies, will get further rewards by Commissioner Rob who is about to gift them the 2021 MLB All-Star Game..............
So which person is the one who needs to have his head checked? The Pirates catcher who gets clobbered in the head by a broken bat? Or his nincompoop GM who thinks that a quick concussion check is more than satisfactory for letting his head-smacked catcher get back into a game?...........Maybe somebody should ask Kris Bryant how he feels about the issue?.............
I guess if you are REALLY bad at your job, you can be bad enough to not be credited with merely being bad. Keon Bruxton misplays his butt into the wall, and German Marquez is credited with a triple. Which is the kind of thing that just keeps making this reversal look stupid............
One thing we can look forward to in the future days of RoboUps: the end of The Ump Show............
Batting Practice, which has recently seen a trend away from advocacy, is already on the rebound?..........
Bunt to beat the shift. Simple as that. No rule changes necessary...........
I guess it could be worse than whining about Trout walks. I could have all my focus tied up in a guy who can’t hit a baseball simply straight and true..........
Are we finally seeing the end of Fernando Rodney?................Ervin Santana survives............And Howie Kendrick keeps thriving..........
The 2009 MLB draft, 10 years after. LOL..................
Dallas Keuchel, while hanging out here in Anaheim getting a first-hand look at the LAA pitching inventory, has the Yankees and Rays gearing up to get into a bidding war for what remains of this 2019 season. It all starts after the June Draft..........
The Padres are looking to add Trevor Bauer, which would make things even more interesting for the Dodgers...........
Keeping in the spirit of the impending Yankees-Red Sox game in England, the Brits have chosen to commemorate the destruction of the myth of Abner Doubleday............Back here in the States, Doubleday’s own field is in need of rehab...........
Nielsen can’t keep up with the modern world, fail to account for streaming viewers...........
The Duffle Bag
This caught my eye because I am going to Wrigley Field in September. The ultimate obstructed view.............I actually checked this site to make sure the guy buying tickets for our group didn’t make this same kind of mistake. It’s sad that you have to have a web site that keeps track of all this stuff............MLB players do a better job at marketing the NBA than MLB does at marketing Mike Trout............Oakland ball boy fields strong, will be mentoring Zack Cozart when he pulls into town............The kid might have ended up the winner, but Big Yellow Dick of an old man shall forever remain Internet Loser...........Pitcher fundamentals. Situational awareness. Get down for your catcher making infield plays.............Minute Maid Park Roof robs a home run............Baseball can still do weird things, Part I..........Baseball can do weird things, Part II..........
Rest In Peace, Bart Starr..............