Posted 3:53 PM by Sean
Last night, after Jarrod Washburn gave up a game-winning two-run homer to Frank Thomas in the bottom of the ninth, I said to myself "there's the first concrete example of something Scioscia's done that he wouldn't do during a pennant race. He wants to see Washburn pitch himself out of a jam in the late innings, and he wants Washburn to know that Scioscia trusts him to make the right decision about whether to walk a guy or pitch to him in that situation." What I didn't know until just now is that Washburn was apparently pitching hurt, so much so that he was having his back and hip realigned between innings.

That's crazy. I know, the guy had a no-hitter into the seventh. And he looked pretty good. And he only threw 101 pitches in those nine innings. But considering the number of guys out with injuries these days, and how pitchers especially tend to develop nagging injuries, and further considering the state of the starting rotation, if I were Mike Scioscia I'd be awfully cautious about extending an injured starter any further than necessary. With a judicious off-season move or two, this team will be right in the thick of things in 2004, but let's not complicate things by breaking the guy at the top of the rotation.

One of those judicious off-season moves will likely be signing Garret Anderson to an extension. For the others, I guess we'll just have to wait and see, but I sure hope Stoneman is looking at some guys who can hit the ball. Either that or figuring out how they can play Detroit about 100 times next year.

Posted 3:45 PM by Sean
And now, a moment of silence as the Benji Gil era in Anaheim officially comes to a close.

Posted 9:23 AM by Sean
Ben Bolch's take on the Angels' sweep of the Tigers: the Angels "still have a faint pulse." Uh, whatever, Ben. Unfortunately, there are no less than five teams in the wild card race with stronger pulses, and two of them are 11 games ahead.

The sweep was nice, though. The Tigers have made a lot of teams look good this year, but scoring 25 runs in three games - even against the Tigers - allowed Angels fans to forget for a few days their seasonlong offensive woes. Scott Spiezio, Adam Kennedy, and Garret Anderson - who passed Brian Downing as the all-time Angels hits leader - all had a terrific series at the plate. Unfortunately, the Angels will need continued production from just about everyone in the order if they want to keep winning: the injury bug's latest victims are David Eckstein, Ben Weber, and Brendan Donnelly, none of whom are officially on the DL, but all of whom are likely to miss at least a few days. So now even the bullpen, which has been the Angels' only bulwark against injury in 2003, is crumbling.

Meanwhile, I did get to see one thing I've never seen before this weekend: a player take the field in a misspelled jersey. During Saturday's game, Adam Riggs made his second start for the Angels wearing "ANGEES" across his chest, and apparently didn't even notice until he came in to the dugout after the top of the first.

Anyway, here's the updated "ANAHEIM ANGELS 2003: THE DRIVE TO AVOID EMBARRASSMENT!" countdown:

3 wins to avoid 100 losses
8 wins to avoid matching their worst loss total
21 wins to finish at .500
12 Angels wins or Tigers losses to avoid the worst record in the AL
36 Angels wins or Rangers losses to avoid finishing last