Blogging the Enemy 

Posted 3:44 PM by Sean
I was sure that last night was destined to be another of those games in which the offense just never gets it together; that the Angels were going down 2-0 or 3-1. But Vlad cranked one, GA picked up Frankie, and the A's feel to the Tribe in extras. This morning, the Angels site one game out, in striking distance.

Tonight, Aaron "Lesser of Two Evils For Now" Sele starts against Chicago's Jason Grilli. At the moment, though, Oakland and Cleveland are on the teevee, C.C. Sabathia versus Rich Harden. Sabathia's looking pretty good at the moment - he's pitched out of trouble once or twice, and seems to have his good stuff. Harden is also looking pretty good, though he's given up a couple of doubles and trails 1-0 in the bottom of the third. I'll be updating this post as events in this game unfold, an experiment I'll probably repeat several more times before the end of the season.

Bottom 3rd: Sabathia puts runners on first and second with one out, but gets Byrnes to pop out to the catcher and Chavez to fly out to right.

Top 4th: Vizquel flies out to center. Lawton, who has the only Cleveland RBI so far, pops up in foul territory to Chavez. Harden works a 1-2 count to Martinez pitching in and down, then gets him swinging with a fastball on the outside corner for the third out.

Bottom 4th: Hatteberg gets ahold of an inside pitch, but is tied up a little bit and ends up driving it to the warning track, where it's snagged by Gerut. Sabathia tries a first-pitch fastball to Miller over the heart of the plate, and Miller promptly swats it into center for a single. Durazo walks on four straight pitches, each of them just missing various bits of the strike zone. Sabathia works Crosby up and down in the strike zone, striking him out on a fastball down the middle, a fastball low in the strike zone, and - Crosby's only swing - a fastball at the shoulders. Swisher walks on four straight balls, loading the bases. Sabathia starts Scutaro with a breaking pitch, inside. Another breaking pitch is taken for strike one. A fastball is fouled away. Another fastball is taken high and away. Another foul. Another high ball. At 3-2, Scutaro lifts a fastball into left field, where Lawton comes in and catches it on the run. The A's strand three, score none.

Top 5th: Hafner works a walk, making Harden throw 10 pitches. Blake grounds a 1-2 breaking pitch to short, and the A's turn a textbook 6-4-3 double play. Harden issues another walk, putting Broussard on. Belliard drives Harden's first pitch to deep center, but Kotsay catches it at the wall. Halfway home, it's still Cleveland 1, Oakland 0. Harden's thrown 80 pitches.

Bottom 5th: Sabathia, meanwhile, starts the home half of the 5th having thrown 74 pitches. The later Sabathia can go, the better; Cleveland has the worst bullpen in the league. He cruises through Kotsay and Byrnes, getting the former to fly out and the latter to ground to third. Chavez draws a walk; Sabathia appears to want nothing to do with him. After throwing ball one to Hatteberg, Sabathia gets a visit from pitching coach Carl Willis, and appears to be quite animated in telling Willis to quit worrying and let him pitch. After throwing another ball to Hatteberg, he blows two fastballs past him, then moves to 3-2 with an off-speed pitch that's a little bit high. Sabathia comes back with another fastball low in the zone, which is again grounded to third. Sabathia pitch count: 90.

Top 6th: Harden appears to be working primarily off his breaking stuff, slipping fastballs in from time to time to keep the hitters honest. He gets Gerut on a high 3-2 fastball that would have been ball four. Crisp shows bunt on the first pitch, a ball, but isn't fooling anyone. Harden doesn't even give him a fastball for the next pitch, laying a breaking ball in for a called strike. Gerut grounds a 2-2 pitch to short. Vizquel makes a serious attempt to bunt early in the count, then reconsiders when the count hits 2-1 and ends up lining a 2-2 pitch - Harden's 100th - to right for a single. The A's bullpen gets busy, but Vizquel takes off on an 0-1 pitch and is thrown out by approximately a thousand feet for out 3. Harden pitch count: 102.

Bottom 6th: Sabathia gets Miller to fly out to right, Durazo to hit a sky-high pop-up that's taken by second baseman Ronnie Belliard, and Crosby to fly out to Crisp in center, all early in the count. He throws a total of seven pitches. Sabathia pitch count: 97.

Top 7th: Harden remains in the game, and Lawton greets him by smoking his first pitch through the right side of the infield for a single. The A's leave Harden, a right-hander, in to pitch to the switch-hitting Martinez, a home run threat. Harden's breaking pitch seems to have lost some crispness. Martinez gets a good pitch to hit on 2-0, but gets under it a little and hits a fly ball into foul territory, a few steps out of the range of Swisher. Rincon and Mecir are warming up. Martinez takes a low fastball and strokes it into right for another single, putting runners on first and second with nobody out. Harden remains in to face Hafner, a lefty. He misses with the first pitch, hangs the second, and Harden hits it to San Jose to give the Indians a 4-0 lead. Macha comes to get him.

The A's make that Nextel Direct Connect Call to the Bullpen (tm) for Jim Mecir, whose breaking pitches (a screwball, primarily) looks a heck of a lot better than Harden's did. Blake goes down on strikes, but Broussard does a fine job of putting that screwball into right field for a single. The A's announcers begin to talk about how they're "due" for a comeback against Cleveland, a theory of statistics that Billy Beane may wish to discuss with them some time. Mecir gets a little cutesy with his pitches and goes 3-0 on Belliard, but retires him a moment later when Byrnes manages to catch a foul ball that would have gotten out of play in just about any other stadium. Mecir is removed in favor of Rincon as Gerut comes to bat. That's right, the left-handed reliever is brought in to retire the lefty batting ninth, not the one batting fifth with home run power. Rincon retires Gerut on a pop up to the catcher. It takes one pitch.

Bottom 7th: Sabathia remains in the game. He starts Swisher with two balls, then gives up a single scalded through the left side of the diamond. Scutaro does the exact same thing on the very next pitch, a mirror-image situation of Cleveland's half of the inning. Willis returns to the mound for a conference, in which Sabathia appears significantly more subdued. Kotsay shows bunt on the first pitch and takes strike one, then pops the second pitch to Gerut in left. The lefty Sabathia throws a pair of balls low and inside to the righty Byrnes, then misses wide. The 3-0 is a strike at the knees. The 3-1 is the same, but fouled back. Byrnes takes an underpowered breaking pitch for ball four, loading the bases for Chavez with one out. Sabathia remains in. Chavez is a lefty, but is hitting left-handed pitchers at above .300 this year. He fouls the first pitch off, then chops the second off the infield. Belliard makes a fine play to field the ball and throw out Chavez, but the first Oakland run scores from third. Hatteberg stands in against Sabathia and rips one down the right-field line for a bases-clearing double to make it 4-3. After 113 pitches, Sabathia is removed for a relief pitcher.

Rafael Betancourt enters the game to pitch to Miller. Miller pops the first pitch up to third, ending the inning. It's a battle of the bullpens now.

Top 8th: Crisp starts the eighth by singling to right off Rincon. Vizquel is looking to sarifice him over, but misses one and fouls one off. He pops a 1-2 pitch up in foul terrirory, taken by Chavez. Rincon becomes obsessed with Crisp at first, throwing over a few times and looking him back a few more. Crisp goes nowhere for the first two pitches to Lawton, then takes off on a 1-1 count and barely beats out a good throw from Miller. Lawton's at-bat runs to 3-2, when he's rung up on a checked swing. Eric Wedge barks at the umps from the Cleveland dugout, but Lawton went and knows it. Victor Martinez comes to the plate, this time hitting from the right side against the lefty Rincon. Rincon works carefully to Martinez, knowing he has a more favorable matchup against Hafner and that first base is open, but Martinez ends up popping up a low fastball to Crosby at short for the third out.

Bottom 8th: Bob Howry comes in to start the eighth for Cleveland, pitching to Durazo. Howry blows an inside fastball past him for a (taken) strike three. He misses with a pair to Crosby, then Crosby, sitting on a fastball, gets exactly that and parks it in the left-field seats to tie the game. Howry calmly returns to work against Swisher, goes 2-2 on him, and then hangs one that Swisher swats into the right-field seats. The A's take the lead, 5-4. Howry remains in, and induces a grounder from Scutaro back to the mound for a 1-3 groundout. Kotsay takes two balls, then lines a single into right, chasing Howry. Jason Davis, one of Cleveland's less-than-stellar performers, enters the game to face Byrnes, throws one pitch, then picks Kotsay off first to end the inning.

Top 9th: Octavio Dotel enters the game for the A's. Dotel has been notso-hotso against lefties this year, but gets Hafner to pop up to short on the first pitch. Dotel works Casey Blake inside-out and gets him swinging. Broussard hits a looper on Dotel's first pitch that Chavez catches over his shoulder, on the run, and the A's win, 5-4.

Well, crap. The Indians had that one in their gloves, and it popped out. Oakland's lead is now 1.5 games, pending tonight's Angels-White Sox game.

As for this inning-by-inning blogging, it's funny - I don't think I could do it for an Angels game. I'm way too focused on actually watching those games to spend this much time transcribing the action.

If you don't have anything nice to say... 

Posted 3:35 PM by Sean
I'm not exactly tickled pink about losing two of three to the Blue Jays, but, for now, I'm looking at them as back-to-back oddball losses. The first was lost because Guerrero lost a ball in the gloaming, and the Angels couldn't score a run in nine innings. The second was lost because Washburn's wheels fell off for five batters. These aren't good things, but I don't think they're necessarily indicative of what's to come.

They're going to have to play pretty damn well this weekend, though. A lot rests on Lackey's shoulders tonight; the White Sox are putting Jon Garland out there and, while Garland's having a tough year, he's fully capable of stepping up. Meanwhile, the A's throw Mark Mulder against Scott Elarton, which shouldn't be much of a contest.

We should start seeing information about potential tiebreakers soon. As a quick recap:

- If Oakland and Anaheim tie, and both teams have better records than the 2nd place team from the East, the tie is broken based on head-to-head winning percentage, and then intradivision winning percentage, and then a bunch of other stuff that doesn't involve a one-game playoff.

- If Oakland, Anaheim, and the 2nd place team from the East have identical winning percentages, the A's and Angels would play a one-game playoff to determine the division champion. The loser of that game would play the 2nd place team from the East to determine the wild card, thus getting a second bite at the apple, as it were.

- If Oakland and Anaheim tie, and both teams have worse records than the 2nd place team from the East - which seems the most likely of the tie scenarios - they would play a one-game playoff at a site yet to be determined.

It's too soon to be talking about this, of course, but what the hell. Last year, MLB posted the sites for the tiebreaker games on September 11, but this year the season lasts a few days longer. We should hear something early next week, I'd guess.

Meanwhile, over at the Orange County Register, there's a story pointing out the fact that Joe Maddon is a likely candidate to manage a team next year. I'm pretty sure I've heard that one before, but it wouln't surprise me.

Shouting Distance 

Posted 2:04 PM by Sean
Ah, Good Bartolo. How I've missed you.

A few random thoughts from last night's game, a 5-2 victory over Toronto:

* Bengie Molina caught Colon for the first time in several months. Nobody seemed to mind.

* Troy Percival is suddenly effective again, at least against the less-threatening offenses in the league. He's throwing a lot more off-speed stuff, and managing to get guys out with it. Cool.

* Jose Guillen returned to the lineup after being out for several days. His ailments apparently extend from carpal tunnel syndrome to neck, shoulder, back, and leg soreness, for which he's seen Bartolo Colon's personal trainer / physical therapist. Ordinarily, I'd say that seeing Bartolo Colon's personal trainer is a bit like seeing Ken Lay's accountant, but Colon pitched well last night, so he gets a pass today.

* Frankie Rodriguez got his 110th strikeout on the season, a new Angels record.

In other news, the Angels gave Ben Weber his unconditional release, making him a free agent.

Oh, and the Red Sox beat the A's last night. You might say they chewed Redman and spit him out, if you were inclined toward smokeless tobacco puns. In any event, the A's lead is down to 1.5 games, with these on tap for today:

Toronto at Anaheim (Miller at Escobar), 10:05 p.m. - The Angels need to keep the pressure on tonight. They're heavily favored by this matchup, and Escobar has been more than pleased to throw well against his old club in the past, so it should be a matter of execution tonight. Miller is terrible against lefties (.361/.448/.602), so look for good things from Erstad, Anderson, and Kennedy. Defensively, as long as Escobar's not pitching to Delgado with runners on too frequently, they should be okay.

Meanwhile, Boston and Oakland wrap up their three-game series with a Hudson v. Martinez matchup. This could turn out to be a classic, the A's struggling to avoid a sweep at home, the Red Sox looking to keep the pressure on the Yankees. Hudson's having a better year than Martinez, and has a real home-field advantage in Oakland against him. Boston has the best offense in the league, however, so Martinez will hopefully be able to focus on going after hitters and getting deep into the game without worrying too much about a run here or there.

News from the Territories 

Posted 1:55 PM by Sean
With the minor-league regular season now over, the Angels' farm teams at Provo (Rookie), Cedar Rapids (low-A) and Rancho Cucamonga (high-A) have all qualified for their league playoffs. Congratulations and good luck to them all.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? 

Posted 1:01 PM by Sean
If one doesn't consider the Red Sox games, the Angels have won thirteen of their last fourteen. It was great to see them shake the dirt of Fenway Park off of their spikes and sweep Cleveland.

And that play...man.

Top of the eighth, with the Angels clinging to a 2-1 lead. Lackey's pitched well, but is tiring, and gives up a leadoff double to Ronnie Belliard. Matt Lawton then grounds out to first, advancing Belliard to third. Scioscia removes Lackey, and the ESPN cameras catch Lack angrily saying "Goddammit!" as he sees Scioscia heading towards him. The Angels need a strikeout, however, and so it's Frankie Rodriguez in relief.

It quickly becomes apparent that Rodriguez has his A-plus-plus stuff. His breaking pitches are untouchable, 2002 ALCS good. He strikes out Omar Vizquel on three consecutive pitches to record the second out and remove the possiblity of a sacrifice, then quickly throws two strikes past Travis Hafner. As Rodriguez begins his delivery of what must surely be strike three, Molina shifts up in his crouch and I scream "block the pitch, Bengie!"

Sure enough, the ball breaks down and out of the strike zone. Hafner checks his swing in time, and the ball bounces, ricochets off of Molina's shin guard, and rolls about twelve feet to the third-base side of the plate. Belliard, who has a good lead, breaks for home.

Molina reaches the ball, grabs it, and flips a no-look toss over his shoulder to Rodriguez, who has hurtled plateward from the mound. Belliard begins his slide. Rodriguez slides in front of the plate, knocking Belliard to the side, catches the ball, reaches under his own leg, and applies the tag. Belliard never touches the plate, and is the third out of the inning. Joe Morgan is heard to say "Wow! Oh, wow!"

I know, I know. You know all this already. I don't care.

Anyway, Rodriguez retired the side in order in the ninth, preserving the Angels' sweep of the Indians. After yesterday's off-day, the Halos head into the last of their interdivisional games tonight - they'll have three with Toronto, three with Chicago, and then head to Seattle for the beginning of interdivisional play.

It's fairly obvious at this point that the Angels' best chance at the postseason this year will be the division title. Dropping three games to Boston dealt a severe blow to their wildcard chances; Boston has eight games remaining with teams that are over .500, while Anaheim has sixteen. Additionally, of course, the Angels have six games left with Oakland, and none left with Boston.

That suits me fine. There may be some Angels fans who are ambivalent about the Boston-Oakland series going on right now, but, as for me, I'm cheering every time Manny and Ortiz go yahd. After the A's loss last night, the Angels moved to within two games in the loss column.

Tonight's games:

Toronto at Anaheim (Dave Bush at Bartolo Colon), 10:05 pm ET - If Colon can find the strike zone, he should be able to go after most of the lineup and work around Delgado. Bush is having a fine rookie season, and the Angels will be able to use Jose Guillen if he can return tonight. The Angels have a huge bullpen advantage, so as long as Colon can limit the Blue Jays to four or fewer runs in the first six innings, the Angels should have a good chance at this one.

Boston at Oakland (Lowe at Redman), 10:05 pm ET - In advance of tomorrow night's Clash of the Titans, when Pedro Martinez faces Tim Hudson, the Red Sox will try to keep the ball rolling for Derek Lowe. Lowe has pitched pretty well over the last few weeks, and kept a pretty tight lid on the Angels in his last start. Redman, meanwhile, has been terrible at home in 2004. Check it:

Away - 102.2 IP, 2.98 ERA, .249 BAA, .716 OPSA
Home - 61.1 IP, 7.04 ERA, .347 BAA, .989 OPSA

I mean, Jeez. Now, that's a significantly higher number of innings pitched on the road for Redman, but here are the teams he's faced at home this year:

Seattle (6.0 and 6.1 IP)
Anaheim (5.1)
Minnesota (5.0)
Detroit (5.0 and 4.0)
ChiSox (6.0 and 7.0)
Toronto (5.0)
Pittsburgh (5.0)
San Francisco (4.2)
Tampa Bay (2.0)

So it's not like he happened to catch the Yankees in Oakland three times or anything. That's five starts against winning teams and seven against losing teams. Let's hope Boston can take advantage.

McPherson Called Up[ 

Posted 9:19 AM by Sean
Dallas McPherson will join the big club today.

Which is nice for him, I guess. He can keep Andres Galarraga (0 plate appearances) company.