Greetings from 1:10 in the morning 

Posted 1:11 AM by Sean
It's late here in Dallas, but it's so ridiculously nice to actually win a close game that a quick post is called for. In essence, the lefties did, in fact, do pretty well against Jason Johnson, keeping the Angels in it when Lackey stumbled in the sixth. And then Shields was good, Rodriguez tottered and stumbled but didn't fall down, and Escobar was golden for three innings, long enough to bring around an inning that included a Guerrero single, an error, a sacrifice bunt, and a little single by Robb Quinlan through a drawn-in infield to win it. And so the Angels go back up by a game, with fifteen to play.

The A's, meanwhile, lost in the bottom of the tenth in Fenway, when Keiichi Yabu plunked Manny Ramirez with the bases loaded to force in a run. See, they suck too!

The Angels' win tonight was their 82nd of the year, guaranteeing them a second straight winning season. This is only the fourth time in team history they've had back-to-back winning seasons; the others occured in 1997-98, 1985-86, and 1978-79. They've never had three consecutive winning seasons, though they did finish exactly at .500 in 1984.

What comes around 

Posted 3:18 PM by Sean
Shockingly, Jose Guillen has thrown a temper tantrum, tossing equipment onto the field after being called out for arguing balls and strikes, and may be disciplined by the league - making him unavailable as the Nationals try to capture the NL wild card. Most embarrassingly clueless quote from Frank Robinson:

"You'd like to see him a little bit more in control," Robinson told the
Washington Post on Thursday, "and understand, especially in this situation, the
importance of having everybody available here and not being without one of your
better players for any type of time, even if it's one game."

Riiiiight. 'Cause the guy who went off on a screaming tirade for no apparent reason at Angel Stadium last June, then sulked in the dugout like an eight-year-old for the rest of the series, has all kinds of business talking about how folks should be "a little bit more in control."

Hey, Nats fans? Guess what? You're NOT different from everybody else - turns out Jose Guillen's a selfish prick when you're concerned, too. Boo hoo for you.

Notes on tonight's lineup 

Posted 12:19 PM by Sean
Jason Johnson, pitching for the Tigers tonight, has been considerably worse versus lefties than righties this season:

vLHB: .315/.360/.491, 12 HR, 184 TBF
vRHB: .254/.286/.357, 8 HR, 124 TBF

Johnson is also much more of a ground-ball pitcher against righties, with a GB/FB ratio higher than 2.0, while lefties put the ball on the ground against him only slightly more than they put it in the air.

With this in mind, I expect the left-handed contingent to feature prominently in tonight's lineup; I think we probably have to resign ourselves to seeing Steve Finley in center. If Guerrero is able to play tonight after jamming his shoulder last night, this sounds about like what Scioscia is likely to do:

Figgins - 3B (S)
Cabrera - SS (R)
Anderson - LF (L)
Guerrero - RF (R)
Erstad - 1B/DH (L)
Kotchman - DH/1B (L)
Molina, B - C (R)
Finley - CF (L)
Kennedy - 2B (L)

If Guerrero is not in the lineup, Scioscia will have to choose between leaving Figgins at third and moving him to right, a position he has played 10 times in his career (8 this year). Given his escapades last night, third base might be the better bet. Additionally, the other options Scioscia has at third are Robb Quinlan, who hits righties to the tune of .152/.204/.196, and Maicer Izturis, who's at a relatively respectable but not spectacular .266/.309/.383.

So that leaves us with the choice of who to play right field in Guerrero's absence, if indeed he is absent. Jeff DaVanon switch-hits, but is hitting .209/.324/.278 versus righties this year. Juan Rivera is a righty, but actually hits righties better than he hits lefties - .276/.318/.485. Given that he's been pretty obviously outshining DaVanon recently, Rivera would seem to be the logical choice. In that case, the lineup could get interesting. It's possible - maybe likely - that Rivera would just hit fourth, in Guerrero's place. It also seems possible, though, that the right thing to do would be to move Erstad up in the lineup to third, bat Anderson cleanup, and use Rivera - who did homer last night, after all - as protection for Anderson.

In any event, the one thing that seems clear is that if the Angels are going to turn things around tonight, they're going to have to get the guys who've been most obviously missing - Anderson, Erstad, and even Finley - to contribute. This game gives them just about the most favorable conditions they could have. In that sense, this game is a test, and the Angels damn well better pass, or get ready for a winter's worth of "what went wrong?"

Grim work ahead 

Posted 4:44 PM by Sean
Lest anyone think that just getting off the road and settling down to face Detroit is much of an incentive...

Tonight's pitcher for Detroit is Mike Maroth. The Angels have faced him twice this year, and lost those games 10-1 and 3-2.

The lineup is likely to feature the following:

Placido Polanco - would be second in the AL in batting average if they counted the games he played for the Phillies before being traded in June; hitting .361 since July 14.

Magglio Ordonez - power threat hitting .328 since coming off the DL July 1.

Ivan Rodriguez - future Hall of Famer with a little gas still left in the tank.

Curtis Granderson - speedy son of a bitch who's 8 for his last 16.

Plus power from Dmitri Young, speed from Nook Logan, and occasional contributions from guys like Brandon Inge, Carlos Pena, Chris Shelton, and Omar Infante.

Buckle up, gang. Bear down, Halos.

Travs up against it; Owl* on the verge 

Posted 1:27 PM by Sean
Rob's on hiatus, so it falls to me (okay, me and Stephen Smith, no relation) to point out that the Arkansas Travelers' season may end tonight. Down 0-2 to the Midland Rockhounds in the Texas League championship, the Travs will start Jered Weaver tonight in an effort to stave off elimination in the best-of-five series.

Meanwhile, the Pioneer League Orem Owl* (actual name too stupid to fully spell out) have a 2-0 lead in their championship series with the Helena Brewers, and will look to wrap things up tonight.

Stephen has links to webcasts for both games on his site.

No miracle, no dazzle 

Posted 9:55 AM by Sean
For Christ's sake, does nobody want to win this godforsaken division?

For the second straight game, the Angels lost a walk-off to Seattle, the worst team in the division, on a day in which the A's lost to the Indians. And, for the second straight day, the A's blew a winnable game on a day in which they had an opportunity to tie the Angels in the standings. You know, the Rangers aren't eliminated yet...

I suppose the good news for the Angels is that they actually seemed to show a little bit of sack yesterday, coming back from 6-0 early and 9-7 late, before finally boning themselves in the ear enough times to hand a series sweep to the Mariners. I wasn't able to watch this game until the very end - I saw Frankie intentionally walk Dobbs and then give up the game-winning single - but from all accounts the game turned on Maicer Izturis inexplicably being sent home on an attempt to score from first on a botched throw following a bunt. Ron Roenicke isn't exactly known for screwing up that kind of call, so I guess this one gets chalked up to simple bad luck and failed execution.

The other silver lining, I suppose, is that no one on the team can now possibly believe that they have the division won. I mentioned at the start of the roadtrip that these three games with the Mariners were dangerous, since the Angels might have a little letdown effect following their games with the Red Sox and White Sox, and maybe that's just what happened, serving as a stark reminder that they can lose to anyone, anytime.

We'll see tonight, I suppose, when noted burly individual and putative staff ace Bartolo Colon takes the mound looking for his 20th win, which would make him the Angels' first 20-game winner since God wore short pants. It would also solidify Colon's Cy Young campaign, a consideration that I suspect may keep him pitching regardless of how his back is feeling.

Meanwhile, the A's start a four-game series in Boston, and the Rangers host Seattle. I fully expect a Texas sweep of that series, adding the maximum amount of insult to injury.

Remembering to breathe 

Posted 11:33 PM by Sean
The Angels still lead the West by a game.

The Angels still lead the West by a game.

The Angels still lead the West by a game.

The Angels still lead the West by a game.

So THAT's why they play the games... 

Posted 1:20 PM by Sean
Last night's 8-1 loss to the Mariners was one of the few I turned off early; in this case when it hit 6-1 and it was clear that Piniero was going to continue his little run of giving the Angels fits. Fairly frustrating, since the Angels seemed to have several hard-hit balls, they just found gloves.

One-game playoff sites determined 

Posted 3:13 PM by Sean
The coin flipping has started. If the A's and Angels tie for first in the A.L. West, a one-game playoff will be held at Angel Stadium.

Interestingly, they have not yet seen the need to determine the site of a potential playoff in which the Angels would be vying for the wild card.

Twenty games 

Posted 2:56 PM by Sean
On the morning of September 6, the Angels found themselves in Boston about to begin back-to-back series with the other division winners. Though they led Oakland by 1.5 games, they also knew that the A's would be playing Seattle and Texas over that stretch, meaning that there was a good chance they'd come out the other side with a diminished lead, or even having given the lead up entirely.

Instead, here on September 12, the lead is 2 games. The Angels swept the White Sox in Chicago over the weekend with a tense extra-inning victory on Friday followed by a pair of games that were not much in doubt past the third inning or so. The Chicago series may have washed some of the bad taste out of the Angels' mouths after they played poorly at Fenway, where they were seemingly lucky to win one out of three, and now, from all indications, they need only continue to play well against a significantly easier schedule than the A's will face.

But how can you possibly follow baseball and expect things will be as easy as that?

The greatest advantage the Angels have right now is simply that they are in control. While the A's will be forced to watch the scoreboard, regardless of whether or not they win, the Angels just have to win and everything else will take care of itself. The A's have to worry about their best pitcher, who will miss at least another week and possibly the rest of the season. The Angels have a spare starter in the bullpen. The A's have to worry about Bobby Kielty and Mark Kotsay, both of whom will probably miss time with injuries, while the Angels have trouble getting at-bats for Quinland, Rivera, and Kotchman.

There are twenty games left in the season, and the Angels are in a position to begin stepping on some necks. If they can keep the intensity they've shown over the weekend, they'll be in fine shape.

Noted in passing 

Posted 12:31 PM by Sean
The Seattle Mariners have been eliminated from postseason contention; though they could mathematically tie the Angels, the Angels would have to lose all four of their games to Oakland - which would put the A's out of reach for the Mariners. They are also mathematically unable to catch Cleveland in the wild card race.