Hopefully we won’t look back at this as a blown opportunity. One of the worst teams in the league made us look bad and the Angels had to win two close games in a row just to salvage a split. Fortunately, the A’s dropped two of three so the Angels are only a game out of first place with the Rangers right between us a half game back of the A’s.
Ervin Santana walked eight batters in 4 1/3 innings on Thursday. And while he gave up four runs, it was Kevin Gregg who took the loss. In the end, the Royals ran up the score on the pen and the final was 9-4. Vlad Guerrero had two hits and he drove in three runs. Macier Izturis scored twice.
Friday’s game was just as bad. The Angels were down 8-1 before they put three runs up on the board in the eighth to make it look respectable. Bartolo Colon and Brandon Donnelly both gave up four runs and Colon is now 1-5 on the year. Izturis drove two with a homerun in the eighth inning.
It took us ten innings to get back on track yesterday. Reggie Willits was yet another rookie to play for the Angels this year and he had a nice game. He went two for four with a run, an RBI and a stolen base. More importantly, it was his RBI single in the tenth that gave the Angels the winning run. The Angels had tied it in the seventh when Kendry Morales scored on a wild pitch.
Thank God for Jered Weaver. One run on three hits and four walks over 6 2/3 innings and he’s now 7-0 in his young career K-Rod struck out two in a perfect ninth to save his 25th of season. Rob Quinland drove in two runs in the 3-1 win.
Next up is a three game set against another bad team. The Angels have to take care of business because the Red Sox are after that.
