Well, this was a kick in the you know what. The hapless Royals rolled into town against the best home team in baseball (at the time, the Brewers now have one more home win then the Angels now) and left with three consecutive wins. So not only was the four game winning streak cut short in the opener on Monday, it’s now a distant memory.
Today’s game was probably the most disappointing because the Angels couldn’t do anything at the plate. And rallies were squashed by other mishaps. There were two double plays that the Angels hit into and then two hitters were caught stealing. So even though the Angels racked up ten hits, they stranded only six batters.
And a fantastic start by Jered Weaver was totally wasted. He gave up just one run on four hits and one walk with six strikeouts in seven innings and in three of Weaver’s last four starts, the right hander has given up one run or less. This also snaps an impressive five game winning streak as well. In fact, in Weaver’s last eight starts, he picked up wins in five of them and the Angels won seven of them. That’s a nice ratio.
The MVP (Vlad) had five hits in the series but he didn’t drive home a single run and he scored just once. And it’s not that he didn’t have a chance. In today’s game, with runners on first and second in the first inning, he hit into an inning ending double play to squash the rally.
Ervin Santana continued his struggles yesterday and his ERA is now over five and a quarter. Probably the biggest surprise about is record isn’t that he’s 5-8, but that’s he’s pitched so poorly and still picked up five runs. Although that’s not completely fair because he had a nice stretch earlier in June where he was pitching better. It just seems like for every start where he gives up one run, there’s another where he gives up 6+.
The Angels hit the road and they head to Baltimore for a three game series with the Orioles beginning Friday. Normally I’d say this was a slam dunk but after this week’s sweep, anything goes. And while the Athletics have hit the skids and lost five straight, the Mariners have made up for it by winning five straight so the Angels lead is now down to five games. Still comfortable, but it’s something to where if the Angels get swept again down the road, things could get tight in a hurry. Kelvim Escobar takes the mound on Friday and he’ll face Brian Burress in the opener.
