A weekend at Angel Stadium - Angels vs Dodgers 5/17/08
After winning the opener Friday night of the freeway series by a score of 4-2, the Angels continued their insane dominance of the Dodgers in Anaheim. The Angels have won eight of the last nine, gone 15-3 in the last 18 meetings played in Anaheim, and lead the all-time series 36-27.
By the end of the weekend, that would change to 16-4 over the last 20 meetings between the two, and the Angels would lead the all-time series 37-28.
Saturday's game pitted the Angels' undefeated Ervin Santana against the Dodger's Chan Ho Park.
Of course, you're wondering, is this 1998? Nope, it's the final chapter in the career of the former Dodger, Ranger, Padre, Met for .5 seconds (1 start, 4 IP, 7 ER), and Dodger again.
That last Met start that Park made was on 4/30/07, and was the last start he had made at the MLB level. He's mostly been used by the Dodgers in long-relief out of the bullpen, and has done pretty well in that role.
On Saturday, he made a spot start for L.A., and matched up against Ervin Santana, you would think for sure that this one was going to the Angels before the first pitch was ever thrown. But, as is the unpredictability of baseball, that wasn't the case.
The Dodgers struck first on Santana in the 2nd inning when 3B Blake DeWitt hit a 2-run HR into the chest of a Dodger fan sitting in the front row of the RF bleachers. The fan dropped the ball, and Angel manager Mike Scioscia argued briefly for fan interference, but the umpires ruled it would've cleared the wall regardless. After seeing it on replay at home, I'd agree with the ump's call. Still, plays like that are the primary reason why baseball MUST have instant replay.
The Dodgers scored two more in the 3rd by after a leadoff walk to Rafael Furcal's replacement at shortstop Chin-Lung Hu, then Juan Pierre got HBP. Andre Ethier and Russell Martin each singled in a run, and the Dodgers went up 4-0.
The Angels fought back in the 4th with their only 2 runs of the game, one of them on 1B James Loney's throwing error to 2nd. It could've been worse for Chan Ho Park, who had gotten his pitch count up to 82 in just 4 innings. Did I mention that gametime temperature was 100 degrees?
So after 4 innings, that was it for Chan Ho Park, and also it for the chances of the Angels scoring again. Because now it was time for Hong-Chih Kuo, and I'm really tired of seeing this guy.
Kuo is an otherwise bad pitcher (1-4, 7.42 ERA in 2007, struggled to stay with the Dodgers) who owned the New York Mets last season in 2 starts. He then relieved a struggling Hiroki Kuroda on May 6 against the Mets at Dodger Stadium, and shut down the Mets offense for the rest of the game before Broxton and Saito finished things up for a 5-4 Dodger victory.
Sure enough, Kuo shut down the Angels for 4 IP scattering 3 hits, striking out 4, walking none.
The Dodgers tacked on 2 more runs in late innings to go up 6-2. Takashi Saito pitched the 9th for Los Angeles, gave up an inconsequential run, got the save, and the Dodgers won in Angel Stadium for only the 4th time in the last 7 years by a final of 6-3.
I believe this was the first time in MLB history that pitchers from South Korea (Park), Taiwan (Kuo) and Japan (Saito) combined for a victory. You'll have to check with Elias on that.
Ervin Santana didn't pitch that poorly, but he got no run support from his team, and he has looked better in most of his other starts this season. He suffered his first loss this year, going to a 6-1 record.
