8 posts tagged “angel stadium”

But first, a quick rundown of the LCS predictions I made and how they turned out.

Thanks MLB, for scheduling this 3rd game between the Angels and Red Sox at 9 in the fucking morning on a friggin Sunday. 

Watching the Angels on TV dominate the Boston Red Sox by a final score of 5-0 was something to behold. John Lackey pitching 7.1 IP of shutout ball against the potent Red Sox offense.  Torii Hunter was the hero of the game with a 3-run BOMB off of Jon Lester into the centerfield rockpile which would end up being all the offense the Angels needed to win the game, though they managed to tack on another 2 runs off reliever Takashi Saito in the bottom of the 7th. Darren Oliver pitched the final 1.2 IP to loooock it up for the Halos.

But watching Game 2 at Angel Stadium, with 40,000+ fans, with not nearly as many Boston fans as you'd think (maybe because they were a lot quieter?) was an awesome experience.

• We had a fantastic pitcher's duel between one of the best postseason pitchers of the decade in Josh Beckett, and Jered Weaver, a solid #2-#3 pitcher in the Angels rotation who managed to keep Boston at bay the entire game.

• Boston struck first in the 4th inning when Jacoby Ellsbury led off the inning with a triple to deep centerfield, one of the few balls that Torii Hunter could not track down. 2 batters later, Victor Martinez singled him home. That was all the runs the Red Sox would muster.

• The Angels struck back in the bottom of the 4th when Bobby Abreu got to 1st with a leadoff single. Torii Hunter then hit a bullet towards the left side but it was caught by a diving Mike Lowell, making a fantastic play.

• The next batter, Vladimir Guerrero singled to rightfield while Abreu took off for 2nd, allowing the Angels to do what they do best. Run from first to third. Angels slugger Kendry Morales was next at the plate, hitting a line shot to J.D. Drew in rightfield, far enough for Bobby Abreu to tag up from 3rd and tie the game at 1.

• Weaver and Beckett continued to duel, with Beckett's pitch count more efficient, but Weaver was matching him on overall results. Weaver only gave up 2 hits in the entire game, both in the 4th inning. The only other baserunners allowed by Weaver were 2 scattered inconsequential walks to J.D. Drew and Jason Bay.

• The Angels finally chipped away at Josh Beckett in the bottom of the 7th when Vladimir Guerrero took, of all things, a leadoff walk on 5 pitches to start the inning. In a key managerial decision, Angels skip Mike Scioscia chose to pinch-run for his cleanup-hitting DH with Howie Kendrick, as the Angels had yet to run the bases on Jason Varitek as had been rumored to occur any time he was catching. It's a decision that paid off in spades. Kendrick successfully stole 2nd base after the first out had been made by Kendry Morales flying out to centerfield

• Juan Rivera couldn't get Kendrick home though, as he then grounded out to 3B Mike Lowell. Next batter Maicer Izturis, a .370 career BA against Josh Beckett, and a .327 hitter with runners in scoring position, got the job done. Mighty Maicer hit a shot up the middle into shallow centerfield that scored Howie Kendrick to give the Angels the 2-1 lead.

• But the Angels weren't done. Izturis then stole 2nd base, easily beating the throw from Varitek. Mike Napoli would get hit in the shoulder by a Josh Beckett pitch and took 1st base. Beckett thought Napoli didn't make an effort to get out of the way, but home plate CB Bucknor felt otherwise.

• By the way, as horrible as his Boston-screwing calls were at first base in Game 1, CB Bucknor didn't have any major problems behind the plate, giving all pitchers a consistent and somewhat liberal strike zone.

• With Izturis on 2nd, and Napoli on 1st, and still 2 out, Erick Aybar came to the plate. This would've probably been the time for Boston manager Terry Francona to go to the bullpen, but he stuck with Josh Beckett one batter too many. Erick Aybar launched a shot into deep centerfield for a triple, scoring Izturis and Napoli and giving the Angels the 4-1 lead.

• At this point in the game, Terry Francona had seen enough from Josh Beckett and brought in ex-Met closer Billy Wagner to stop the Angels' rally. He did so, getting Chone Figgins turned around to bat righty, striking him out.

• Despite a pitch count over 100, Jered Weaver came out for the 8th inning, promptly striking out J.D. Drew before it was time for his standing ovation from the Angels fans. Mike Scioscia went to the bullpen, bringing in lefty Darren Oliver for his 2nd straight game. Oliver struck out pinch-hitter Jed Lowrie but gave up a single to Jacoby Ellsbury.

• Scioscia went to the pen again, this time to righty Kevin Jepsen to face Dustin Pedroia. Jepsen induced a weak chopper short of the mound on the third base side. Jepsen made a nice fielding play and threw out Pedroia to end the 8th inning.

• Billy Wagner began the 8th inning for Boston by giving up a leadoff single to Bobby Abreu, and Tito had to keep the Angels from getting going again. So he brought in closer Jonathan Papelbon to stop things. Torii Hunter flied out to Ellsbury in CF. The Sox then pitched out first pitch to Howie Kendrick, throwing out Bobby Abreu trying to take 2nd base. Kendrick then struck out and we moved to the bottom of the 9th.

• Jepsen remained in the game to start the bottom of the 9th with the Angels' 3-run lead intact. Victor Martinez led off by flying out to Torii Hunter in centerfield for the first out. Kevin Youkilis hit a double into the left-centerfield gap, and then it was time for Angels' manager Mike Scioscia to bring in closer Brian Fuentes to face lefty David Ortiz.

• Though Fuentes has been very shaky this season despite a MLB-leading 48 saves, he's at his best when facing lefty hitters. Ortiz lined out to LF Juan Rivera for the 2nd out. Fuentes got ahead of Jason Bay on a 1-2 count before losing him to a walk With runners on 1st and 2nd, the tying run came up to the plate in the form of Mike Lowell.

• With fans of both teams on edge, Mike Lowell hit a flyball to deep centerfield, but not deep enough. Torii Hunter caught it with ease and the Angels won Game 2 of the ALDS by a final score of 4-1. Just another Halo victory!

Interesting stats about the Angels and the Red Sox:

This was Josh Beckett's first postseason loss since Game 3 of the 2003 World Series against the New York Yankees.

Through the first two games, the Angels' starters have given up a total of 1 earned run on 6 hits with a 0.61 ERA. The scary Angels bullpen? A 0.00 ERA.

If there's any team capable of coming back in the postseason, it's Boston. They were on the winning side of the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees (aka: the biggest collapse in baseball history) when they came back from a 3-0 deficit to win 4 straight games and win the ALCS before sweeping the Cardinals in the 2004 World Series. The Red Sox were also down 3 games to 1 against the Cleveland Indians in the 2007 ALCS before taking the next 3 of that series and then sweeping the Colorado Rockies in the 2007 World Series.

Boston has also been down 2-0 in the ALDS 4 times before. And twice, they came back to win 3-2. They did so against the Cleveland Indians in 1999, and the Oakland A's in 2003. The other two times? They were swept in 3 games by the Chicago White Sox in 2005, and the Cleveland Indians in 1995.

The odds still do heavily favor the Angels at this point though. Since the current playoff format was implemented in 1995, teams going up 2-0 in the Division Series have won it 31 of 35 times.

These were the first two consecutive postseason wins for the Halos since Games 2 and 3 of the 2005 ALDS against the Yankees.

So now the series shifts to Boston on Sunday morning at 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern in one of those "WHO THE FUCK SCHEDULED THIS GAME TO BE SO EARLY?" questions that only MLB could make happen. The Angels will be in a position to sweep the Sox in Fenway, and each game is an absolute must-win elimination game for Boston.

Considering the Angels already faced the best starters on Boston's staff in the first two games, the advantage should shift even moreso to the Angels with Scott Kazmir starting against Clay Buchholz. 

Buchholz has looked stellar for Boston during the regular season except for the last two starts of the season in which he got destroyed by both Toronto and Cleveland.  Buchholz has never pitched in the postseason.

Since coming to the Angels just prior to the August 31 trade deadline, Scott Kazmir has posted a 1.73 ERA in 6 starts for the Angels, going 2-2 with the club. He went 10-9 on the year with a 4.89 ERA, although he was pitching injured for much of 2009 and spent some time on the DL as well.

More importantly, Kazmir has been very successful throughout his career pitching against Boston. During the regular season, he has an 8-7 record with a 3.59 ERA over 130.1 IP in 23 starts. His career record at Fenway Park is equally impressive, going 6-4 with a 3.05 ERA over 73.2 IP in 13 starts.

In the 2008 ALCS against Boston while pitching with Tampa, Kazmir made 2 starts against the Red Sox. The first in Game 2 at Tropicana Field did not go so well, as he gave up 5 earned runs in 4.1IP, 2 of them solo homers by Dustin Pedroia, and another solo blast by Kevin Youkilis.  However, opponent Josh Beckett also lasted just 4.1 IP, and he gave up 8 earned runs in that game. Neither Beckett nor Kazmir were involved in the decision in that game which was won by Tampa in 11 innings by a final score of 9-8.

Kazmir's 2nd start in the 2008 ALCS went a lot better as he pitched Game 5 in Fenway Park. Kazmir pitched 6 innings of shutout ball on 2 hits, 3 walks and 7 strikeouts. Tampa's bullpen blew that game and the Rays lost by a final of 8-7. Kazmir did not get the decision but was in line for the win until he left the game.

If the first two games of this 2009 ALDS favored Boston because of the starting pitching which didn't pan out, then Game 3 of the series certainly favors the Angels if Kazmir can outduel Buchholz and whoever else Francona throws out there, as all hands will be on deck for the Boston pitching staff for the remainder of this series.

Here's hoping that Kazmir does so, sweeps the Red Sox, and the Angels move onto the ALCS to likely face the New York Yankees.

2 violent episodes raise questions about safety at Angel Stadium

After two violent incidents at Angel Stadium this season, one in which a man died while in a fight, and now an off-duty cop shot two people who were allegedly attacking him with bottles, there is a growing perception that the slimebag criminal and thug element that infests Dodger Stadium like a cancer is spreading to games in Anaheim.

Is this true?

Too soon to tell, and probably not. The fight that occurred earlier this season where a man died, was not between fans of different teams. It was, "Angel on Angel" violence so to speak, and the death was a freak accident that was not intended. The man hit his head on the concrete and died as a result. He was not stabbed nor shot, and while being punched in the face doesn't make things better, it's not quite the same thing.

The incident that occurred on Wednesday night is tragic, but still unclear as to what was going on. It is not believed to be a matter of Rockies fans attacking an Angels fan or vice versa. But what exactly happened, we only have the cop's version of. His story is that he was being attacked by two men with bottles, and he shot them to protect himself and his family. Both men are in the hospital, so it should be interesting to see what their side of the story is.

But these are extremely isolated incidents.

Violent events are not isolated at Dodger Stadium, and it is well-known that if you go to Dodger games rooting for the opposition, you are taking your safety into your own hands. Especially if you're a Giants fan.

America saw what kind of fans the Lakers had the night the team won the NBA Championship as they rioted and destroyed downtown Los Angeles. If you saw footage from the victory parade at the Los Angeles Coliseum 3 days later, you could see a lot of those same "people," just better-behaved due to the overwhelming police presence and "zero tolerance" criminal behavior policy they had in effect for the parade.

The Dodgers share that same element of fans and if they ever won the World Series, Los Angeles would be decimated.

The Angels do not typically attract the same type of fan because most Angel fans have class. There will always be people who are the exception to that, but the organization has a well-deserved reputation for being family-friendly and having a fanbase that is primarily well-behaved. The same cannot be said for Dodger fans.

Longtime Angel fans quoted in the L.A. Times article above may fear that things are getting worse at the Stadium, but that doesn't seem to be a valid fear at this stage. Hopefully it never will become legitimate.

Delgado’s day/night splits this season are now at a point where there is enough of a sample to derive data from, since the Mets have now played 81 games this season.

And the differences are… day and night. Overwhelmingly.

Delgado’s numbers during day games - .295/.352/.616 (.969 OPS)
Delgado’s numbers during night games - .190/.283/.291 (.573 OPS)

He now has 10 HRs in 30 Day Games (116 ABs), compared to 4 HRs in 49 Night Games (179 ABs).

Over the last 2 seasons, Delgado’s numbers during day games were better than night games, but not substantially enough to raise a red flag. Over the course of his career, he’s been pretty even, with a slight skew towards better performance during day games than night games.

This season, it’s a huge difference.

Then it got me wondering... Of those 4 HRs in 49 night games, when during the game did it take place? Was there natural light in the sky? Was the sun on its way down? Or was it truly "night"? So, I did a little more researching and looked at the video replays of those HRs.

Delgado's 4 HRs during night games came...
May 22nd vs Atlanta (7:10pm start) - 2nd inning - natural daylight
May 23rd vs Colorado (7:05pm start) - 6th inning - dark night sky, zero natural daylight
June 18th vs Angels (7:05pm start) - 4th inning - This one was hard to tell. Even though I was there, I don't remember the amount of light in the sky when the HR was hit. The video clip of the HR doesn't give you a good idea either. Sunset that night was 8:08pm, which is probably around the same time of the 4th inning. I did see natural daylight in the sky in the video clip of Marlon Anderson's sac fly that scored Reyes the previous inning, so my best guess is that there was indeed still a fair amount of natural daylight in the sky.
June 20th vs Colorado (7:05 start) - 2nd inning - natural daylight

So basically, when it's really dark out, you know "nighttime," Carlos Delgado only has 1 HR in 2008.

Game 2 of the 3-game interleague series between the New York Mets, now managed by Jerry Manuel, and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, ended with the Angels beating the Mets 6-1 behind the insanely great pitching of John Lackey.

While this was billed as a big-time pitching matchup, a battle of staff aces, Johan Santana doesn't pitch well against the Angels, and even less so when he's at Angel Stadium. Santana was 2-3 with a 4.05 ERA in 10 games - eight starts - against the Angels. After tonight's loss, make that 2-4 in 11 games, 9 starts against the Angels. I don't know the ERA offhand but it's definitely gone up.

Here are the key points of the game:

• Angel John Lackey was great. He scattered 6 Hits in 7.2 IP, walking 1, striking out 7, and the only run he gave up during the game was when David Wright hit into a double play, scoring Damion Easley, who replaced Jose Reyes after was pulled from the game by Manuel after he seemed to tweak his hamstring running to first on a leadoff single. I'm told that on TV, Reyes was shown throwing a tantrum in the dugout after being removed from the game. Apparently he thought it was just a temporary thing, but Jerry Manuel thought otherwise. All I could see from my vantage point was when Reyes threw the helmet, but no one knew what had happened.

• The Mets defense was terrible. They would've lost the game either way, but they committed 3 charged errors, and probably committed another 2-3 during the game that didn't make the official scorecard. Carlos Beltran could've nailed Vladimir Guerrero at the plate, but his throw to Brian Schneider was on the first base side of homeplate, allowing the Angels' 3rd run to score in the 1st inning.

• Johan Santana didn't pitch well, and earned the L in this game on his own. 4 of 5 Angel runs were scored on 8 hits in 6 Innings. Santana walked 2 and struck out 5. Angel catcher Jeff Mathis also connected on a solo blast in the bottom 6.

• Aaron Heilman pitched again tonight, and was perfect in the 7th. Heilman quite possibly saved last night's game by striking out Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter with 1 out and runners on 1st and 3rd. The Mets led 8-6 at that point, so it was imperative to escape the inning.

• Claudio Vargas pitched the 8th, gave up an unearned run thanks to some more poor defense by Fernando Tatis and Luis Castillo, but at that point the game was pretty much over anyways.

The teams will meet tomorrow night in the rubber game of the series when Oliver Perez faces Jon Garland. Initially I thought this matchup favored Garland since he doesn't pitch very well at home, and has not looked anything remarkable lately. Then I heard that the Angels record against lefty starters is something like 12-3 this season, and with Perez' propensity to walk batters even in his GOOD starts, the Angels are a team with speed that will create problems for Perez.

This may end up being a battle of which pitcher sucks less. Considering the Angels scored 6 runs each in the first two games, the Mets pitching staff is going to have to come through Wednesday night, or the team will continue to slide, no matter who the manager is.

The New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Monday, 6/16/08 by a final score of 9-6.

A very exciting offensive-based game from start to finish with a lot of edge-of-your-seat moments, here are the key reasons why the Mets were able to take the first game from the Angels:

• Staked Mike Pelfrey to a 2-run lead in the first, and tacked another run each in the 2nd and 3rd innings to go up 4-1 after 3 innings. One of those runs was a Jose Reyes creation. He ledoff the game with a walk, moved over to 2nd after Castillo grounded out, stole 3rd base with ease and ran home on the errant throw by catcher Jeff Mathis that went into leftfield.

• Carlos Beltran finally hitting the longball. 2 of them. As I've said a bajillion times, Carlos Beltran is the key to the success or failure of the 2008 Mets. If he puts up 2005 numbers, this team is going to do poorly. If he puts up 2006 numbers, there is much hope for the postseason. But he needs to turn things around over the course of the season. Let's hope that tonight was the beginning of that.

• Offense as a whole. Jered Weaver looked very average tonight, not the way he's pitched over the past 5 starts at all. The Mets' offense had to take advantage of that, and they did.

• Pelfrey didn't pitch great, but he left the game with the 4-3 lead, and didn't choke in clutch situations. Pedro Feliciano's shoddy relief ended up charging runs to Pelfrey in the 7th. But hey, for once Pelfrey got the W!!!

• Top 7, the Mets scored 4 very important runs off the Angels. Weaver left the game with baserunners on 2nd and 3rd. He was relieved by Jose Arredondo, who has been extremely effective for the Angels this year with a 0.69 ERA coming into the game. That ERA almost doubled to 1.32 after Arredondo couldn't stop the Mets. 2 runs charged to Weaver, 2 to Arredondo (though only 1 earned).

• In what had to be the most important part of the entire game, with runners on 1st and 3rd in the bottom of the 7th inning, and Pedro Feliciano failing to record Angel outs, Aaron Heilman was brought into the game to face two right-handed All-star bats in Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter. Despite the ginormous lump in the collective throats of Met fans, with 1 out and only up  by 2 runs, Heilman may have made his best appearance in the 2008 season by not only striking out Vlad, but also striking out Hunter. VERY clutch performance from Aaron Heilman, a guy who needs to make these kind of performances the rule, not the exception.

• After the scary bottom 7th inning, the Mets tacked on another insurance run in the 9th thanks to a Jose Reyes leadoff double. This was actually a single in which Reyes deked RF Gary Matthews into making a throw to 1B when Reyes was already in-between the bases, and went to 2nd on the throw. Very smart baserunning by Reyes. Then a Luis Castillo sac bunt that moved Reyes over to 3rd, and a David Wright sac fly that put the Mets up 9-6.

• Duaner Sanchez pitched a perfect 8th. Billy Wagner wasn't lights out, and did allow 2 baserunners with 1 out in the bottom 9, giving the Rally Monkey a chance to make a difference for the Angels, but Wagner got Garrett Anderson to hit the ball hard at SS Jose Reyes, who promptly doubled off Chone Figgins at 2nd base to end the game.

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Since the Arizona Diamondback series at Shea Stadium in which the Mets lost 2 of 3 thanks to Billy Wagner blown saves, and the "Willie Watch" which picked up steam as a result, the Mets have since won 3 out of their last 4 ballgames.

One wonders if it's a coincidence that whenever the Willie Randolph firing rumors boil up, the Mets win more ballgames. After the initial May 26 meeting that Willie had with the Wilpons and Omar Minaya, the Mets took 3 straight series (Florida, Los Angeles, San Francisco) before then losing 6 of 7 to San Diego and Arizona.

It's still too early to tell, but it's a curious pattern to take note of. Maybe this team requires consequences in order for them to play better baseball.

Game 2 of the 3-game series is tomorrow with a battle of top aces Johan Santana vs John Lackey.   I highly doubt the final score will be something resembling 9-6.   

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.