Angels Answer Adversity (62/81)

Down 5-4 in the bottom on the ninth, playoff hopes slowly slipping away, the Angels were down to their final two outs. As cliché as it sounds, the Angels were not going to go down without a fight.

With one out in the ninth, Erick Aybar was hit by a pitch then proceeded to steal second. Alberto Callaspo was up next and then walked to put the go-ahead run on first base.

21-year-old rookie phenom, Mike Trout, stepped up to the plate. With the pressure on, Trout quickly found his way into a 0-2 count. Not to be rattled, the undisputed Rookie of the Year showed composure extending far beyond his years and roped a broken bat single, that had more spin than a carnival ride, up the middle for an RBI base hit.

Thanks to Trout's clutch hit, the Angels were now tied at 5-a-piece with runners at the corners and only one out. Angel's veteran, Torii Hunter stepped up to the plate with the game on the line and hit a long fly ball that allowed Callaspo to score from third and the fireworks to explode. The Angels had beaten the Boston Red Sox for the fourth time in 7 days with a final score of 6-5.

The Angels had done it. They did not fold under the pressure of a ninth-inning deficit. With this kind of tenacity, clutch, and a little bit of luck, the Angels have a shot to erase their four and a half game deficit out of the Wild Card with 33 games left.

Angels Score 10 Runs, Tacos for Everybody! (48/81)

Over the years, the Angels have had many different sponsors for when they score 10+ runs in a game and win. In the past they've had Hooters provide 10 free wings if the Angels score 10 runs, Claim Jumper was in it in the past, and now Chronic Taco gives fans who show their ticket within 7 days after the game a free taco. It may not seem like much, but Chronic Taco makes some delicious tacos, and they'll put anything you want on it. My recommendation: go baja-style fish tacos. Click here to find a location near you.

Anyway, back to the game: Angels pounded on the Kansas City Royals 11-6 on a warm Wednesday afternoon at the Big A.

Third base coach, Dino Ebel (above) might need to get a padded glove for his hand soon with all those Angels players giving him hard high fives as they round third base after their home runs.

The Angels are 7th in the majors with 115 home runs this season, a big step up from last year when they finished 14th and in 2010 when they finished 13th. The Angels have always had decent power, but you never thought of them that way.

The Angels have historically been a small ball-hitting team, but with the emergence of Mark Trumbo's explosive bat, Mike Trout's insane mix of speed and power, and the addition of Albert Pujols, they're starting to get noticed around the league for their power.

After 99 games this season, the Angels are 3rd in batting average (behind Texas and St. Louis), 9th in RBIs, 5th in hits, 7th in doubles, and are in the top half of major league baseball in every offensive category. Gone are the days when Angels struggle to score 3 runs. With the offense clicking like this, the Angels can actually stay in shoot-outs with teams like the Yankees and Rangers, a good advantage to have when moving to the post-season.

TNT Connect, But Angels Fall Short (40/81)

Angels All Stars Mark Trumbo and Mike Trout (TNT) each blasted solo home runs, but it wasn't enough to overcome one mistake pitch by starter CJ Wilson as the Angels fell 3-2 against the Baltimore Orioles.

The Angels struggled to find their offense last night, but managed to do everything else right. Wilson threw only one mistake pitch to Oriole's first baseman, Steve Pearce, who turned it into a 3-run home run, but in a game where your offense isn't getting a lot of hits, one mistake can be costly.

You may or may not disagree with me, but for the Angels, their biggest problem right now is without a doubt situational hitting, more specifically hitting with runners in scoring position.

Over the past 8 games, the Angels are 13 for 69 (.188 average) with runners in scoring position. You stretch that out a few more games into June and that number only gets worse. The Angels aren't having trouble hitting home runs (even Peter Bourjos has a couple); they're having trouble hitting the ball when runners are on base. Granted, the numbers above don't take into account the Angel's trademarked small-ball like sacrifice flies, sacrifice bunts, and Trout scoring from first base, but the numbers are alarming.

If the Angels don't start hitting the ball in key situations, their luck is going to run out, their home runs are going to start decreasing, and they will start piling up loses because no team can sustain the Angels current winning percentage without being able to hit the ball in the clutch. We haven't heard from the guy in awhile because the offense had been so good for most of May and June, but its time to see what batting coach, Jim Eppard can do to turn this pattern around.

Angels Steal One in Their Return Home (39/81)

In what could end up being the AL Wild Card playoff matchup in October, the Angels erased a 4-run deficit to beat the Baltimore Orioles 9-7 in their return home to the Big A.

The Angels showed their resiliency last night after coming home from a roller coaster road trip, and the offense and bullpen refused to let poor starting pitching be the factor in this one.

There's a lot going on with the Angels right now, so I'll try to catch you up on the Hometown front:

Banged-Up Starters:

When the Angel's offense was struggling mightily in April and May, the starting rotation picked the team up with their powerful throwing arms and carried them until All Star outfielder, Mike Trout showed up to give the offense a swift kick in the rear.

Now that the Angels have found their bats, it puts less pressure on the starters to throw perfect games every time, but the end of the June and beginning of July have not been so kind to the rotation.

Dan Haren is on the DL with a sore back for the first time in his career. Jerome Williams is struggling in his rehab assignment and won't be back until after the All Star break. Ervin Santana is regressing after what looked like bounce-back starts, including a 1-hitter. And finally, despite the Angels bailing him out, Garrett Richards was optioned back to Triple A this morning after two terrible outings in a row.

Remember when Angels had 6 elite-level starters a little over two weeks ago? Yeah, me neither.

Brilliant Bullpen:

If you asked me before the season started if I would have ever written this headline about the Angels bullpen, I would have given you a resounding "NO!" Not only would I have been wrong, but lately the Angels bullpen has proved that they're just as good as any in the majors. For 5 innings they shut down the Orioles lineup that managed to smash 7 runs off Richards in the first 4 innings.

Mike Trout, The Modern Era Rickey Henderson:

All I need to do is show you ESPN's graphic comparing Mike Trout vs Rickey Henderson as the only two players to hit at least .343, slug .551, with 10 home runs and 23 stolen bases in their first 60 games before the All Star break. Reminds you of how good The Man of Steal was and how good Trout is going to be.

All Star Trumbo:

In case you didn't already know, Angel's All Star LF/RF/1B/3B/DH Mark Trumbo will be participating in the home run derby and he's not worried about his swing. The young slugger spoke with Garrett Anderson, who won the derby in 2007 as well as the All Star Game MVP, and was reaffirmed that he needs to approach the contest just like batting practice and not try to pull the ball too much. While he has a good a shot as any to win, I doubt Trumbo takes home the crown. I do, however, think he'll hit the farthest ball in the park (and probably outside the park too).

Angels Conquer the NL, Ready For Next Challenge (38/81)

Over the past 5 seasons the Angels have the best record in major league baseball in interleague play and put their stamp on their National League dominance with a 5-3 win over the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers Sunday afternoon.

Peter Bourjos hit his second home run of the year after a blown foul ball call by the first base umpire, Albert Pujols knocked in Mike Trout from second base, and Howie Kendrick and Mark Trumbo each broke 0-3 games with RBI singles in the 7th inning that gave the Angels the win. Garrett Richards tossed his worst game of the season and still picked up a quality start.

The Angels are having a blast right now, and why shouldn't they? With a 14-7 record in June and a 34-19 record since April 28 (rookie Mike Trout's 2012 season debut), the Angels have the best record in baseball in that time behind only one team: the Yankees (let's not forget the Angels won their last series versus the Yankees as well). Nobody can knock the Angels anymore because of their terrible start. As a matter of fact, if the season started on April 28, the Angels would be first place in the AL West, 4 games over the Texas Rangers (30-23 during the same period).

I will forever be confused and amazed with Mike Scioscia's coaching decisions. At the beginning of the season, I would yell at the TV or, while attending games, yell at the dugout for Scioscia's questionable decisions. I'm not sure if it was something Angel's GM Jerry Dipoto said, or the fact that Scioscia now has a lot more weapons at his disposal since the arrivals of Trout and reliever, Ernesto Frieri, but the Angels rotund skipper seems to make one right move after another.

Scioscia's bullpen-by-committee has been surprisingly successful and has turned around what was once the mockery of the American League to solid group of dependable relievers. Now knowing they're his team's biggest strength, Scioscia lets pitchers go the distance more often rather than pulling them early. He has gone back to what works with the Angel's small ball approach from guys like Erick Aybar, Maicer Izturis and Peter Bourjos, while at the same time allowing his power hitters like Pujols and Trumbo swing for the fences, and it works magically with Trout being able to do it all.

As we approach the middle of the year, we start to thing that this may very well be the Angels season to pull it off, or they may fizzle into oblivion in the second half. Only time will tell. However, no one can argue that this season has not been exciting.

Angels Big 3 Score Big (34/81)

The Angels scored their highest run total of the season on a day when C.J. Wilson didn't have his best stuff and beat the San Francisco Giants 12-5 to take game 2 of the series.

The Angels Big 3 (Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Mark Trumbo) did all the damage putting together 9 RBIs for the Halos. You can't expect this to happen all the time, but with the talent among these three, there's no reason the Angels shouldn't be scoring 6+ runs a game like the Texas Rangers.

Trout got on base all 5 at-bats and scored 4 runs. With a walk in the 8th he now qualifies for the major league batting title, second behind only Chicago White Sox's first baseman, Paul Konerko. Make sure to write him in when you're casting your All Star ballot.

I went to this game, and the Angels have a deal with Chronic Tacos that when the Angels score 10+ runs, all fans in attendance get a free taco. If you've never been to Chronic Tacos, you really outta check it out.

3 Things Santana Should Do To Get His Confidence Back (27/81)

Ervin Santana got shelled for what seems like every time this season, and the Angels couldn't overcome an early deficit as they lost to the Seattle Mariners 8-6.

Mike Trout had four hits, 2 RBIs and a run scored but it wasn't enough to erase the 7 runs Santana gave up in the first 5 innings.

Santana has not been right this year. Whether it's control or focus, he has not been able to miss bats very often. Santana has had the rap of a good year/bad year type of player. He would always follow up a good season with a bad to mediocre season. Last year was the first time he had back-to-back stellar years, and it made us forget about the whole Jekyll and Hyde persona. However, Mr. Hyde has reared his ugly head and, like Bruce Banner and the Hulk in The Avengers, Santana needs to find a way to get it under control.

A couple of solutions that might help the struggling righty:

1. Skip a start:

Give the guy a break, skip his next start and see if he comes back with a fresh look. We often hear about streaks and slumps that a batter can get into, but the same thing happens for pitchers too. If you're beating yourself up, you're going to continue to do so until something messes up your habits.

2. Send Santana to work with a veteran pitcher:

Guys like Chuck Finley or even Clyde Wright, who works right down the street, immediately come to mind. Just like Mickey Hatcher and the Angels offense, whatever Mike Butcher is saying to Santana is clearly not working. He needs to hear something different from someone else, a fresh perspective, to get him out of his own head and maybe fine tune his mechanics some more.

3. Send Santana down to Triple A to get his confidence back:

This one is the one least likely to happen as Santana has been a fixture in the Angels rotation for a few years now, and the Angels don't have any depth at the starter position with Jered Weaver out, but sometimes all you need to do is beat up on someone lesser than you to feel better about yourself.

Trout and the Angels Swim Past the Rangers (25/81)

The Angels escaped the Texas Rangers for the second night in a row as they won 3-2 and crept closer in the rear view mirror of the AL West leaders.

Unfortunately, Mike Trout will be destined for fishy puns for the duration of his career (possibly even worse than another fish-named Angel), but the kid deserves his headlines.

The highlight of the night was the Angel's two-run seventh inning lead off by an Erick Aybar bunt single and proceeded to steal second base with one out. Trout came up and hit a ground ball to the shortstop, Elvis Andrus, but Aybar cut in front of Andrus to disrupt the play. Andrus was convinced that the ball hit Aybar, but the umpires didn't agree. Alberto Callaspo, who has really found a rhythm now that the Angels have stopped the Mark Trumbo Third Base Experiment, lined a single to right field to get the lead. Albert Pujols walked, and then the second controversial play happened in the inning:

Kendrys Morales hit a short fly ball to Nelson Cruz in right field with Trout on third. The ball was hit so short that you would have to be out of your mind or crazy to challenge Cruz's arm. Trout was a little of both. Trout slid into home plate at the same time he was tagged by catcher Yorvit Torrealba and the umpire called him safe. Torrealba was livid, threw his mask down and began stomping around in one of the most comical tantrums I've seen in awhile. He was immediately thrown out of the game, yet continued to rid home plate of any bugs that might be hanging around. Replays were inconclusive, and really that call could have been argued either way. You can't blame the umpire for making a call when you still can't tell the difference when the picture is blown up and slowed down by 100x.

Trout's run provided insurance and eventually served as the game winning run as Scott Downs and Ernesto Frieri ran into trouble in the 8th and 9th innings. Downs gave up his first run of the year, and Frieri gave up his first hit as the Rangers got the bases loaded with 2 outs in the 9th inning. The Angels were able to escape and are now 4 1/2 games out of first place.

Oh yeah, and C.J. Wilson threw great as always, only allowing 1 run in 6 innings, and I think Scioscia pulled him for Walden too early.

Trout Wrecks the Rangers (24/81)

Jerome Williams pitched yet another quality start and Mike Trout turned into a one-man-wrecking crew as the Angels came back to beat the rival Texas Rangers 4-2 in Anaheim.

Angels entered Friday night trailing the Rangers by 6 1/2 games in the AL West despite winning 8 out of their last 10 games. Knowing how important this series was, its not surprise that guys stepped up.

Down 2-0 in the 6th, Trout hit a long fly ball off the wall that scored catcher, John Hester, and then scored himself on Albert Pujols fly ball to right field. Just like that, the Angels, who had not been able to figure out Ranger's starter, Colby Lewis, had a fresh ball game.

Angels found their luck when they got the bases loaded in the 7th thanks to a hit batter and an error by Ranger's second baseman, Ian Kinsler. Trout stepped up to the plate yet again, and drove in two go-ahead runs that turned out to be the winning runs with a single to right field.

One of the biggest factors to the Angel's revival of their season has not just been their new found offense, but the restructuring of their bullpen. It seems that Mike Scioscia has finally found the perfect combination with Jordan Walden in the 7th, Scott Downs in the setup role in the 8th, and newcomer Ernesto Frieri (above) closing out the games. Not only does this work, but with Downs and Frieri throwing unhittable pitches, Scioscia has been able to interchange them in the 9th inning in respect to left-handed and right-handed batters. It has worked more beautifully for the Angels the past two weeks than I've ever seen for another team that utilizes the "closer-by-committee" concept. However, Scioscia is looking for a guy to "fill the role," as he states, and is most likely looking at Walden, Downs, Frieri (in that order) to finish games when the Angels have the lead.

Trumbomb But No Sweep (23/81)

The Yankees ran away with the final game of the series and beat the Angels 6-5 Wednesday night.

Mark Trumbo hit his 4th home run in as many games, Mike Trout hit a 2-run double, but it wasn't enough to overcome an early hole set by the home run king, Ervin Santana.

Ervin Santana now leads the league in most home runs given up this season with 15. He and Scioscia tried to argue that its because Santana is aggressive and throws the ball hard. Yeah, it's okay to be aggressive, but creativity is more important when you're not missing bats. Santana needs to start pitching smarter. End of discussion.

Bullpen woes have all but disappeared during the 8 game win streak, but they came back in the form of Hisanori Takahashi. The middle-reliever came in to shut down the Yankees, but instead gave up a triple and a sacrifice fly to put the Angels down in the whole again. That's just devastating after you've been battling back from a 5-1 deficit, but hey, it happens.

Angels will face the Texas Rangers this weekend, and you can bet that I'll be there. Texas is coming off a couple of embarrassing losses to the Seattle Mariners, so you know they're coming to town with something to prove.

TRUMBOMB Walk-Off Leads to 7th Win in a Row (21/81)

"Exciting" would be an understatement to describe the Angels 9-8 win over the visiting New York Yankees tonight. "Explosive" would be more like it.

The Angels are walking around with a lot of swag lately as they extended their winning-streak to 7 games tonight and their record to .500 thanks to a walk-off home run by Mark Trumbo and some great team hitting, including a home run by Mike Trout (above).

For those that complain that baseball is too boring to ever watch, I invite them to watch this drama-filled game.

First, Angels lost their ace pitcher, Jered Weaver, after only 12 pitches due to a back injury. It looked bad. The guy may very well be out for a few weeks, but we'll see once they've ran some tests. Following the loss of their best pitcher, the Angels then gave up 3 runs to the Yankees in the first inning, digging themselves into an early hole with nothing but their bullpen to get them through the next 8 innings.

The team that scores first, usually ends up winning, unless of course the other team outscores your run total in the bottom half of the inning. The Angels strung together some key hits, and sure enough, after the first inning, the score was 4-3, Angels. Keep in mind, the Yankees get to keep hitting against the Angel's bullpen for the rest of the game and answered right back in the top of the 2nd to tie the game with a Curtis Granderson home run.

In the 3rd, Angels got lucky as Granderson and right fielder, Nick Swisher, ran into each other for a Trumbo triple. Howie Kendrick hit him in with a sacrifice fly. Angels up 5-4.

Trout homered in the 4th, but Mark Teixeira homered in the 5th. Angels got two runs in the 6th that looked like it might put the Yankees away, but the Bombers tied it up in the 7th with 3 more runs. 8-8.

Jordan Walden, who has been shaky all season until recently, came in and blew through the 8th inning. He did so well, needing only 8 pitches to get through, that Mike Scioscia brought him back for one more. Walden was still throwing heat, but ran into some trouble and loaded the bases with two outs. A bouncing ground ball to Albert Pujols' right ended the inning with a bang-bang play at second.

Now I was watching the game at home tonight with my dad, and he really likes calling shots. He calls so many shots that the Law of Averages states he has to get them right every now and again. Sure enough, not a minute after he said Trumbo would hit a walk-off home run, Trumbo hit a TRUMBOMB to kingdom come.

Hopefully Angels keep this win-streak going for the rest of the season. They only need to win 19 more games in a row to tie the longest win streak held by the 1916 New York Giants. Piece of cake.

Angels Avenge Their Shut Out With a Guy Named Mike (18/81)

Mike Trout had a home run, scored three runs, and stole a base (pictured below) as the Angels avenged their shut out loss from last night against the Oakland Athletics 4-0.

Looks like Angels have found their lead-off hitter, and Trout can do it all. The 20-year-old rookie showed again today why his name has always been included in the top 3 prospects since he entered the minors. With blazing speed and 30+ home run potential, he's the kind of guy that can make things happen all on his own. And that's exactly what you need from a lead-off hitter: a guy who can make things happen.

Could Trout eventually make it to the level of Dodger's sensational slugger, Matt Kemp, who is on a personal quest to reach the unprecedented 50/50 plateau (50 home runs and 50 stolen bases)? Only time will tell, but for now Trout is living up to the hype.

I'm trying to shorten my blogs and go with one theme now. What do you guys think? Leave a COMMENT in the comments section below.

Trout Swims Upstream (15/81)

Not quite as catchy as "Salmon," but it'll do.

The 20-year-old speedster hit his first home run of the season (the first for an Angels leadoff hitter) and stretched, what would've been a single for a lesser man, into a double as the Angels beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-2 at home last night.

When Mike Trout got called up after the release of Bobby Abreu, he was destroying minor league pitching with a .403 batting average. It's easy to say expectations for the rookie have been pretty high. While he hasn't been playing terribly, tonight was a great start to showcase what he's capable of for the year.

This isn't Trout's first time up in the majors, as he was called up last season and managed to hit 5 home runs in 123 at-bats (that's 5 more home runs in close to the same amount of at-bats as slugger Albert Pujols has had this year), but only managed a .220 batting average.

Mike Scioscia noticed tonight's, as well as last night's two hit performance.

"It's coming," said Scioscia. "He's getting more comfortable up here, playing every day. He gave us a big lift tonight."

CJK

C.J. Wilson got the start tonight and went 8 innings while striking out nine. He is now second on the team in strikeouts with 39 behind Jered Weaver's 45.  Of the two major off-season acquisitions by the Angels, Wilson is definitely carrying his own weight with a 2.61 ERA and 4 wins. Every single one of Wilson's starts has been a quality start for the Angels this year (min. 6 innings pitched giving up 3 earned runs or less).

An Angels 1st Baseman Homers!

But it wasn't Pujols. Mark Trumbo hit his fourth home run of the year after getting the start at first base with Pujols getting the day off. Trumbo has been hitting great this year and continues to give Scioscia reasons to play him every day.

Pujols' Day Off

After 27 games of struggling, Albert Pujols received his first breather. I've been saying it for awhile now, and Scioscia took the words right out of my mouth.

“I’m just going to give him a little breather,…” Scioscia said. “Sometimes when you’re trying to find something and you’re pounding your head against the wall,… if you take that half-step back and take that half-step to the right, there’s that huge door.”

Here's hoping Pujols cleared his head, maybe went to Disneyland or watched the Avengers, and comes back refreshed today.

Btw, the Angels are now 1-0 without Pujols.

Angels Get Blanked (13/81)

The last two days of being an Angels fan haven't been very exciting. As a matter of fact, they've been downright depressing. Lucky for me, I've been spending the last two days tapping into my inner-nerd by watching "The Avengers" and celebrating "May the Fourth" Star Wars-style. I think the Angels just need to have a day where they skip the game and go to Disneyland.

Just when you thought the Angel's offense was turning the corner after a nine-run game, they get shut out by Brandon Morrow of the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday.

Even if Angel's starters threw a no-hitter every game, they still would have found a way to lose. The offense only managed 3 hits in the 5-0 loss, and two of those hits came from a player who can't legally purchase alcohol yet.

Mike Trout led the 1st and 3rd innings off with a single, but was left stranded. Angels didn't get another baserunner until the 9th when Mark Trumbo hit a double.

Dan Haren had a rough 3rd and 6th innings, but otherwise pitched great. Mark Trumbo made a terrible throwing error that allowed 2 runs to score.

It feels like the last series with the Minnesota Twins was nothing more than an anomaly. I don't know what can cure the Angels woes, but they need to get their minds of baseball for awhile. There comes a point when you're trying so hard that you begin to get tunnel vision and fail to see other solutions. Angels need to take a step back, go to Disneyland, and have some fun. Nothing else seems to be working.

Is Jered Weaver the Best Pitcher in Baseball (4/81)

I feel like we're going to be asking this question all season: Is Jered Weaver the best pitcher in baseball? The answer is, "almost."



Jered Weaver got the 1,000th strikeout of his career tonight as the Angels blanked the Oakland Athletics 6-0. With his strikeout in the sixth inning, Weaver, 29, becomes the eighth player in franchise history to have at least 1,000 strikeouts, and, combined with his older brother, Jeff, became the sixth set of siblings to have 1,000 strikeouts.

Along with Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Justin Verlander, and Clayton Kershaw, Weaver is among the top 5 pitchers in baseball right now. Many would debate this and say Weaver is not even the best pitcher on his own team, much less all of baseball. Improvement tells the story.

In 2009, Weaver pitched good, but not great. In 211 innings, Weaver had a 3.75 ERA and struck out just 174. The next year, Weaver got control of his fastball and posted a 3.01 ERA with a whopping 233 strikeouts. Last year, 2011, Weaver upped his game to the next level by becoming a workhorse as well as a smarter pitcher. He lowered his walks per nine innings, lowered his hits per nine innings, had 198 strikeouts and a career-best 2.41 ERA in a career-high 235.2 innings. He continues to get better.

Tonight Weaver went 6 and two-thirds innings, striking out 6 while walking only one. He dominated an Oakland A's lineup that, quite frankly, is in the lower echelon of hitting, but it was important because he made a great rebound from his previous start against the Twins.

Weaver is the most competitive player the Angels have on their roster and will continue to improve. It's his Cy Young Award to lose this year because there's no way Verlander, the next best pitcher in the AL, matches his crazy numbers from last year, even with an improved offense.

One-Liners

Congrats to Kendrys Morales for smacking his first home run since 2010 tonight and successfully NOT breaking his leg on home plate as he finished his trot.

Can't blame Vernon Wells for not getting into a hitting rhythm when Mike Scioscia can't even pick a steady lineup, but he better take swimming lessons soon because he's about to get lapped by a Trout.

It's bad enough that Mike Scioscia can't pick a consistent lineup; it's worse that I agree with YANKEES coach Joe Giradi.