6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

Nary a peep around here about the baseball postseason, but I will say I expected the Giants to be deposed in the first round. That they didn't seems to me more like luck than anything else; they got hot at the right time, and their starting pitching turned unaccountably invincible. The Tigers' feel-good story ended with the last out of the ALCS, vanquishing the Yankees in seven sweeping the Yanks, and proving that just because you have plenty of rest doesn't mean your pitching will be better for it.

An interesting followup on yesterday's last out: Sergio Romo's fastball really sucks, except when it doesn't.

Congratulations to the Giants, and bring on the hot stove.

Labels: giants, postseason, tigers, yankees

I have little to say about yesterday's game; Tim Brown's recap is exceptional.

So, no, seven starts into 2012, Lincecum hasn't been the same guy. He's giving up more than a hit per inning. His walks are up. There's something desperate in the way he pitches, more desperate than he usually looks with that fantastically unique delivery. Like he's searching for the right pitch and the right moment, for another inch or two on the fastball, for the next epiphany that leads him into the eighth inning with the ballgame in his back pocket.

Sad, actually.

ESPN Box • Dodgers recap

Labels: dodgers, giants, recaps

Three bunts, two predictably stupid outcomes:

• In the seventh, with men on first and second, Juan Uribe dropped a bunt that stopped rolling two feet in front of the plate. Buster Posey easily completed a 1-6-3 double play to end the inning.
• In the eighth, Bobby Abreu got a pinch hit walk, and then Dee Gordon issued a bunt single to put men on first and second. That one, surprisingly, worked. But then...
• Mark Ellis sac bunted them to second and third with Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier coming up. What to do if you're Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong? Why, the answer is obvious: take the bat out of Kemp's hand with an intentional pass, and take your chances with Ethier. Ethier grounded into a double play, and that was that.

The bunt is the stupidest percentage play in baseball, and these were reminiscent of some of Jim Tracy's idiotic games. (Aside: for those wanting to relive the misery of that era in Dodger baseball, Chris Jaffe earlier did a nice review of his career that's well worth reading.)

The best we can say about this game is that Vogelsong was on his game, but Kershaw's was a little less good. The Dodgers generally failed to cash in with runners in scoring position, getting only one hit in eight tries. Kershaw's winning streak comes to an end at five. Bleh.

Update: Chad Moriyama has more, including animated GIFs of the carnage and play-by-play win expectation percentages. Just ugly.

ESPN Box • Dodgers recap

Labels: dodgers, giants, recaps

Minus Pablo Sandoval (fractured hamate bone), the Giants' offense looks to be mighty weak, especially given the dearth of other power options in a lineup not lately notorious for same. Last night's game was really an exhibition of just how long this season is likely to be for that team, helped along by three errors that only managed to create one unearned run, by third baseman Conor Gillaspie's throwing error in the sixth.

Barry Zito delivered a quality start (just) for the Giants, but it was enough for the win by the Dodgers, who then proceeded to pound on an assortment of relievers thereafter. Ted Lilly managed a good outing against a depleted lineup, and in his support, the Dodgers hammered away. Matt Kemp went 3-for-3 with a walk, and earned chants of "M-V-P", which, yes, he is playing like that, but then Giants beat writer and infamous gourmand Hank Schulman took offense to in one of the silliest columns ever. The fat is congealing in his brain, apparently.

ESPN Box • Dodgers recap

Labels: dodgers, giants, recaps

ESPN reports that the Giants have extended RHP starter Matt Cain through 2017 on a $127.5M deal, including a full no-trade clause. $112.5M of the money is guaranteed, including a $5M signing bonus, a $75.M buyout for the 2018 season, and a player vesting option for $21M for that year as well. It's the richest deal in history for a right-handed pitcher. (Hat tip: Babes Love Baseball on Twitter).

Labels: giants, transactions

The Giants have a significant scavenger bird problem at AT&T Park (think pigeons and seagulls), and have thus far unsuccessfully brainstormed ways to chase them off. A native red-tailed hawk (nicknamed Bruce Lee) does what he can, but he's only one predator, and there are a lot of gulls. Bay Area Sports Guy suggests Barry Zito, falconer.

Labels: funny, giants

I suppose I should preface this by mentioning that my thoughts on last night's extraordinary news of the Dodgers sale will have to wait for a while or else I'll never get this recap out the door. Yesterday, a mostly regular-season Angels team beat a mostly regular-season Giants team, with the Angels scratching out single runs in the third and fifth off a clearly flaky Tim Lincecum. Lincecum uncharacteristically walked a pair and struck out only two; if he is going to return to dominance, he needs to step it up, and in a hurry. The Giants' ace has watched his walk totals increase while his strikeout rate has declined. His 2011 was not at the nearly 4:1 rate of his 2009, but it was still very respectable (220:86). Still, you get the impression that Lincecum will cease to wear the mantle of "top five starter in the league" soon if he doesn't stop this downward slide.

Peter Bourjos had a couple star turns in this game, ending the fourth with a spectacular grab of Brandon Belt's line drive in deep left center, just before us in the berms at the Giants' fine park in Scottsdale. Then, to start off the fifth, Bourjos smacked a screamer down the left field line for a double off Lincecum, and Bobby Wilson singled him home, a sort-of replay of the third. Unaccustomed to such abuse, the Giants fans in our section screamed, "Whatsamatter with Bourjos? He's a bum!" You wish, San Fran. You wish.

Brad Mills, one of the returns from the junkpile trade that shipped Jeff Mathis out of town, pitched surprisingly well. The two runs he allowed yesterday were the first all spring, so go him; perhaps a change of scenery will do him good. Or, not. We'll have to see. As one of the BPro wags put it, you will rarely go wrong betting against a sudden improvement. He did, at least, go long enough to qualify for the win (six innings), which is a good thing; I expected him to leave after four and change.

For the longest time, the game dragged on in late innings, still tied, and with little hope of resolution entering the ninth, I consoled myself that spring games go only to ten innings. After Jorge Cantu lined out to second, I found myself hung between hope (hard contact) and despair (one out closer to extras). Then, Trumbo doubled, instantly putting the winning run in scoring position. That brought Javier Lopez out of the bullpen for the Giants, who proceeded to walk the next two batters he faced before blowing the game open with a bases-clearing triple to Alexei Amarista. The Giants got one back in the bottom of the frame with Daniel Tillman walked the leadoff batter, a shortstop named Panik. I declined the invitation to panic, and even though he eventually scored, it came with a sac fly out from the left fielder, named Pill, and so the game came to a happy end for Angels fans. Amarista is making a real case to be on the 25-man when camp breaks, but I confess I have no idea what that would do to the bench.

Angels recap • Box

Labels: angels, giants, recaps, spring training

Harry Wendelstedt, father of current umpire Hunter, passed away today at 73; in Daytona Beach, Florida; of a brain tumor. He was perhaps most famous as the plate umpire on May 31, 1968, when Don Drysdale was pitching. With his scoreless streak on the line, Drysdale loaded the bases, and hit Dick Dietz, but Wendelstedt declared that Dietz had not attempted to move out of the way of the pitch, preserving the shutout.

Drysdale threw a 2-2 pitch that struck Dick Dietz on the elbow, and the shutout streak seemed to be over. But Wendelstedt, the plate umpire, immediately ruled that Dietz didn't try to get out of the way. Wendelstedt called the pitch a ball and told Dietz to get back in the batter's box.

"I'd never seen that call before in the big leagues," Lasorda recalled. "Never had seen anyone make it."

After a heated argument, the game resumed. On a full-count pitch, Dietz flied out and Drysdale wound up pitching a shutout. Orel Hershiser set the shutout record of 59 innings in 1988, pitching under Lasorda.

"Harry had a wide strike zone, he liked to see hitters swing the bat," Lasorda said, laughing. "Dick Dietz. Harry, he got him out. And the streak continued."

Labels: deaths, dodgers, giants, history, obituaries, umpires

Mark Saxon in his ESPN LA Angels blog writes that Angels scout Jeff Schugel was ousted from a Giants workout. The Giants, for their part, claim it was merely a misunderstanding. Strange.

Labels: angels, giants, spring training

It's long been theorized that the ability to use and detect irony is a sign of intelligence; may we infer the reverse? I certainly imagine that isn't an unreasonable outcome, and so I pass on this Hardball Talk report from spring training, in which Giants fans swing and miss at the obvious guffaw-inducing irony of calling out Ryan Braun for using steroids.

Labels: brewers, funny, giants, spring training, stupid ideas

Dirtbag vs. Dirtbag: Mariners 3, Angels 0

A pair of former CSULB Dirtbags on the mound last night, and it was Jason Vargas for the M's who walked away with the win. Vargas has been up and down with the Marlins, Mets, and now the Mariners for the last three years. He missed all of 2008 because of hip surgery, from which he finally recovered and, if this game is any indication, he's now actually living up to his promise as a quality third starter.

Of course, the Angels' tepid lineup had a lot to do with that. The Angels rookies are now looking like rookies, Mark Trumbo especially, hitting an anemic .159/.191/.254 in May. The Angels managed eleven baserunners and stranded all of them.

Jered Weaver took his fourth straight loss, but at least it was a quality start (and then some).

The Angels have been shut out in consecutive games. Ugh. Third place — and after that enticing but apparently misleading hot April, too! — beckons.

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Dodgers Show Life But Not A W: Giants 8, Dodgers 5

The Dodgers looked like they were gonna get creamed again after los Gigantes posted a 4-0 lead after four off an especially shaky Clayton Kershaw, who even granted them the favor of walking in a run. But the Dodgers somehow reached back to tie thing in the eighth, chasing starter Matt Cain, yet it wasn't enough. If Lance Cormier is on the mound, bad things happen, and sure enough, Cody Ross took him yard for the margin of victory, a three-run jack. This is a tough team to watch.

ESPN Box • Dodgers recap

More On Jamie's Attempt To Force A Sale

Multiple reports coming across the transom this morning from ESPN's Molly Knight and the LAT's Bill Shaikin. Jamie "resolve this situation for my family in a way that also advances the best interests of the Dodgers fans, players and franchise". She is asking for a sale of all Dodger assets, land, team, and other property; if the court declines to force a sale, she wants MLB to take over. Jamie apparently didn't want to sell but now feels it's inevitable. Meanwhile, Frank is doing a Hail Mary and asking Judge Gordon to force MLB to approve the Fox TV deal.

Labels: angels, dodgers, giants, mariners, mccourts, recaps

Stupid, stupid, stupid:

So: Bonds saying that he was a “celebrity child” who didn’t get into anyone’s business obstructed justice and brought down a prosecution over seven years in the making.

You cool with that?

This is only the beginning. I expect this will get torn apart on appeal, though the appellate judges may well overlook all this.

Labels: drugs, giants

Only losers do drugs, which is to say, the government is pleased to force the matter of "loser". A shameful moment in our history of jurisprudence.

Labels: drugs, giants

Dodger Fans, Including A Pregnant Woman, Assaulted At Angels Stadium

I'm going to start off this post with an indignant diatribe against fan violence no matter where it occurs. I generally find the atmosphere at Angels Stadium much more conducive to having a good time — more "family friendly" as they say — than Dodger Stadium, and not least because it seems there are more thugs at Dodger Stadium. But the latter has no monopoly on teh stupid, as this LA Weekly report indicates:

A poster at thedirty.com says the woman, 7-months pregnant, jumped in after her brother, in a Dodgers shirt, was jumped by a group of four Angels fans walking behind them and taunting them.

The woman was kicked and pummeled while she was down, according to the blog. Her companion, said to be her husband, jumped in too and helped to break it up.

No, really. Knock it off, now.

Dan Haren Day: Angels 2, Indians 0

Dan Haren (we may now surmise, a good trade) pitched a one-hit shutout for the Angels, their only offense being solo homers by Mark Trumbo and Peter Bourjos. Slumping Vernon Wells (a bad, and possibly career-ending trade for Tony Reagins) missed the start. It seems awfully sad that the Angels must work their starters so hard so early; I expect they will be forced to take it out in change at the end of the season, being all tuckered out. For now, I'm enjoying the ride, complete with a deep-space-vacuum of run suppression that Haren ended the game with: 0.73 ERA.

ESPN Box • Recap

Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory: Giants 5, Dodgers 4

Chad Billingsley gave up four of the runs the Giants needed to win this one, and only lasted five innings. He's having a slow start to his season, ending the game with a 7.71 ERA, but barring injury, he's still one of the league's better pitchers.

ESPN Box • Recap

Even More Roster Moves

• Josh Hamilton was placed on the disabled list after incurring a non-displaced fracture of the humerus sliding into home plate on Monday night. He could miss as much as two months. The Rangers recalled Chris Davis from AAA Round Rock to replace him on the 25-man roster.
• Former Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado has retired.

Mike Trout Has A Very Good Day

Two homers, one of them a grand slam, an infield single, a walk, and five RBIs overall.

Vernon Wells, I suppose you should be worried about playing time, though not at this exact moment.

Labels: angels, dodgers, giants, indians, mets, rangers, recaps, retirements, transactions

I'm going to get the Dodgers winning part out of the way first because it was the good part of the evening; the offense didn't look impressive at all getting there, in the end requiring a gift fielding screwup by San Francisco starter Carlos Sanchez that allowed pinch-hitter Hector Gimenez to reach on the ensuing error; but other parts of it were pretty good, as Matt Kemp's ground rule double in the third, and Rafael Furcal's RBI single in the sixth. More, Blake Hawksworth bent but did not break, getting out of a bases-loaded, two-out jam. It wasn't a great outing for him, but it worked.

No, the irritating part was the stadium security throwing Brandon Belt's home run ball back into the crowd. I know they're not too interested in getting things right there, but is it too much to ask that a guy's first major league knock go back to his own dugout? As with yesterday's beating of a Giants fan that resulted in said fan being hospitalized (possibly with permanent brain damage), Dodger Stadium security seems to be doing the wrong thing at the wrong time every game this season so far.

ESPN Box

Labels: bryan stow, dodgers, giants, recaps

This sounds like a job for Batman.

Labels: dodgers, giants, haha

As the days tick down toward pitchers and catchers reporting ...

• The Angels signed four arbitration-eligible players: Kendry Morales ($2,975,000), Howie Kendrick ($3.3M), Erick Aybar ($3M), and Reggie Willits ($775,000), each for one year.

  Ace pitcher Jered Weaver and catcher Mike Napoli still are eligible for arbitration. Weaver asked for $8.8 million while the Angels offered him $7,365,000. Napoli requested $6.1 million and the team proposed $5.3 million.

• The Dodgers signed a one-year deal with Chad Billingsley worth $6.275M, avoiding arbitration.
• An update to yesterday's announcement that the Dodgers had signed Marcus Thames: his one-year deal is worth $1M according to Rotoworld.
• Update: The Giants signed Cody Ross to a one-year/$6.3M deal. The Giants also reached single year arbitration-nullifying deals with Jonathan Sanchez ($4.8M) and reliever RHP Ramon Ramirez ($1.65M).

Labels: angels, dodgers, ex-dodgers, giants, hot stove, transactions

• Belated: Buster Posey (NL) and Neftali Feliz (AL) won their leagues' respective Rookie of the Year awards.
• Manager of the Year awards went to Ron Gardenhire (AL) and Bud Black (NL), the first time I can remember when both awards went to managers whose teams did not make it to the World Series.

Labels: awards, giants, managers, padres, rangers, twins

Well, that's over. Edgar Rentaria's three-run blast was, approximately, the last thing you expected to see. The Giants hit 162 home runs in the regular season, or an average of 27 per month (though the 39 they hit in September/October was perhaps a predictor).

Naw. It's just a crazy game. So, congratulations, truly, to the San Francisco Giants, who in 2010 erased years of futility, and perhaps more to my taste, will finally be able to do something about that atavistic level of Dodger fan who whips out the empty San Francisco World Series Trophy case at every opportunity. Frank McCourt seems to be a sort of penance for that already, and the burden now is just that much heavier. On the other hand, the knuckle-draggers in Baghdad by the Bay rioted almost immediately after the win. It even got instant work on teh Twitter and Foursquare:

"Nothing on MSNBC.com, FoxNews.com, CNN.com, or BBCNews.com about the #SFRiot. However, it is on Twitter and Foursquare, and it has a mayor," complained David Lowe via Twitter just after 1 a.m.

Cliff Lee immediately filed for free agency after the game. Salt in the wound, much?

How many days do pitchers and catchers report in?

ESPN Box

Labels: giants, postseason, rangers, recaps

Phil Gurnee hates the Giants and thinks a World Series is causing Dodger fan deaths. (See, "Baseball Rivalries And Marginal Mortality Rates", Gurnee, et al., J. Irreproduceable Results, Oct. 2010, v.3.) Mat Gleason is down with los Gigantes winning. Either way, I do not care, and will extend my congratulations to whichever team grabs the ring. So long as baseball is being played, the day is a little brighter. We'll have enough offseason for everyone presently.

Labels: giants, postseason, rangers