Dodgers, Angels Both Sweep
There's a rumor going around A's circles that Milton Bradley has super powers, chief among them the ability to cause otherwise sensible general managers to trade him for valuable prospects, in this case, Andre Ethier. Ethier's had some very good moments in a Dodger uniform lately, including his 4-5 night in Monday's 10-4 pounding of the Snakes, and a solo homer in yesterday's 5-4 victory. Brad Penny notched a career-best 10-2 start with yesterday's win.
The series' oddest moment no doubt came in Tuesday's 11-3 blowout, a game in which Nomar Garciaparra got hit by pitches three different times by three different pitchers. As is required by custom, retaliation came against ex-Dodger Shawn Green, but Danys Baez hit Luis Gonzalez the next day; in all, seven batters got plunked in three games, an unusually high total.
A couple more roster notes deserve mention here: the Dodgers sent down rookie Hong-Chih Kuo to Las Vegas, returning old friend Giovanni Carrara to the 25-man roster, fueled by Kuo's extremely erratic control. Lastly, thanks no doubt in part to Albert Pujols' injury this year, Nomar Garciaparra is leading the balloting for NL first basemen, and you can still vote for him up to 3:00 today.
The Dodgers finish their pre-All-Star break games with four against the Giants, with the pitching probables going down as Matt Cain vs. Mark Hendrickson (hold yer nose), Matt Morris vs. Chad Billingsley (pretty even), Noah Lowry vs. Derek Lowe (advantage: Dodgers), and Jason Schmidt vs. Aaron Sele (good luck with that, then, Dodgers).
The Angels, who've had a rough first half, benefited from the A's loss on Wednesday against the surging Tigers to pull within four of first-place Oakland going into tonight's series opener against the A's on the road. Beating the M's 7-1, 14-6, and then 4-0 in a remarkable complete game by Bartolo Colon, the Angels finally have started getting good offense out of their lineup. Despite slumping still, Chone Figgins remains in leadoff, but the real story is Kendry Morales' string of good games; he was 6-13 in the series with three of his hits going for extra bases, including a home run in the first game of the series.
For fans of rookie sensations, it didn't get much bigger than Monday's matchup of "King" Felix Hernandez and Angels college phenom Jered Weaver. Weaver won the match handily, giving him a 5-0 record to start his major league career and equalling the club record of Dean Chance, who also won his first five starts.Hernandez pitched well until he started giving up hits, at which time his body language morphed into that of a guy fighting himself on the mound.
Jered's brother Jeff, who never really got off on the right foot with the Angels, got traded to the Cardinals in a fairly even swap, considering the circumstances; the Angels couldn't get much for him once Weaver the Elder had been DFA'd, and Terry Evans, an old-for-his-league AA player lately on a hot streak, has the potential to be something the Angels need: an outfield bat.
If the Angels can take the coming series with Oakland, they get to one game back of the A's or possibly tied for first if they sweep; if they lose it, they're right back to seven or even eight games back at the All-Star break. The pitching matchups look at least even if maybe not a little better than that for the Halos: Kelvim Escobar vs. Esteban Loaiza tonight, John Lackey vs. Barry Zito on Friday, Jered Weaver vs. Joe Blanton on Saturday, and in the last game either club will play before the break, Sunday's matchup of Ervin Santana vs. Dan Haren.