Braves 4, Dodgers 0 - Atlanta jumped out to an early lead, which is something you don't want to give John Smoltz. The starter-turned-closer-turned-starter hurled seven shutout innings just ten days ahead of his 40th birthday. The Jones boys (Andruw and Chipper) didn't produce a hit, but combined for three walks and scored three runs. The Dodgers had ten base runners and even juiced the bases in the fourth with nobody out. Smoltz still held......

Suns 113, Lakers 100 - The Laker's season could be down to one game. The Suns outshone Los Angeles and took a 3-1 series lead thanks to huge performances from Steve Nash (23 assists, 17 points) and Amare Stoudemire (27 points, 21 rebounds). Nash's assist total was one shy off the all time playoff record, held by Magic Johnson (who was in the stands) and John Stockton. Not bad company. On the other side of......

A week after LAist judged Angel outfielder Garret Anderson for refusing to wear Jackie Robinson's number on Jackie Robinson Day, it appears that the All-Star is agreeing with us. After explaining how Anderson was approached by Major League Baseball to wear the retired number during Sunday's game, the 60th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier, but passed on donning # 42 because it was Ken Griffey's idea, we concluded that anyone that shallow......

Anaheim Angels manager, and former Dodger, Mike Scioscia tried to defend his suddenly-controversial outfielder Garret Anderson, who last week told officials that he would not be wearing Jackie Robinson's number this Sunday to celebrate Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball. Anderson originally gave two excuses for dissing the dead Dodger by refusing to wear his number, 1) he said he wasn't going to do it because it was Ken Griffey Jr.'s idea and......

Earlier this week, Angels Third Baseman Chone Figgins suffered a broken finger that looks to keep him out for the first month of the season. The Angels are likely to start utilityman Maicer Izturis at the hot corner while Figgins is out, but this injury has got us thinking. The Halos spent all offseason trying to bring in big bats, but struck out when they went after guys like Aramis Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano and......

After a perfectly wretched first half, the Angels concluded their run into the All-Star break on a tear, taking three straight from Oakland. They started their second half just as hot, sweeping the mostly hapless Tampa Bay Devil Rays at home, despite some peculiar moves by Mike Scioscia, who apparently likes to announce his intention to use the suicide squeeze so often they're thinking of putting the hotline on speed dial. The Angels then......

When all you have is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail, and going into this weekend's series against the Diamondbacks, the Angels' offense looked like a whole row of ten-pennies waiting to get pounded in. Recently, Mike Scioscia confessed that while the team is awfully fond of on-base percentage (OBP) as an important statistic to measure for the team's offense, it really has a big crush on hitting with runners in......

Ervin! Los Angeles sports fans haven’t screamed that name since the heyday of the Lakers’ Showtime era (sort of), but a scrawny kid with a big arm game them reason to once again. Rookie Ervin Santana led the Angels to a Game 5 victory over the Yankees to clinch the ALDS with 5 1/3 innings of sudden relief after starter Bartolo Colon went down after just one inning with a shoulder injury. Santana did......

Most teams aren't thrilled to the play the Yankees in the playoffs. But the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are not most teams. For one reason or another, the Angels have played the Yankees extremely well over the years, which included an impressive 3-1 series win in the 2002 ALDS. If you recall, that was the series in which Mike Scioscia refused to go to Troy Percival in the 8th inning of game one,......

The Los Angels of Anaheim suffered a bitter defeat yesterday, falling to the Toronto Blue Jays 2-1 in a marathon 18 inning game. The loss was the fourth in a row for the struggling Angels, who have seen their AL West lead shrink to 3.5 games over the surging Oakland A's. While LAist still thinks the Angels will wind up winning the West, Bill Stoneman and Mike Scioscia need to be very concerned about......

So we admit that LAist has had a Dodger bias, since we were first published about a year ago. The Dodgers, unlike the Angels, actually play in Los Angeles, and have made a firm imprint here. The Angels--with whatever city name they like to play under--are just a team of the moment, and have a lot more catching up to do. But the Los Angeles of Anaheim team made a bold statement this weekend,......

It appears that Paul DePodesta and the Dodgers will retain Jim Tracy as manager after this season. If so, then it's a move we support. Let's be honest. Jim Tracy is a "yes man." He's a company man. Kevin Malone hired him because he knew Tracy would go along with whatever he wanted, unlike Davey Johnson. Dan Evans kept him, because, well, Tracy always stayed in line. And now Paul DePodesta is likely keeping......