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Halos Heaven

A New Hope

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NOT a rally thread.
Game. Set. Match.
This thread came just a tad too late.
I hope Darth Vader can hit a slider
They might as well just end the game now.
can I play femal and just cry?
female*

knock yourself out!

leading ladies always faint. LOL
too ticked to faint. I'd be happy to go hormonal on their haloed asses though
Femal?

Are you trying to tell us something?

remind me to smack you one whenever I see you

better yet, offer is OFF for Rocky & Bullwinkle

YOU are the one who talked about going all "hormonal on tehir haloed asses".
exactly..that's why I don't need hormonal relief.

that will be enough therapy

And don't forget to smack me one whenever you see me.
OK...you owe me tacos anyway
If you are in town tomorrow, I'll be buying.
nope

off day…& both kiddies in tow. Did I tell you about the oldest?

not lately.

something new in the last couple of months?

I know we're not supposed to be overly pessimistic...

But if you’re not dismayed by the way this team is playing right now, you’re simply not paying attention.

I am dismayed.
Goodnight guys

we had it close but theres just no way now

Nice early commit to the rebound off the wall.

Probably the second thought that came to GA’s mind. The first being “Home run, I guess I will mozy back there and watch it.”

ET seems rusty.
Job security for Willie!

Didn’t anyone tell the Angels that these NL teams are lousy?! TIHS

did anyone tell the angels they are lousy

at scoring runs

did someone actually need to tell them?

CLANK

E3…sheeez!

E3????

Kotch made an error? Holy shit, this game is definitely over then.

I wasn’t watching—setting up my daughter’s new computer (graduation present). WTF happened?

Slow ground ball to his right.

He takes a couple of shuffle steps and dives down for the ball…and misses it completely.

We'd better see some lineup changes tomorrow.
amen to that, but it will only be for one day.

GA won’t start against Santana, and Rivera/Willits won’t get 5 hits, so GA will be back in there on Wednesday.

Whoo, epic meltdown for Jose though.

Welcome to the bigs kid. You are now officially an Angels reliever- long periods of insane awesomeness occasionally interrupted by brief moments of extraordinary suckitude.,

Extraordinary suckitude?

Castillo got a perfectly placed single, Wright got a double and Kotch made an error.

I was more referring to 4 runs in one inning.

Plus, it was a general observation about the pen in general. Some people’s suckitude will necessaily be worse than others.

General in general, huh Zu?

Man, I’m a literary GENIUS.

There goes his gold glove

He needed to be perfect to get it over Youkilis

espn would have never let Casey win it!
Is this a look at life after Frankie?
no more excuses about not having players

our offense is terrible and is now affecting our pitching and defense

yea Chone and Howie are back and contributing and still an anemic offense
The Game isn't over yet though.
time for the monday blow out switch

next inning out comes, juan, willts and q

we win 4 sure then! :)

worthless steal

now they are piling on

Another home game

Another blowout

The Angels must not like their fans

I've gone to like 6 games this year and they've lost 5
stay home, please. or, become a red sox fan?
well last year I don't think I saw an Angels loss in person, so it's not me
At this point I would be happy with a 12-9 loss.

I can already concede the loss, but I would find a moral victory in scoring the 9 runs.

we have had a lot of blowouts this year
Just 10 actually.

11 assuming we don nothing tonight.

scioscia needs to address that for reals
Nice hit HK.
We need a 3 and 4 hitter in this lineup

Someone, anyone explain to me why GA is batting 3rd…c’mon…

Balance in the lineup.

We need a black hole in the top half, too.

That explains muchly!

Thanks! :D

Just for giggles,

can we try to hit the baseball over that big green fence in the outfield, like other teams get to do?

Howie is pissed at Gary I bet

well he can join the crowd

wow gary has seen more pitches in this at bat

then in his las 10 at bats

11 pitch epicness by Juice here.
surpising that HGH could make this much contact
HK is now too worn out to scrore from 2nd on a base hit.

just glad he didn’t pull a hamstring and miss the rest of the season! :)

a rarity

great AB by gary

Here comes Mathis, GO ANGELS!
3 more base runners
and we are back in this

oh wait does that sound like a miracle

Guess it's a good thing we're the Angels then. >:)
Oh baby! Here we come!
MONKEY MONKEY
randolph needs to be fired

for keeping Pelfrey in for so long

5ive is alive
Hey GA, did you see THAT?!?!

Mathis did his job at the bottom end, now you are going to need to do your job at the top end.

BUT, I thought you said we NEED a black hole at the TOP of the lineup too??? I thought that was GA being GA!

Now we need to regain the BALANCE. If Mathis does well, GA needs to do well.
and the beat goes on....
id go for a couple more walks followed by a grand slam
I'd go for the HR now, THEN two walks.

That would put us back at the point inthe lineup that started all this success.

Clutch hit Mathis, way to come thru
For the Love of God, please do NOT hit into any DPs!
what's the scouting report on the mets' pen?
Meat...extra rare! :)
that's what i like to hear

what about the angels lineup….???

boo you blue!
Jose Feliciano pitching...
MONKEY MONKEY MONKEY
Give in to the Night!

In a world beyond controlling
are you gonna deny the savior
in front of your eyes?
Stare into the night!
Power beyond containing!
Are you gonna remain a slave for
the rest of your life?
Give in to the Night!

I can't yell...kids are asleep

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Figgy 8-5

nice 18 hopper up the middle to score HGH!

WHERE'S MY RALLY MONKEY!?
OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD

It’s a certifiiable RALLY!

Ramma damma ding dong Figgy! Go Izzy!
the fans are getting into it

pretty rare, especially when the halos are losing by 3

home run home run home run

and we tie this thing

Singles got us this far.

Don’t fix what ain’t broken.

rooting for a 5’7” guy to hit a HR is asking a little much!

I am hearing the Disneyland fireworks out my window

and I keep getting fooled into thinking that the current batter just hit a HR, and I am behind on my DVR.

Gazoooooo - fielder's choice boooo!

WHY IS GA IN THE THREE-HOLE!?
let's go my man GA
just do it, garrett
Whew.

No DP. Come on GA. If there was a time…

HEY GA....

Let’s play pretend…pretend you are a 3 hitter !

pretend you can still hit lefties.
YES!!! BALANCE IN THE FORCE ONCE AGAIN!!!
or pretend it is 02 and you are a young hitter in his prime
be a hero GA
YES

GA PULLS IT OFF

I LOVE IT WHEN I'M WRONG!

RALLYYYYY MONKEYYY!

OPTIMISM

GA gets a clutch hit and RBI

LIke I said. Maintaining balance in the lineup for Mathis.
6 runs

Someone check hell, see if it is frozen

i don't believe what i'm seeing
Vladdy time!
yes GO GA

time for vlady to put us in the lead

YEEEEESSSSSSSS!! GA!!
Give in to the Night!

In a world beyond controlling
are you gonna deny the savior
in front of your eyes?
Stare into the night!
Power beyond containing!
Are you gonna remain a slave for
the rest of your life?
Give in to the Night!

now's the time for a HR

c’mon vladdy!!

Oh...

I thought someone FINALLY started a thread about Star Wars.

An Angels comeback? Meh…

heilman 'bout to get rocked
3 run homerun

feel the power

What has happened to Vlad?
It's his helmet.

They are making him keep it clean this year, else be fined. It’s all about the helmet.

really

lets get who ever made that rule up

I still think it's the hair

but i never even considered the clean helmet

I joke about the helmet, BUT

the notice to clubs IS true, and that IS where Vlad keeps his pine tar (he doesn’t wear gloves).

Time for Vlad to pretend he is still a 4 hitter!

C’mon Vlad

OUCH K3YEROUT!

Ouch.

You’re up big game.

Torii, weren't you watching Vlad's at-bat?

Look out for the outside slider!

bring the pain, torii

lay off the f#*#(%#& slider!!!
hanging slider, and he missed it.
Good AB so far by Torii.

Cash in, big guy!

I should shut up.
need one more hit
Failed
Eh.

3 runs, back in striking distance. Game ain’t over yet.

I mean Vlad

not the inning

dammit!

At least we got 3 out of this inning

Photobucket

I like a woman who loves to blow thing up!
screw the guys who make all the money
Nice inning fellas...

keep on keepin’ on…

lame ending to a great rally

Angels are now within 2, though!

the game is not over yet
way to let your team down

thats the kind of crap that will never win you a championship

what?
did i stutter
that was my stanley impression
cupie saw you take that pause

while writin’ that up.

Yes. Yes you did.
whatever, heilman threw some big time pitches
we needed some big time hits from our big guys

i dont think that is too much to ask. it not like mathis and wood just Kd

i'll take 3 runs per inning
how about seizing a prime opportunity to take the game
they took the opportunity to get back in it

wtf do you expect, 5 runs per inning?

with runners on the conners and one out down by two

i do not expect back to back strikeouts

if they score enough runs to get back in the game

i don’t care how badly it ends

really?

you dont care if they win or not. i am with you. i would rather seen them make some sort of a comeback then nothing at all. all i am saying is that when that comeback is happening it is a little frustrating when your big guns kill hit with back to back k’s i dont think that is unreasonable

We do better when people aren't calling for homers.

Call for singles. We seem to do well when we do that.

or walks
I count one walk and four singles.

The SIngles seem more important. Though the 12 pitch BB was pretty freaking epic.

I would personally donate $1000 if every Halo settled for a single through one time in the order.

9 straight base hits in one inning. $1000 to the charity of choice.

You're on.
You convey the message to the team.

Rev knows how to track me down.

I am on the record.

needed to at least cash in the guy on 3rd

but at least we’re within striking distance
now c’mon pen!

Wow, nice pitching by Ollie!
Anyone else notice that Figgy is taking trips to the mound more often?

What do you guys make of that?

doesn't like to feel left out?
I guess he has lots of lost time to make up for.
he's a savvy veteran now

full of advice for our pitchers.
also, didn’t he used to catch at some level?

Where's those come from behind Angels we know and love from yesteryear?

We need ‘em now.

Nice hold Oliver.
Back to work offense!

Kotch!
HK!
Juice!
I choose you!

2 of those guys need to join the Angels hit parade
Ok, Oliver, now go sit next to WTY and explain to him what it is that you do for a living.
GO ANGELS! Come on Kotchy!
Dangit Kotch.
Nice try though.
The rally isn't meant to be, apparently.
Seems that way.
our rally was last inning

limit one per game i guess

We had a pretty good one going in the 4th too.
most boring inning of all time
They treated the 8th inning as though the 7th inning was yesterday.
GMJr. Double
That was a really dumb play.

GMJ got duped bad.

hgh missed the little league years
You mean the years when they teach you to run the ball right at the runner?
totally...

i am trying so hard not to be negative… but that is fundamental baseball.

yea all he needed to do was force Reyes to commit one way or the other
Well, by my count--given all the errors, and the ump's bad call,

We’re actually winning this game 7-6.

You must be one of those sabremetricians.
I used the pythagorean theorum.

Honest.

And you are about as good at it as he was.
Woot!

Wait…

Speier sighting.
pelfrey had a terrible line...

...6 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 0 K

Juts In- Speier us!
Just out of curiousity, what's the rating on the awesomeness of this game

if we actually do come back and win? Scale of 1-10.

Right now it would be a 7.

Nope. Speier failed. Now it would be an 8.

if the Angels win, it's a 10
David Wright is obnoxious.
That run is on HGH
yep

mental error. do they have HGH that helps the brain?

You need to remain positive. For example:

“That was a brilliant example of intelligent baserunning on the part of Reyes.”
or
“Reyes showed the Angels just how use his head on the basepaths.”
or
“National League baseball is sure a nice style the Halos would do well to imitate.”
or
“Reyes totally pwnd the Angels tonight. We gotta long couple of days ahead of us.”

"It's not over until it's over"?
Thanks for not keeping us in suspense there Justin.
chalk that one up for HGH
Angels vs Wagner for the 3-run save.

Whose run of awfulness will end first?

(My money’s on Wagner).

I am done with HGH...

fine, you can barely hit .250, but you cannot pull a boner in the outfield like that.

I'm with you.

His stellar defense was his only life preserver. Now he got nothin’.

well, at least Seattle lost...

...oh wait, they don’t matter any more

Uh pinch hitter.... puhlease!
let's go fellas... let' rally some shit up!
Eh. Why not?

I wasn’t doing anything else tonight anyway.

Damn Marine layer.
uh Mathis just isn't going to hit a ton of homers either
certainly not a 4 run shot with the bases empty.
ok

i like it

Figgy on.

I still say there’s no way this actually happens though.

Tying run at the plate. And its...!

Oh. Yeah. Mebbe you be right.

Yeah. You had it right. GA. DP. Nothin' new here folks. Move along...
I was really hoping I was wrong.

Man, he really nailed it though. Too bad.

let me explain baseball to you guys

This is a game played by two teams, one out the other in. The one
that’s in, sends players out one at a time, to see if they can get in
before they get out. If they get out before they get in, they come
in, but it doesn’t count. If they get in before they get out it does count.

When the ones out get three outs from the ones in before they get in
without being out, the team that’s out comes in and the team in goes
out to get those going in out before they get in without being out.

When both teams have been in and out nine times the game is over. The
team with the most in without being out before coming in wins unless
the ones in are equal. In which case, the last ones in go out to get
the ones in out before they get in without being out.

The game will end when each team has the same number of in’s out but
one team has more in without being out before coming in.

But who's on first?
LMAO

David was watching Cubs vs Dodgers…Hu was on first
http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=464341

Yeah. Who?
HU
That's what I'm askin'! Who's on first?

Look, you gotta first baseman? What’s his name?

I'm tellin' ya...Hu's on first!!!!!!!!!!!!

What is on second!!!

Who said anything about second base!
NO, Hu is on first
When you pay off the first baseman every month, who gets the money?
I thought he plays for the Dodgers....
I emailed this to my English wife ...

... and a few of my other British friends. It was fun to watch their heads explode.

Gazooo singles

man this game would be a bit more exciting right now if not for

GMJ’s gaffe

the figgy and izzy show

Darn this team for making me have hope!

RALLY TIME!

hope is better than nothing

although it does make failure hurt more

for the love of God, go GA!!
let's go my man GA!
Oh man.

No way. I refuse to be sucked in.

you already are

if you weren’t you would turn off the game

I know.

I was trying to deny it to keep it going. Oh well.

wow he didn't swing
2-0

LET’S GO, GA

GA, that was SO unclutch.
omg, that's why Hatcher should be fired in a nutshell
Almost had a 3/4 hitter sighting

Or not…just another Halo loss! :((

SHIT...

don’t hit into a double play GA.

JINX! man....
GA has a clutch limit of one
GA GA GOO GOO
wwwwhhhhhaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!
that 1-0 pich was no where near the strikezone,

Wagner has been struggling horribly with his command, GA is not hitting for power and he’s given a green light.

with a sub 400 OPS in June
everyone gets a green light on 2-0
when GA is being a complete black hole

and Wagner has been struggling to find the strikezone tonight and in the recent past, I think it’s an easy take

I think you if you swing and nail the sucker

then it’s hard to blame the hitter. Poor luck on a LD. It sucks but that’s all it is.

GA's not in the lineup to walk

2-0 is a great hitter’s count. that’s Baseball 101.

well he's certainly hasn't been in it to hit it. sub 400 OPS in June
2 RBI this game.

Nailed the pitch. I don’t see how it’s a bad decision.

he had a sac fly and a single

if he was going for a homer or something maybe… but GA doesn’t have a homer against a LHP all year, he takes a pitch, he has a much better shot of just getting on base, and he’s still in a hitters count.

Or he hits a single and it's 2 runs down, with our best hitter up, 2 men on.

You can’t just hope the other team does all the work for you. It was a good pitch to swing at, and he nailed it. Asking guys to take pitches like that is asking them to fail.

it was over the plate

and he hit it hard.

It was grooved down the plate. Nice fastball. Sweet location.

So GA does what he does best: pulls his lead foot and steps in the bucket, cutting his power and pulling his hands through the swing. He inside outs a weak line drive to SS. If he steps AT the pitcher, he uses his power to drive through the fastball. That ball goes to the outfield, between the gaps. It’s gapper at least, HR at best, warning track at worst.

other side of the coin

if he swings at it worse, he pokes it into left field for a hit. no bitching from HH.

We have seen him swing at it worse. That's GIDP time.

But this isn’t one of those one-in-a-million chances. It’s what he does habitually. He got away with it when he was younger. he needs to start playing SMARTER now that his natural physical skills are diminishing. If he is going to insist on a roster spot, he owes that much to his teammates. Stop stepping into the bucket and regain some of that power he is bleeding in his old age. His hands are still great, and he had one of the best pitches to hit all night. Gotta do better in that situation.

I would argue that the principle failures of this game were

1. Defense
2. Weaver
3. Relief pitching
4. Baserunning
5. Vlad and Hunter in the 7th.

As situational exploits go, GA smacking a line-drive that happens to result in an unlucky DP comes in a distant 6th, if that.

I ain't implying otherwise.

Although I would put baserunning higher up the list.

I just am saying that I just watched that pitch over and over and over again on my DVR, and it was not as brilliant of a stroke as you guys think it was.

not a "brilliant stroke"

but certainly not the weak GIDP we’ve seen him knock into. all i was saying is that if you’re looking to place blame, Zu’s list is far higher than a less-than-adequate AB by Garret.

Neither of us is saying brilliant

we just reject it as being the “auto-wrong” call.

Good. Cuz it wasn't brilliant.

Not anywhere close to BOTG, but he got to see the sweetest pitch offered up by any Mets pitcher all night, and he took himself out of his own swing. It sounded good. It looked good. It sounded good. It seemed good. But it could have been great with just the slightest adjustment.

Game of inches.

Seems good is all you ever get.

These inches are correctable.

Stride to here, not here.

Eh.

GD puts it on the outer half, with a hard break back towards GA. Little less break and it’s the perfect swing for the ball, which would be totally unpullable. In the space of a hundredth of a second, GA chose to go for the likely hit rather than winner-take-all gamble. Such is baseball.

HR would be sweet

but not mandatory. Base hit was all I was asking.

Base hit was all he was trying for.

It just didn’t work. He guessed an inch too far to the outer half. :-P

Anyway, we can quibble on the exact nature of whether he swung the right way or not. My original point was (I think) that swinging in general was a good call in that situation.

It was a good call.

2-0 is a hitters count.

That pitch was perfect for attacking. If you are not going to swing at something that meaty, what are you doing? I understand the point of “take a strike”. But complaining afterwards about not taking that approach is only valid if the pitch GA swings at was a ball. It was not. Had he not swung, he would have had his strike. The count would be 2-1 and he would have already seen the best pitch of his at-bat, and perhaps the only mistake from the pitcher that he will see at all. It wasn’t like that pitch was iffy. It was meat. Raw, red, perfect meat. The only guy whose job it is to stand there and look at something so ideal is Willits.

exactly, you give a hitter a green light 2-0 if he's going to hit a 3 run homer

not put a Rod Carew opposite field single swing on it

Opposite field single worked better than 3-run homers in our rally inning.
HK lead off with an opposite field single and that was it in the 3 run rally

GA can’t get an opposite field single on a 2-1 pitch. That 1-0 pitch by Wagner showed he had little command, and the Angels should have been forcing him to throw more pitches because of that.

So that's one opposite-field single to zero homers.

Explain how my statement was inaccurate.

gross assumptions

and bizarre strategy. the way to knock in runs is to hit the ball, not hope for a walk when the count is only 2-0.

GA can get a hit with a 2-1 count, but he is almost going to draw a walk for sure if the count is 3-0
another gross assumption
He MIGHT get a single at 2-1.

But that’s no reason to decide “take” at 2-0. You swing if it’s a meatball in the zone, and it was. If it wasn’t GA doesn’t swing.

that's interesting. Carew's a HOF-er

i wanna hear what you have to say when the Angels walk off on a slap single. are you going to criticize it because it wasn’t a blast to the gap?

We've done that 3-4 times this year.
they were 3 runs down

A slap single to left does the exact same thing as a walk, with Wagner was trying to dole out.

2-0 is a hitting count, not a taking count

only NL pitchers are forced to take in that situation.

A slap single to left scores Figgins from second.

I’ll bet on that every time. A walk is a theoretical non-entity. Wagner had walked Figgins in a 7 pitch AB. There is ZERO evidence that a walk was forthcoming to Anderson with Vlad on deck. Fact is Wagner WAS wild, and that made his pitch to GA the regain-command meatball pitch. You freaking swing at that pitch and hit it on the screws, you made the right decision, every time. It’s the best pitch you’ll get a shot at, period.

Theory

saying that the 2-0 pitch is the best one GA is going to see is more theoretical than myself saying GA has better chance of just getting on base if he takes the 2-0 pitch. You admit Wagner was wild which would indicate his chances of walking a batter are greater than normal and should he throw a 2-0 strike he is still pretty likely to throw another “meatball” based on his admitted wildness.

Wagner was wild

but he’s also a guy with 300+ career saves. Hoping that his nerves spontaneously break down at this point is a little over the top. He “might” throw a meatball. He “might” not. My point is, he DID throw THAT meatball, and GA did what you’re supposed to do in that situation, i.e. not try to do too much, hit it on the screws for single. Bad luck makes it a double play. It’s still the right call, or failing that, a good call, not deserving the kind of scorn you’re dishing out.

and GA is going to end his career not even having HALF the walks Carew had.

With that game situation and they type of hitter Carew was I’d bet my bottom dollar he’d be taking a pitch after seeing him walk a guy 3 runs up and nearly throwing one to the backstop

you have no idea what Carew would do

you’re just making it up to “support” your argument, which is weak at best

you both are arguing the wrong point

although GA game ending double play was super lame, and kinda what we have come to expect, there were blunders far greater than GA’s

i agree

i was just arguing that GA’s last AB wasn’t as bad as some are saying. Zu’s list above is a good list of reasons why the Angels lost tonight, and GA was part of the solution more than the problem in this game.

Yup.

But GA’ll end his career with a WS ring too. Carew walked 4 times in the 82 ALCS, with 0 RBI to show for it.

fuckity fuck

can’t blame GA, hit it on the screws

that was June AND July there
and another rich guy kills the rally
Jeez, how unlucky.

Hit it on the screws and it’s right at the SS.

GA is the anti-poon
arredondo takes the blame on this one
Weaver gave up a ton of extra base hits

Arredondo gave up one, and a perfectly placed single by Castillo

true

i just checked the box score. Weaver 6 ER and 2 HRs. you can’t expect to win with that kind of line

wrong

he didnt put the first two runners on or make kotch miss a grounder

I'd better read about a team meeting in the paper tomorrow.
No

If there is one it will be to celebrate scoring more than 4 runs.

why wasn't vladdy batting 3rd?

at least there would have been the threat of a 3-run bomb

The Mets are practicly jerk@#$ eachother off...

in celebration on our field.

because they know Soth would never dare retaliate, the Mets must have watched the past couple postseasons

and watched the Red Sox show up the Angels and Mike stand by doing nothing about it

thats funny cause its true
the Red Sox are the f'ing worst...

at pleasing themselves on our field.

We need some pitchers with balls of their own to put an end to this.

Mets...

“Yay! Our manager won’t be fired, at least for another day!”

Capri Suns and orange slices for everyone.

You know

I actually feel pretty good about this one. We didn’t win, but that was mostly because of mistakes we made. But we showed we still can get it done. Our offense IS getting better- they just need to calm it down and make smarter plays.

I think their offense is improving but.

the two biggest ABs of the game, Vlad and Torii came out of their shoes to swing at complete crap

Yeah

but that isn’t what lost us the game. There were three UER in this one (if you count the Juice-Reyes run as an error). Better D means we’re tied in extras. Like I said though, more than that, we were really hitting well this game. Two seperate innings we were putting the screws to the ball getting some clutch hits. Our running was off, but we can fix that. Big thing is the bats are starting to come around.

hell no WEAVER BOTG
At least Lindsey Soto is on Angels Live
her opening line:

“close, but no cigar….”

so original.

Aruuugah... aruuugah
Is that a Monica Lewinski line?
You know Bill would be ALL over that
Hawt.
I wouldn't mind hitting into a double play
What's up with Gubbie's hair on Angel's Live?

Looks like he may have hit into a double play with Lindsay before going on air.

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