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Saunders Ponders: Angels Lose to Red Sox 5-4

Final Score in Los Angeles of Anaheim: Boston 5, Angels 4

The Angels loaded the bases in the bottom of the 9th inning and made Johnathan Papelbon throw almost forty pitches, but came up short against the Red Sox when Howie Kendrick hit a liner right at Boston right Fielder Rocco Baldelli.

The Angels offense was all about the longball as Torii Hunter homred once and Mike Napoli hit two balls fair over the wall, but Joe Saunders found some Red Sox bats as well letting a 3-2 lead get away on a 2-Run Jason Bay homer in the 7th inning.

The Angels have had the tying run at the plate or on the bases for the final pitch in each of their 3 losses this season.

Results_medium

Poll
Blame of the Game
Vlad (0-4)
108 votes
Speier (Yielded Insurance Run)
209 votes
Saunders (4 ER in 7 IP)
28 votes

345 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs  |  71 comments

Comments

BOTG is definitely Speier

You come into a losing game as a reliever, your job is to stop the bleeding, not give up the eventual winning run.

DFA Speier.

Speier gets my vote

If only this were a rare occurrence, and not a common one.

Of those on the list?

Speier. I’d put Rivera up for it too though.

I have just about lost my patience with Rivera
REMEMBER

Rivera is a slow-starter (look at his all-star break splits for 2006). Give him time.

Speier, on the other hand, gives up game-winning home runs no matter the time or season.

Perhaps. But I'm more concerned with the fact that Naps could be DHing when he's not catching. That guy

has become an offensive force to be reckoned with.

That's a legitimate concern.

And I agree, Nap’s bat needs to be there as much as possible.

well he better be able to play the OF

cause he’s not gonna be taking Vlad’s lineup spot, and he’s been the DH so far this entire season..

Totally agree

Even when he doesn’t get a hit or walk he works the pitcher and puts up a quality at bat

Naps is streak-y though.

I love the guy but I feel like he is our Adam Dunn…could hit 40 HR in a season but would bat 240. and strike out a ton.

Still, there is upside to a Dunn-type of dude.

True. But it's a zero sum game.

Napoli is the best hitter on this team, and Rivera/Matthews are stealing at bats from him.

Napoli should be in the lineup everyday.

best hitter on the team?

huh?

And so far Matthews has all but 3 abs this season. Oh and did you forget that Naps was injured.

Love the dude but there is some exaggeration and impatience here dude.

Has to be Speier
That was an awesome loss!

Think about it — we can blame the ump, we fought back like bastards, and made Papelbon doubt himself for the rest of the year, at least against us. Also, it gets us closer to DFA’ing Speier, who is a waste of roster space.

Silvah Linings... GET CHO SILVAH LININGS HERE

You sir… you could use some SILVAH LININGS in your postgame despair…

I'll collect a few.

Naps with three extra base hits, and two homeruns.
Figgins with his seventh walk, and sixth run in five games.
Hunter with two shots to the wall, one a gift catch and one outta the park.

the last time figgy collected walks like this

he had a decent year some would say. walks lead to steals then runs all increasing and hopefully (and in my opinion most importantly) first innings runs.

except Chone hit ball 4 with a man on base in the 8th inning.

practically pulled it out of the dirt for a slow ground ball. sigh

Speier

maybe Rivera.

Great AB by Howie even if he doesnt get the hit. Tough that both teams each get 3 HRs but ours are all solos.

Speier needs to go

The guy just flat out has sucked since the beginning of last year. He doesn’t throw hard anymore.

Also Rivera and Aybar are dragging the offense down hard.

And one final thing, If Naps is not in the lineup tomorrow I do not know what I’ll do but it ain’t going to be pretty

Hey, those three players sound like a mightly fine start...

…to a Peavy trade. Throw in an Ortega or an O’Sullivan, and maybe we have a deal.

try again. read up. Pads want Wood....

and possible Weaver.

BOTG

CKOD for not shutting up about the umpires

just

relentless

That CKOD guy

such an asshat. Doesn’t give it up. Definitely BOTG

BOTG : The second base UMPIRE

    Did anyone else see the ripples on the wall where the ball hit it?
   With that run we are at least tied

And there is one fewer out in the inning, and maybe Juan sees a different pitch

lots of different stuff, yes.

true

but I only saw it on the 2nd slow mo replay.

First off.

HK did a damn good job at the plate with his last at bat. If this were last season, he goes down swinging horribly at an offspeed pitch. It is still very early, I’m not going to push the panic button with Aybar, Rivera, K-Mo or anyone. But, damn, Speier has to go. Nothing else to say about that waste of roster space. DFA his ass!!!

the thing is

is kendrick never saw an offspeed. the two he saw (well breaking, but not fastball) were the two best pitches, that he took. papelbon pretty much threw all fastballs. i actually wonder what would have happened if papelbon tumbled one into the dirt, then again, there was someone on third base.

and im not panicking on k mo at all at the plate, but i feel like there may be some growing in the field. still VERY early tho.

f speier

Watch the media in all the stories

will completely ignore the blown call that played a direct role in the outcome of the game.

This, as much as anything, is why nothing gets done. When a bad call is made, the media blows it off as ‘the way things are.’ It won’t get reported, it won’t get the coverage it deserves, and nothing will come of it that needs to. And God knows if the Yanks or Sox were wronged by a call (which they won’t be, as that’s sacrilege) to that extreme, it would be the headline for the game.

The media needs to use its power to help the sport for once…not focus on trivial bullshit like Pedroia’s jock size.

I want to se our moral outrage

when one goes in our favor.

When one finally does

I’ll shit my pants in shock that it actually happened and go into cardiac arrest.

This play, the pick-off at second base in the ALDS last year (which was hilariously brushed off as meaningless and never discussed of course), Finley’s catcher interference, the Eddings play…and that’s just me going for the easy and immediate ones.

It’s not so much that we get bad calls against us…it’s that they are directly costly on the outcome of the game and, for the most part, GROSS errors…not just slight bang-bang oversights, but extremely obvious calls that umpires just stubbornly refuse to acknowledge and overturn because they’re spineless. They’re not just missing close plays at first, they’re missing the very things that should be the easiest.

I don't know. Sounds like pickin cherries.

It’s spring and all, but to my eyes that play at the wall might have gone either way. And the catch was good enough in the end.

Save the ump crucifixion for when the call is obviously blown, not these edge cases that take three cameras triangulating, color filters and a forensic scientist to prove.

There were far more obvious goats today than the onfield crew.

I don't know what set of eyes you're watching with

but I saw it hit the wall live

THE BALL CAUSED THE OUTFIELD FENCE TO RIPPLE

    Therefore it must have hit it. We have at least one more run, and could very well have won the game.

I second (well, third) CKOD and Vlad

In HD at least the ripples were obvious.

How many more weak ground outs to the left side of the infield do I have to witness from Juan Rivera??

  This guy is at best league average, What was the FO thinking??

The FO was thinking

In 06’ he managed to belt out 23 homers and 85 RBI’s, all while NOT playing full time. But yeah BB’Vlad’! it is frustrating. But lets all remember, it is still very early. Come June, I’ll be right there with you calling for Rivera’s head if there is no improvement.

Juan Rivera's Career Splits

 April .238 .286 .325 .610
 May .237 .283 .388 .671
 June .259 .314 .436 .750
 July .292 .333 .579 .913
 August .300 .353 .467 .820
 September .318 .357 .491 .848
 October .316 .381 .789 1.170

April through June, he’s a fourth-grade nothing. But how about July through October? You like that? I do.

Now, if we could only get him to play at Salt Lake pre-ASG, and assume the MLB position in July..

I like that idea!

   call him up at the break, and give a rookie a chance till then.

yeah...sign the guy for 5 million and then send to AAA

Smart financial move ALL the way.

Wow, Rivera is to 2009 as GMJ was to 2008 after what 5 games?

chill folks, neither one of them is Adam Dunn.

saunders? instead of juan?

saunders with the heavy heart? against the bo sox? i thought he did pretty well today actually. well he did have a ridiculous amount of lead off hitters on base, thought he did an overall satisfactory job.

speier is joke. his whole life is about jokes. you cant be the babyface when you suck, so its time to get serious, hit the weight room and run or whatever you have to do to start working hard again, and get it right. go to salt lake if you have to. go on the DL. It’s just time to take things seriously because like i said, his life is becoming a joke.

vlad had a tough 0-for-4. two of those were hit well and one of those outs was straight up robbed. that being said i was also frustrated with him so i agree with him being up there.

i also thought aybar had an absolutely terrible game.

lastly, as much as it pains me, for thousands of reasons, mike scioscia needs to be up there. speier had no business being in the game at that point and if he as taking it seriously like Mike should be (and usually does) then he would have put in jose or shields or oliver or keep jepsen even. speier does not belong there. he has shown nothing to us to show he deserves that role lately. but like it is with our great country, i critize cuz i love.

that being said, tip of the hat to napoli. great to see he is picking up from where he left off. looks like napoli and mathis need to be in the lineup which would probably make both of them beyond happy given the awkwardness of the situation (them being BFFs and all).

It is early in the year Scioscia is feeling out the pitchers in different situations. He has been doing it all year.
thats called

spring training

Um no not really

That is not even close to the intensity, pressure or talent level.

If you actually looked at who he has pitched when you will see he actually is doing exactly what I described above.

ummmm so i guess he learned not to put speier there

and all it cost was the game. you think scioscia is willing to take a loss to explore the pitching situation? then you are badly mistaken. you dont hink scioscia already knows the ansers to the questions you claim he “poses”. you think we needed this game to know speier wouldnt cut it.

if you practiced any common sense at all you will see actually what i described above.

ouch: if you practiced any common sense at all you will see actually what i described above.

In bases loaded situations

There is not a worse team in the league than the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

LAoA for first in number of men LOB

You heard it here first

Results are up!

2 people were able to get 3 points today! Amazing!

I probably would've only gotten 1 if Howie gets a hit against Papelbon

but I’ll take my points

<img src=“”http://www.flickr.com/photos/18349551@N03/3432395831/" title=“My creation by donaldwilsey, on Flickr”>My creation"/>

Less at bats per HR than any catcher in the history of baseball

Why doesn’t he play everyday?

Scioscia's probably trying to ease him back into the lineup

so that he doesn’t get injured right off the bat. Also, Mathis is hitting decently.

Because the more at-bats he gets

The more likely it is that that stat will decrease and he wants Napoli to hold onto it!

cuz hes injury prone.

oh and cant throw out a runner either.

and mathis can?
Well, Mathis can throw out a runner more than Naps.

Not by much, but its better.

Check yo stats.

He throws them out or he throws it into center
He = Mathis AND Napoli
wait, Torii Hunter doesnt play second base?

damn.

missed the game........family get together and stuff......kids birthdays..w00

oh well get em tomorrow…..I’ll forgo the BoTG because I wasnt here…..i trust you guys…

Ugh...

It’s early, guys – don’t come unraveled after 5 games.

If we DFA Speier, who takes his spot? The players that are ready in the minors are not pitchers.

If we did trade for Peavy, we don’t have the depth to give up Weaver. Would the Padres want Loux or Moseley along with a young bat or two? I doubt it.

If we can play .500 ball until Lackey, Escobar or Santana come back, it will be a great accomplishment by the team. If either Escobar or Santana don’t come back, it’s going to be a much longer season that it already has been.

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