Halos Heaven

Final Score in Seattle: Angels 3, Mariners 0

In a postgame interview with Jose Mota on Fox West, Howie Kendrick confessed he was trying hardest to play outside of his head. The Seattle Mariners were more likely to be quoting Mick Jagger, asking Howie "Cuz you feel so good to you have to drive me out of my head?" Well, the Mariners got off of the Angels cloud as the Halos took 3 of 4 from their division rivals and after a sweep at the hands of the Ranger last weekend now have only lost a half game in the standings in the past week.

While the Rangers were in Detroit showing that a real baseball stadium could contain their Palmeiroesque offense, Joe Saunders was showing that he can handle a major league offense when he faces them in a park with major league dimensions.

The Seattle series saw the Angels bullpen return to its "Golden Era" stature as a shut-down mechanism of the patented Mike Scioscia Sothball machine. Scot Shields took over for Saunders in the 8th and pitched a 1-2-3 inning and Brian Fuentes came in for his 11th Save in the 9th inning. Fuentes is now leading the American League in Saves (tied with Boston's Jonathan Papelbon).

Thursday's game saw three Homeruns from unlikely sources: Juan Rivera, Gary Matthews Jr and Howie Kendrick. Bobby Abreu was out of the lineup with a sprained toe, meaning one of Rivera or Matthews would likely not have been in the game. That was the sum total of the Angels' offense, but with Saunders pitching in a major league park, it was all Hokie Joe needed, now that Kendrick and the gang are out of their heads and into the stands, echoing the Stones in their solo shots, "Don't hang around 'cuz two's a crowd on my cloud!"