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Halos Heaven

Juan Rivera Homerun Drives Angels to Freeway Series Win

FINAL SCORE in Los Angeles of Anaheim: Angels 5, Dodgers 4

A close game with a rowdy crowd in suburbia USA saw the two most interesting teams in baseball - the Los Angeles Angels and the Los Angeles Dodgers fight and claw their way thru a game that saw a Post-Brooklyn 4-1 lead over the team that was actually born in Southern California evaporate into a tie for the Blue Crew and then turn into a win when one of former Dodger Mike Scioscia's slap-happy singles hitters suddenly crushed a long ball.

The difference in the game was a terrible relief pitcher failing more than a terrible relief bullpen. Angels Left Fielder Juan Rivera crushed a homerun off of Dodgers reliever Guillermo Mota (yes, he is still pitching, probably getting AARP benefits too for those bulging temples that look like chipmunk cheeks coming out of his cap) in the bottom of the 8th inning.

Angels starter Joe Saunders was bailed out by stellar defense from Erick Aybar and Maicer Izturis, only one of whom would help him with the bat - it was Mighty Maicer singling home two in the bottom of the 6th off of overrated Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley who actually had to pitch to a team that was not the weakling Padres.

Oddly enough, Angels reliever/gascan Justin Speier got out of a jam with runners on in the 8th inning when he got Juan Pierre to foul out for the final out of the inning. Angels Closer Brian Fuentes struck out Dodger outfielder Matt Kemp with the tying run on 2B and the Go-Ahead run on 1B for his MLB-leading 19th Save.

It was the Angels 7th win in a row. The club is now only a half-game out of First Place in the American League West.

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Total Users: 108
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Poll
Panther of the Game
Maicer Izturis
50 votes
Juan Rivera
226 votes

276 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs  |  43 comments

Comments

Juan...........believable..........

PANTHER

NL west ownage!!

Juan Rivera is the man

Soth Win

I see

you’ve been stalking for a long time

As the days go by, it feels like years.....
Juan Rivera POTG!

best AB of the season for Juan

good win

glad to see the bullpen keep it together and one clutch hit

TBH.........

2>1

Gotta give it to Maicer

HR though
Eh,

Maicer gets out = Juan’s HR brings us a run closer, not the lead

me too

Peter Gammons says: “The Red Sox have talked to the Angels about infielder Maicer Izturis, but the talks haven’t gone anywhere.”

They know who our best middle infielder is.

imagine what the angels record would be if they played in the NL west LOL
could this explain the Dodger's success?

I think yes

It would be more equal if they had DH too.

With the cost of pitchers these days, they shouldn’t bat anyways anymore..Me thinks.

not many other teams i love beating as much as the raiders

I mean the Doyers

the monkey works!!!
Almost as if we doubted it
Thank you Juan Rivera.
awesome win

if Juan is already hitting like this, imagine how he’s gonna be this summer!

I voted for Izzy

BTW, what happened to all those complaints about having a mere “slap hitter” in the lineup?

Izturis is not trash

Another clutch hit by Izturis….another victory. He’s a resilient player…it’s been many years since the Jose Guillen trade, and he’s always managed to be useful on the team.

agreed...love me some Izzy....

always there in the clutch.

I credit the win to me taking off my Hunter t-shirt and leaving the topic after the 5th.

A topless comment

for the win

I credit the win to me falling asleep in the 4th inning

Sounds like a barn-burner! Nice to wake up to another Halo victory … Light it up, folks.

Good game tonight, the crowd was actually energetic.

On the way home, I heard the Angels had a scout checking out a Pedro Martinez workout.

I found that fascinating.

One the best games I have been to

Couple observations…

1) Juan Rivera’s HR was a No-Doubter… One of the biggest HRs I have seen in person
2) Dodger Fans are very spirited but are also very obnoxious and all of them seemed to be drunk and lastly, they really shut up as soon as their team is losing (Juan’s HR took all the air of them)
3) Russell Martin was very good behind the plate tonight… he seemed to block everything and that was getting very annoying
4) We got a lot of unlucky bounces and “at-em” balls early

Anyways great, stressful game.
Let’s get 8!!!!

Could not agree more about dodger fan

Spirited may be too kind, I believe the proper term is “Prickish”. I sat in section 231 tonight on the right field side, and the opposing fans in attendance when not shouting “Angels suck”, were busy being drunk and disrespectful. Of course not to be outdone, I responded with “Brooklyn Sucks!!!”, and following Juan’s go ahead HR, I turned to several dodger fans and yelled “Juan don’t need steroids to go yard”. Now lets hope his name doesn’t turn up on the list for known users.

This trick is to go to the game WITH a Dodger fan

Then you get a lot less heat. LOL

Glad the Angels won...

…but Chad Billingsley is NOT overrated.

gotta agree there...

we would love him if he played for us

and does NOT have 10 wins this season

Angels running through staff aces this season.

Agreed

But I love the shit talking in the wrap ups!

Loved it

It was great watching Hud taunt Psych on Fox Sports after the game.

How to become the league saves leader:

Close for the Angels. That is the only way. The Angels create more save opportunities.

Congrats Fuentes.

Panther: Juan "yes of course it's gone" Rivera
I was at the game.... it was so exciting.

I loved Rivera’s bat flip, and I was sitting right behind the Angels bullpen and it was a total no doubter as mentioned.

But man what was up with Figgy. Making the 3rd out at third. Not advancing to 3rd on a groundout to 1B. And then getting picked off 1B by the catcher, down by 3 runs. I don’t think I’ve seen one runner make 3 bad mistakes like that on the bases in one game, and I’ve gotten to see Vlad the last 6 years……

The first thing I thought about after Figgins not advancing to 3rd on that play

“I’m sure the game thread is going nuts”

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