Cheap Hits Doom Jered Weaver, Angels Leave First Place

by Rev Halofan on Jun 8, 2010 9:57 PM PDT in Angels Postgame

Final Score from the Lew Wolff Hollowsieum: Angels 1, Athletics 10...

By the time Oakland A Kurt Suzuki hit a towering 3-Run HR with two on and nobody out in the 7th inning, it was already apparent that Angels starter Jered Weaver did not have his best stuff on the mound tonight. But it was also apparent that, save for the tomato can hung out for Curt to bash, the Athletics were getting cheap hits that blooped in when they were not seeing eye singles and lucky liners.

The end of the winning streak had to happen some time and the bigger story of the evening may be the demolition of Felix Hernandez by Texas Rangers tonight, smothering the M's chances in the division perhaps once and for all this season. Weaver was seen after his stint on the mound laughing hysterically on the bench with a smirk that "what can ya do...?" If the AL West was officially made a three team race on Tuesday night, the Angels are still the team to beat.

Some questions do linger though:

Will Mike Napoli ever throw a base stealer out in his career?
Where were the whiny Choaktown fans who spent yesterday howling about the lousy strike zone tonight, when it was easily worse?
Will instant replay take care of bad calls like the 3rd run at the plate? A perfect Bobby Abreu throw home goes for naught.

Poll

Blame of the Game

Erick Aybar

24 votes

Jered Weaver

144 votes

The Baseball Gods

135 votes

303 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | 30 comments

Comments

Weav..

..didn’t have his best stuff but his line is awfully deceiving. It’s frustrating but I will chalk this one up to “that’s baseball.” Take away a couple bleeders, a bad call at the plate, and add 2 feet to a Michael Ryan double and this is a tie game in the 6/7th… instead I got the impression the Halos sensed they weren’t going to be able to do much to get on top tonight. One of those games.

BigGame48 - June 8, 2010 reply

These questions and many others will be answered in the next episode of Angels Baseball!

stolenbases - June 8, 2010 reply

And what about.... NAOMI????

red floyd - June 9, 2010 reply

did anyone else

watching on mlb.tv have issues watching this game? i finally got it to work on my laptop but nothing with my ps3.

i voted for baseball gods.

NW angels Fan - June 8, 2010 reply

it told me it was blacked out.

Balls and Strikes - June 8, 2010 reply

if a baseball game is played in the oakland coliseum and nobody is there to see it

did it really exist?

clover_black - June 8, 2010 reply

Quick, bring this argument to Selig!

We can reclaim 1st place

~MMP~ - June 8, 2010 reply

The baseball gods (or devils?)
didn’t want the Halos to win. 10 of 11 hits the As had against Weave were bloopers and soft grounders that got through the IF. The weakass Mariners can’t even use their ace to win ballgames is also pretty discouraging in itself. The ump decided to enlarge the strike zone for every inning played, and still ruin close plays. IMO instant replay needs to be added. Too many mistakes made by umps nowdays and not enough accountability. How many Jim Joyces do we see? At least he had enough class to admit his mistakes. Other umps just want to get their 6 figure paychecks and call it a night.

phoenix15 - June 8, 2010 reply

I agree

I used to go to bat for MLB umps because I was always so impressed how good these guys were… So many times I would see a play with my naked eye in real time and disagree with the ump only to find out he was right after seeing a replay from various angles.

But it seems they have gotten really bad, really fast. And what is worse is we are getting to know them all by name for all of the wrong reasons. I’m tired of it. These guys are becoming more and more like NBA officials who want to be seen and control the game.

They need to a) get better or b) take the abuse without putting up much of a fight because quite frankly they deserve it with the performances they’re putting forth.,

BigGame48 - June 8, 2010 reply

Umps, good? Was this when guys like Ruth were playing?, cause I don’t remember umps being good.

phoenix15 - June 8, 2010 reply

lol. maybe that was in the days of small TV's and standard definition

When we couldn’t see well enough to definitively make a call one way or another, maybe that was when ump’s were good. Now a days, 99.9999% of calls can be called one way or another, maybe before it was 99.9%. Not saying that is the only reason umps look bad, as I do agree that umpiring has degraded, but I think that is playing a part.

Problem is, unlike other sports who have embraced technology, MLB has resisted. Just like the Amish, eventually technology will be slowly embraced as the world whizzes by, just MLB will be 50 years behind the party.

LosAngel - June 8, 2010 reply