Halos Heaven

Final Score in Anaheim: Angels 6, A's 5

This was a weird game, and it took forever to play. Both teams combined for 35 base runners, and it seemed like the bases were left loaded at the end of every inning. The officiating was an official disaster, probably because the guy who is consistently voted the worst umpire in baseball by a very large margin (that would be CB Bucknor) was in charge. This one had it all. Ad hoc interpretations of obscure rules, a balk, another three-base misplay by an Angels outfielder, variable strike zone, and just good old-fashioned blown calls.

Somehow the Angels were left standing when the dust settled. Oakland jumped out 3-0 on Ervin Santana in the second inning, but the Angels quickly tied it with 3 runs off of Brett Anderson. The A's took a 4-3 lead in the 4th which they ultimately surrendered in a wild 7th inning. With two out and two-on, Hideki Matsui tied the game with a pinch-hit single. Maicer Izturis drew a walk, and then Erick Aybar's jersey saved the game when it got ruffled by an inside pitch from Justin James, bailing him out of an 0-2 count. This forced in a run, and Hank Conger forced in another on a four-pitch walk to make it 6-4. The A's cut it to 6-5 after Torii Hunter turned the third out in the 8th into an RBI triple, and even though Fernando Rodney tried really, really hard to blow the game in the ninth, the A's meager offense couldn't be bothered to bring in the tying run from third.

I can't tell whether the end result of the poor officiating favored the Angels or not. For instance, CB Bucknor called Mike Napoli safe when he clearly was not. But this myopic clown clearly draws attention to himself at the expense of the game on the field, so I must say that even if the true winner was unclear, CB Bucknor was the clear loser.