At Home Plate - Angels come back big time

At Home Plate

Written by Bjoern Hartig (Contact & Archive) on May 31, 2009

The Rally Monkey worked today.

Photo by Sonal and Abe, used under creative commons license.

One day after giving up three runs in the ninth inning and losing in extras to the Seattle Mariners, the Angels returned the favor. Trailing 1-8 after five and a half innings, they got back into the game with four runs in the bottom of the sixth and managed to add another run in the next inning. Still trailing 6-8, the Mariners sent out closer David Aardsma, who had allowed just three runs in 24.2 innings this year and sported a brilliant 1.09 ERA. However, after saving the first two Seattle victories in Anaheim, Aardsma was wild and the Angels hitters - usually not known for their patience - finally took some pitches outside the zone. After two walks, a bloop double and an intentional walk to Torii Hunter (who had hit a two run shot earlier in the game), the bases were loaded. Juan Rivera took four straight balls to push the tying run across and then Kendry Morales shot a single through the hole in the right side for the walk-off hit.

With the Rangers losing 4-5 against Oakland, the Angels climbed one game over .500 and within 4.5 games of the division lead. However, unless their veteran pitchers like John Lackey (6.05 ERA), Ervin Santana (7.82 ERA), Scot Shields (6.62 ERA, on the DL) and closer Brian Fuentes (5.30 ERA, despite 13 saves) start throwing better, LA will have a tough time winning consistently.

By the way, charged with three earned runs, Aardsma's ERA nearly doubled to 2.13.

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