Angels Take 2 of 3 in the 2012 Freeway Series Part 1

This week, the Angels proved once more that not only can you go home again, but you can rack up the Ws while you’re there. Okay, so Dodgers Stadium is more of that ‘on again, off again friend’s house where you sublet a room for a lot longer than originally intended during the awkward transition between your suddenly waaaaay too small first apartment and your first home purchase’ for the Angels than an actual home, but you get the general idea.

Mike Trout at bat. He went 0fer this game which will happen from time to time. But, as you can see, we had fun seats. On a side note, when I can skim through thumbnails of all of my photos and know who is at the plate by their swing/stance, I think it’s safe to say I’m a little invested in this team. 😉 Angels at Dodgers, June 12, 2012. Photo by This is a very simple game…

Seth and I went to the Tuesday night game, the only game the Angels lost in the series…of course my Dodgers fan sister went to the Wednesday night game, and that was her first baseball game in years, so we can’t always get what want and sometimes the Rolling Stones just might write a song about it, or something like that.

Jerome williams communicates with Hank Conger. I was so sorry to see Williams get roughed up in the 8th. He pitched a great game and deserved a better ending, but some games that’s just baseball. Angels at Dodgers, June 12, 2012. Photo by This is a very simple game…

Tuesday night, the Angels only scored on Dodgers errors, which kind of sums up that game, really – neither team played particularly well. Joe West was just being Joe West, which is to say terrible and arrogant in his own ineptitude while he was at it. But the fact of the matter is that if the Angels had played better ball the blown call would not have mattered. It pissed me off most mightily at the time, but such is baseball. Sometimes you win the terrible calls, sometimes you lose the terrible calls and sometimes only great calls rain down upon both teams…just generally not in games officiated by Joe West.

Ah, a manager arguing with Joe West over a bad call. Now there’s something you don’t see every day…I mean, there is an offseason, and umpires get days off too… The truly unusual things here was that the call was so bad that easy going Maicer Izturis got vsibly angry over it. You can see how Aybar has pulled him off to the side to calm him down on the left of the photo. Angels at Dodgers, June 12, 2012. Photo by This is a very simple game…

The rest of the series, however, was great. Go figure, the “still best record in the majors even though they’ve been losing more since Matt Kemp went on the DL again” Dodgers have a pretty good team and the Angels gave them a run for their money and won. I prefer it when the Angels are hitting a little better and not leaving so many guys on base. However, they usually came up with just what they needed to do to win (Like Erick Aybar coming through in the clutch with a homerun into the Dodgers bleachers?!? Wow!! You just can’t script this stuff!) and I tend to think that the bats were suffering from a little altitude lag, if you will, after the series in Colorado rather then this being indicative of a troubling trend. I think they’ll be fully recovered this weekend.

Albert Pujols moves for the pickoff attempt as Dee Gordon dives back to the bag. Pujols looked much happier to be back at 1st. He did not have the best game at 3rd on Tuesday…or even a good one, really. Angels at Dodgers, June 12, 2012. Photo by This is a very simple game…

The pitching looked good. Oh, Garrett Richards had those rocky first two innings, but he recovered, and Jerome Williams looked great, he just was left in one inning two long, hind sight being 20/20. And C.J. was dealing. The bullpen was decidedly the good bullpen and defense made me all kinds of happy…on Monday and Wednesday at any rate. This time out, Albert at 3rd looked really awkward on Tuesday – I mean reeeeeaaaaaalllly awkward – and the rest of the infield kind of followed suit, leading to a wise retuning of everyone to their normal positions in the 7th. Hey, small sample sizes. This could still work to get Kendrys in the lineup one or two more times this month…or not. We’ll see.

Kendrys Morales (shown here moving with runner Juan Rivera), on the other hand, looked pretty good at first, not as agile as he was before the injury, but still pretty good and likely to get better with time. Angels at Dodgers, June 12, 2012. Photo by This is a very simple game…

And now I leave you with a return to one of my favorite pastimes last season, fun with captions:

Albert Pujols and Juan Uribe have an animated conversation at third. Hmmm…what could they be saying? Albert: ‘Your fans, man, they sure have “boo” and “suck” down.’ Juan: *rolls eyes* ‘No kidding! At least when you guys are in town they mix in a little “overrated.” Variety is key, man. Variety is key.’ Of course, leaving a guy stranded at third tends to tak all of the elegance out of the run by trash talking. I mean, LOBsters are not exacrtly known for their witty snark. Angels at Dodgers, June 12, 2012. Photo by This is a very simple game…

he Angels have a meeting on the mound. I mostly amused by the exchange on the left. Yes, Albert completely bothched the play at third. No maybe about it but, seriously Aybar. _You’re_ going to chew him out for mental lapses and bad plays?? Either that or the Angels plan to enter the Laguna Beach Pagent of the Masters as DiVinci’s Last Supper and try to seize any moment they can to practice… Angels at Dodgers, June 12, 2012. Photo by This is a very simple game…

…Okay, clearly the Angels need a _lot_ more practice. But I think their reenactment of this half of the famous painting, at least, is coming along quite nicely, don’t you? (Obviously, not my image, LOL! Leonardo Di Vinci’s Last Supper, cropped for comedic effect)

Erick Aybar in the middle of making a great play the required a ballet worthy pivot. ‘Hey, check out my moves Donnie Baseball. Think you can get a part for me in the Nutcracker this year?’ Angels at Dodgers, June 12, 2012. Photo by This is a very simple game…

Mike Trout with Jered Weaver (and I think John Hester) in the dugout. I love that Trout seems to spend every non playing second chatting with existing Angels players and staff, soaking up knowledge…or necessary shortcut tips to avoid traffic on the way out of Dodgers Stadium. Hey, there is no such thing as wasted information, right? Angels at Dodgers, June 12, 2012. Photo by This is a very simple game…

 

Ervin Santana and Alberto Callaspo in the dugout – when you’re sitting the game out, even the smallest of sunflower seed choice decisions take on great importance. Angels at Dodgers, June 12, 2012. Photo by This is a very simple game…

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