Pair of A’s, Pair of HR’s

Torii Hunter and Alberto Callaspo celebrate Torii's HR. Callaspo would hit one of his own, helping the team win 4-1.

It started off innocently enough. The Angels and A’s were tied in the bottom of the 5th inning after Oakland scratched a run across in the top half and had another thrown out at the plate. Bobby Abreu had just lined out to start the inning, and Torii Hunter was settling into the batter’s box.

What happened next happens a few times every season, but it never ceases to be exciting. Torii Hunter ripped a pitch to left field to put the Angels ahead 2-1. Two pitches later, working with an 0-2 count, A’s starter Trevor Cahill left enough of a pitch in the middle of the plate for Alberto Callaspo to drive over the big wall in right-center field for his own home run, back-to-back jacks that changed the tide of the game. With those two swings, the Angels were up 3-1 and had basically won the contest, plating one more insurance run later in the inning.

I’ve grown to appreciate the long ball a lot more the past two seasons, and it directly correlates to just how little of them the Halos hit. It’s no secret that the team lacks a true power threat, so at times these bombs are hard to come by. But tonight showed that the Angels may have just enough power to get by if their pitching is as smooth as this game’s was. They have to get be more consistent in all areas and still lack that bat, but sometimes you get flashes that this team could be a playoff team, something that I never once got last season, and that’s an improvement. Here’s to hoping they do contend.

Picciolo Snares

Torii Hunter hits a two-run home run in the 4th inning off Atlanta starter Derek Lowe.

Bench coach Rob Picciolo presided over the Halos 4-1 victory today due to Mike Scioscia flying to South Bend to see his son graduate (congrats). The team made it fairly easy for Rob, doing what the team has failed to do on a number of occasions this season: Consistent pitching throughout the game. That, combined with Torii Hunter‘s day was enough to take the rubber game of this first interleague series.

- Tyler Chatwood bounced back very nicely after that rough, water-logged night in Oakland. He went seven strong innings, only giving up an RBI single to red-hot Joe Mather, while striking out six and walking two, by far his best ratio in that department so far in his young career. He stayed on top of Braves’ hitters all day long, throwing 17 first pitch strikes, and continued to show the poise that has earned him positive reviews throughout his short tenure as an Angel. Afterward, Scott Downs and Jordan Walden put up clean innings to close it out and moving the team to a half game back from division leading Texas Rangers.

- Hunter had a nice series, going 5-for-12 and 5 RBI, with his biggest hit being the 2-run shot to left field off Derek Lowe in the 4th inning. His swing looks a lot better lately and may be a sign that Torii will get on another roll. He’s had a 15-game stretch this season where he hit .285, and with Howie Kendrick‘s status up in the air, the team really needs his bat to wake up and stay hot.

- Bobby Abreu also had a nice series, ripping his own 2-run shot on Saturday, driving in a run Sunday, and passing Lou Gehrig for 34th on baseball’s all-time doubles list. Quietly, Abreu has put up a borderline (if not definite) Hall of Fame career. His statistical achievements are fairly balanced across the board, showing his all-around baseball talent and placing him in pretty elite company. I wonder if that balance will hurt him (and his aversion to outfield walls!), or if the HOF voters will reward his consistently strong play. Even in a down year last season, he managed to belt 20 homers, a testament to his hard work and truly awe-inspiring plate discipline. Good stuff Bobby.

- Special props to Atlanta’s Joe Mather for the monster series he had, crushing his first home run of the season and going a cool 7-of-12 with 5 RBI. It seemed like he was always on the basepaths, and his dinger was the wake up call the Braves needed in that game. He must have really liked Angel Stadium and the team’s pitchers.

***

2011 Angels

Record: 24-24
Next:
4 vs.
3 @

The Angels welcome Oakland back to Anaheim, less than a week after having a short, two-game set that Oakland swept. Hopefully, the weather conditions will be better than what the teams had to endure while playing in the Coliseum. Jered Weaver (6-4, 2.45 ERA) leads things off Monday against Josh Outman, who is making a spot start after being called up from Triple-A. He’s had some control issues up in Sacramento, sporting an ugly looking 30:27 K/BB mark and a 4.78 ERA. Tuesday, Dan Haren once again looks for his 5th win (4-2, 1.84 ERA) against a pitcher to be named, due to injuries to starters Tyson Ross and Brandon McCarthy. Ervin Santana and Joel Piñeiro will finish out the four-game set against a pair of tough, top-of-the-rotation starters in Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson. Being down 2-3 in the season series, the Angels must take advantage of the slumping A’s, who have lost their past five games, and get a boost in the division standings. With how tight the division is currently, it’s imperative for the Angels to take advantage of every series. We might be looking at a division race similar to the NL West’s 2005 season, where an 82-win Padres team made it to the postseason. Hopefully not, that would be pretty depressing…but still, it should stay a tight one for awhile.

Home Sweet Home!

Ervin Santana was on point, delivering a complete game shutout for a 9-0 Angel victory.

Who would have guessed all the team needed was to get back home? After an absolutely atrocious road trip in which they went 1-6, the Angels came back to the Big A tonight and absolutely dominated the visiting National League Atlanta Braves 9-0, all while wearing those cool 1960′s throwbacks with the halo on the hat! With tonight’s win, the Halos are back at .500 with a 23-23 record. Lots of things went right in this game, with two huge performances of note, so let me get right to it.

- Ervin Santana‘s black magic kept Atlanta in check all night long, resulting in Ervin notching his sixth career complete game shutout. El Mago was at his best tonight, scattering 4 hits over the 9 innings, not walking a soul, and striking out seven Braves. Even more impressive, Santana got the Braves to swing at some really ugly pitches, sign that his breaking pitches were on point throughout the contest. Ervin has struggled with consistency so far this season, like in most odd numbered years, but performances like this give some hope that he can put it all together for long stretches of the season and avoid having another odd numbered down year. If he can continue to do what he did tonight, I don’t see why he can’t.

- Mark Trumbo continues to show that his monster 2010 season in Triple-A was no fluke. He went 3-for-4 tonight, including a 413 foot 3-run blast to left field that broke open the game in third inning. He fell a triple short of the cycle. While Mark has struggled at times in this early part of the season, he has erased any doubts about his ability to play in the major leagues by coming up with hits like tonight, tying for the team lead in home runs with seven, and being one of the top RBI men so far. He has struck out quite a bit (39 Ks) which is a concern, however, with the patience he has shown at times, you get the feeling that Mark will settle down a bit with more experience. As of right now, Mark is the Angels’ most important rookie, due to the absence of Kendrys Morales, and he’s coming through in a big way.

- The 3-4-5 spots in the line-up went a combined 5-for-9, with four walks and five RBI. Alberto Callaspo, in particular, came up big, chipping in three of those RBI along with his two hits and a walk. Torii Hunter and Bobby Abreu were very active during the team’s six-run 3rd inning, it was good to see both veterans come through in big moments, mainly Torii who has scuffled hard this season and has not been able to pick it up for more than a few games at a time. His single in the 3rd was a thing of beauty though, and that coupled with his hard line drive out in the 2nd show that he’s once again getting his swing together.

- Atlanta’s Tim Hudson, usually the anchor to Atlanta’s pitching staff, was battered around tonight. The ex-Athletic gave up seven earned runs in just 3 2/3 innings, a rarity for him in general, but something that seems to common with Tim in interleague play. Color commentator Mark Gubicza mentioned Hudson’s struggles in interleague play since joining Atlanta, citing an appaling 2-13 record with a 6.25 ERA in 17 starts, which no doubt went up after tonight’s performance. It was the perfect time for the Halos to face him, they normally play strong ball against NL squads. According to a few reports, Tim was suffering from lower back stiffness, but to his credit he tried his best to gut it out. Even though he didn’t have a good outing, I think all fans respect that kind of tough attitude.

- Hunter played a trick on his skipper after the rout was on, pretending a flyball going directly at him had actually gone out of the park. He made the catch at the last possible moment, grinning like a Cheshire cat the whole time. It’s good to see that he forgot about yesterday’s gaffe, he wasn’t the only one that had trouble with the sun during the game.

***

4th starterJoel Piñeiro (2-0, 1.98 ERA) will take the mound tomorrow night in search of his 100th career victory. He faces young Atlanta starter Tommy Hanson (5-3, 2.35 ERA), who has excellent stuff but has struggled during interleague play. The Angels hope their track record and his line up and help deliver them another win to keep close with Oakland and Texas in the standings. The game will start at 7:05 PM Pacific, and will be broadcast on Fox Sports West.

Torii Loses It In the Sunlight

Angels baseball, or a Three Stooges skit? Is there even a difference?

As if losing on a wild pitch wasn’t bad enough, the Angels found a new way to lose. On a Carlos Peguero flyball to center field, Torii Hunter, the 9-time Gold Glove center fielder who was starting there to give Peter Bourjos a break, lost track of the ball in the sunlight and dropped it, allowing Jack Cust to score from 3rd for a 2-1 Mariner victory. Now, I’m gonna cut Torii some slack since he wasn’t the only one having issues with the glare out in center. My problem is that this just goes along with everything that has been going on the past week, and really, the whole season. The Angels look about as uninspired as a cellar dweller in late September. The little bit of steam they built up in April completely left them once Kendrys was ruled out for good, and in its wake it has left this shell of a team that’s learning on the go in some parts, and decaying in others. For all the spin the front office tried to put on the Vernon Wells trade and the reliever signings and losing out on Carl Crawford, I was expecting at least a better fight than the team has put up so far. It’s clear that the Halos need to go through a full youth movement, but it would have been nice to not have been sold false hope beforehand.

On the OCRegister’s Angels blog, a Mariner fan commented that us Angel fans are quick to give up on a team that’s only 1.5 games back. Bro, you’re a Mariner fan. You haven’t had your heart ripped out countless times in the worst and weirdest ways. Shut up, sit down, and watch this 70-win season continue.

- To his credit, Dan Haren hasn’t let all this bullshit slow him down. He was on once again, going 8 innings and only giving up an earned run in the 5th inning on a Chris Gimenez sac fly. What was a bit odd was Haren giving up 3 walks, but even in my half-asleep state I knew that first walk wasn’t a good call, the pitch caught the corner of the zone (according to the tracker too). Oh well, he was still good and it’s a shame that he has to put up with such a weak offense behind him. Maybe Sosh should consider giving Haren some at-bats, he’s a pretty good hitter (check the numbers!).

- Howie Kendrick hit his seventh home run of the season in the 4th inning, giving the Angels their only lead of the game. A few innings later, Howie was out of the game after suffering a strained hamstring while sliding into second base. Howie has been the Angels’ best player this season, aside from the two ace pitchers. If he’s out for an extended period of time, it will be a crippling loss to a team lacking the kind of power Howie can bring. Let’s hope it’s nothing serious, but don’t be surprised to see Howie out of the line-up for a few games at the very least.

- Seattle got extremely lucky that Jack Cust managed to get on base in the first place, but credit is warranted for playing small ball to perfection. Cust tried to check his swing at the plate, which predictably resulted in him jamming a slow roller up the third base line for an infield hit (I’m telling you M’s fan, you just don’t know). An Adam Kennedy sacrifice and a Luis Rodriguez ground-out to the other side of the infield got Cust to third. The team renowned for their small ball ways attempted to do the same in the first inning, and predictably left the runner stranded on third. It’s like a bad comedy sometimes, this Angels fan business.

***

Atlanta comes into town for the first interleague series of the year, starting tomorrow night. Veteran Tim Hudson (4-3, 3.03 ERA) will match up with the Angels’ Ervin Santana (1-4. 4.85 ERA) to kick things off, with the usual 7:05 PM Pacific home start time. Maybe seeing a competent team will knock some sense into the Angels…

[PC072] Cooh – Moth Machine EP

A. To (Moth Machine)
B. XTC 98-08 (ft. The Panacea)
C. Ferta
D. Smile
E. Smush
F. 2012

 

 

I wonder how influential metal will be as time goes on. We’ve seen the style meld with other kinds of music that have similar properties, but we rarely see or hear about metal influencing other styles of music. That’s where Ivan Shopov comes in. Ivan began his music career as a bassist for a metal band, but soon decided to focus on his drum and bass production, something that reflects heavily throughout Cooh’s recorded output. The beats are harder, the sounds are heavier, and everything is done with a type of aggression reserved for only the harshest of drum and bass styles: darkstep. This EP is proof that heavy music exists outside metal related ventures, almost literally pounding your head in with some of the filthiest sounding dnb I’ve ever heard. The drum beats in particular draw the biggest influence, with Ivan showcasing powerful triplets and double bass drum attacks that constantly pulse underneath the frantic synths and devastating bass lines. The Youtube video above shows you exactly what I’m talking about, it never lets up throughout its run time, track after track of bludgeoning darkstep. This one is definitely not for a beginner or for someone that doesn’t like loud, heavy music (do you even exist?), but if you can handle it, it’s one of the most rewarding listens out there.

@ Mediafire

The Nightmare Continues

After starting 6-0, Jered Weaver has not made it past the 6th inning in his last four starts.

Suddenly, the Angels are looking like the team I thought they would be before the season began. Ever since word leaked that Kendrys Morales would miss the rest of the season following a second procedure on his injured ankle, the team has spiraled downward, compiling a 1-6 record and getting thoroughly embarrassed by poor pitching, shoddy hitting, and an appalling loss of fundamentals. Today’s game against the Mariners featured more of the same, with Jered Weaver laboring through six innings (something we got used to last season), a light-hitting M’s offense scratching three runs across, and Angel hitters making Weaver’s ex-college teammate Jason Vargas look like Greg Maddux. It was another tough one to watch if you’re an Angel fan, the team just doesn’t seem the have the will to compete day-in and day-out like the Angel teams of recent vintage. I mentioned prior to this road trip that it was an important one for the team, this was their chance to put some distance between themselves and their three competitors. Instead, they’ve allowed all three teams to get the upper hand, and have dropped to 3rd in the AL West standings with the M’s breathing down their necks. Weak. They say you can’t win a division title in May, but you sure as hell can lose one, and from the looks of it, the Halos may have lost it already.

- Vargas outdueled a gassed Weaver on this night, something that we may not have expected but should have seen coming. After his otherworldly 6-0 start, Jered has not been able to get past the 6th inning in any of his four outings since, the toll of eating so many early-season innings taking hold. It didn’t help that his defense faltered on key occasions, nor that his punchless offense failed to deliver once again. Even though the stat line will read six innings and three earned runs – a quality start – it was far from it.

- I got my first look at Justin Smoak this season, and I liked what I saw. He sliced a pitch down the right field line for an RBI double in the 3rd, and looked like the middle of the order bat the Mariners have desperately sought the past few years. You wonder what went wrong in Texas for him, since this guy has all the hitting ability in the world. Can you imagine his power in that little bandbox? Scary. My guess is that the Rangers didn’t commit to him enough, which slowed down his development. Once he was sent to Seattle, the team gave him first base and he’s ran with it ever since. The Rangers’ loss is the M’s gain, in this case.

- The offense had an opportunity in the bottom of the 7th inning with the bases loaded. Hank Conger pinch-hit for Jeff Mathis and struck out looking on an inside pitch 3-2, which killed any hope of a comeback. When it comes to runners in scoring position and bases loaded situations, the Angels are absolutely putrid. They’ve had one base hit with bases loaded this year, and a paltry .234 average with RISP. The lack of an established hitting threat comes across clearly when you look at these numbers. Torii Hunter in particular has been downright awful in these situations, sporting a Mathisian .211 mark in 52 at-bats with RISP, and only one extra base hit! Hunter is completely miscast as the cleanup hitter, but at this point, what do you do? Neither Howie Kendrick nor Mark Trumbo (team leaders in homers) have the experience, and nobody else on the squad is qualified to take over. I almost wish Sosh would trot one of those two out there to bat cleanup, just to change things up.

- The one positive is Hisanori Takahashi‘s two inning relief stint, which helped protect an overworked bullpen somewhat. After using four relievers last night, the team really needed that. Even though it wasn’t a completely clean outing by Hawk, kudos are in order for getting the job done without allowing more runs across.

The Angels finish off this quick two game series tomorrow afternoon, with Dan Haren (4-2, 1.93 ERA) facing off against Seattle’s Doug Fister (2-4, 3.22 ERA). The game starts at 12:40 PM Pacific, and will air on Fox Sports West.

14-0

The rain was harsh, but not as harsh as Oakland's bats were on Angel pitching.

Every season, the Angels seem to put up a big stinker of a game against Oakland in their ballpark. There’s just something about that weird dual-sport cavern that gets to the team, maybe ghosts of stadiums past or something. Whatever it is, it always seems to happen at a bad time. Last season, the team was still in contention for the division crown when Scott Kazmirdecided 13 was his new favorite number. This year, the Angels started off fairly strong, but have now slid to being a game above .500 thanks to this horrific game.

Tyler Chatwood could not deal with having to pitch in the rain, giving up seven runs (5 earned) in just 2 1/3 innings. Kevin Jepsen gave up five earned in an inning pitched, though that one inning was about as long as half a normal game, it seemed. Trevor Bell and Rich Thompson also gave up one earned run apiece. It was a real foul performance by these pitchers, particularly Jeppers who was doing his thing during a slight crack in the weather. Even though it was raining (and pretty hard at that), I put the blame on the pitching due to the fact that hitters are affected by driving rains as well. Yet, the A’s were squaring up baseballs like they were the second coming of the Bash Brothers. The worst part, they weren’t even impersonating the BBs, they didn’t hit a single ball out of the park. They loaded the bases on three separate occasions (that I can remember), driving in runs that way. They played hit and run. They stole bases. They just plain whacked the fuck outta those poor baseballs. The Athletics did it every which way possible aside from the long ball, which should make every Angel fan puke even more. A bunch of 3-run bombs would be more palatable than the game I saw. The offense was nowhere to be seen. A’s starter Gio Gonzalez didn’t give up a hit until the 5th inning. The Angels finished with two hits total, compared to Oakland’s 15 (I believe that matched the season high for hits given up by the Angels).

It was a complete no-show by the ball club. I’m not the only one that remembers that just a year and half ago, the Angels were battling the Yankees in driving rain for the right to go to the World Series. The team’s current iteration is so far removed from those Halos it’s frightening. Those Halos were fundamentally sound, a bunch that could hit for average or power, could small ball or long ball, could play the close games or shootouts. 2011′s guys don’t seem to be able to do any of these things. Constant base running errors. Not much power. The small ball doesn’t work as well as it used to either, probably due to the amount of old slow vets and green rookies. On top of that, these Halos have questions throughout the bullpen and the bottom of the rotation. Though it started slowly in ’09, the bullpen got it together and the starting rotation was solid. It’s amazing to me how quickly the team has fallen. And no game has made it as clear as this one did.

Here’s to hoping the Seattle mini-series goes better than this. With Atlanta coming to town over the weekend, the team needs a good bounce-back.

Argh

Let it be known that I’m still pissed off that Sosh put Fernando Rodney out there for the 10th inning last night.

The man is an instant kiss of death for a Halo victory.

Real writeup sometime when I don’t feel like murdering.

Embalmed Souls

Embalmed Souls, death metal from Brasilia, Brazil. Active since 1990.

Brazil has been a hot bed for extreme forms of heavy metal music since the mid-80s. From their beginning of their alcohol-fueled scene til today, Brazil has delivered countless great bands whose talents are only matched by the sheer intensity these Brazilian headbangers dish out, on record and in a live setting. Embalmed Souls is admittedly a pretty obscure beast, a band who have sat back comfortably and allowed themselves to release cassette demos whenever they feel their music is ready to be released. While this strategy hurts any sort of marketing push or the gaining of a sizable following in death metal circles, it also works to the band’s advantage, as every release of theirs I’ve heard is impressive. No doubt, the time spent developing their signature sound and tunes helps the band create some truly captivating music, a combination of death metal’s sonic fury and doom’s sometimes crushing, sometimes melancholic approach to songwriting.

Similar to blog favorite Stargazer, Embalmed Souls exudes a mystical quality with their music, as if archeologists just discovered a pharaoh’s tomb full of these death metal treasures. Their usage of melodic riffwork stands out greatly, it’s very reminiscent (to me, at least) of the old Finnish death metal scene that relied on haunting, watery tremolo riffs and very progressive-minded compositions. Many a ES tune carries that signature riff that sticks with you even after you’re done listening, but surprisingly, that’s not the greatest strength of the band. The drum work is phenomenal, equal parts technical and energetic, with a slight tribal influence that can be heard whenever the drummer works with his toms to accent the song’s groove. Combined with some nice, gravelly vocals, and the constant warmth of the bass filling out the low ends of the spectrum, the package combines to create quite the listening experience for death metal fans. While some of you might wish the run times on some of these tapes were longer, I’m quite happy with the way they are, usually running between 20-25 minutes.

This archive contains the four demos I have been able to find: 1997′s Journey Through Bizarre, 1999′s Become Vengeance Become Wrath, 2005′s Temple of Bizarre Cult, and 2009′s Six Rites of Possession. According to their Metal Archives page, they released a demo as far back as 1991, along with two live performances in 2003 (tape) and 2008 (DVD). If you have any information on these, please contact me, I’d really love to check these out. And also if you have any ideas on how I can rip my copy of Temple :P Enjoy this one!

@ Mediafire

 
PS: here’s a clip from the DVD, which I came across while looking for a song to embed on this post. Nice!
 

Sound of Silence

Alexi Ogando and the Ranger bullpen combined to limit the Angels to just one run in their 4-1 victory.

Angel bats were pretty quiet tonight, as the Ranger pitching staff was able to control the tempo of the game and pace the Rangers toward a 4-1 victory. Starter-who-used-to-be-a-reliever Alexi Ogando had a very strong outing, scattering five hits over 6 1/3 innings and allowing only one earned run, a 3rd inning home run by Erick Aybar. Cody Eppley, Darren Oliver, and Neftali Feliz, fresh off a DL stint, combined to shut the down the Halos the rest of the way. Angel ace Jered Weaver had a weak outing by his standards, giving up four earned runs (including two home runs) over six, and once again not receiving any backup from the offense.

- Angel base running gaffes continued tonight, with Alberto Callaspo failing to tag up to 3rd base after a Hank Conger flyout to deep center. He broke toward 3rd as soon as Donkey Conger struck the ball, and was forced to return to 2nd due to his poor read. Callaspo has been one of biggest culprits when it comes to bad base running this season, something which has me wondering whether that will start costing him playing time.

- Spots 2, 3, and 4 in the Ranger line-up came up huge. Elvis Andrus, Ian Kinsler (he of the most annoying batting stance in the majors), and Michael Young (glad you didn’t trade him now, huh? Bastards) combined for a 6-for-12 line with 3 RBIs. They accounted for all but one of the team’s hits and RBIs, those last two coming off the bat of Adrian Beltre on his 6th inning home run. That’s all the offense they needed.

- 0-7 with RISP (runners in scoring position). Seven left on base. Those short statements tell the Angels’ side of the story. I praised them last time for their success during those situations, but now I need to call them out on it for doing the reverse. The team really needs to find its clutch hitter for those spots.

- Props to Tom Hallion for having one of the best strikeout calls in the majors. Love it.

Tomorrow, Dan Haren (4-2, 1.87 ERA) will face off against Texas left-hander Derek Holland (3-1, 5.18 ERA). The game will start at 1:10 PM Pacific, and will air on Fox Sports West instead of regular Fox.