The Angels Rain on Boston’s Parade

After five long hours of wind and rain, a delay of game for some wet weather, and 13 grueling innings of back and forth baseball, the Angels snuck away with a victory at Fenway tonight!

It was a great way to start off the Cinco de Mayo celebration, and a great way to cap off the beginning of the end of this Boston series.

The Angels got a big showing tonight from the bats of Wells, Kendrick, and Conger… but it was the game winning hit off the bat of Bobby Abreu that sealed the deal.

Vernon Wells, a late arrival to the Angels offense, showed up in rare form tonight going 2-6 with a 2 run HR that shifted the momentum of the game in the top of the 7th inning.  Though he did also strikeout twice in the game, I think for once in his life Angels fans may actually let that slide.  Nothing means more to Halo honks, from the die hards to the bandwagoners, than beating up on the boys from Beantown!

Howie Kendrick, who played first base again tonight for the Halos, went 2-6 with a double.  Howie also added a few more strikeouts to tonights tally, three to be exact, but did account for two of the Angels five runs scored.  Hammerin Hank  Conger came through with some timely hitting, going 3-4 with a double and a walk… clearly stepping up to the challenge of taking over as catcher numero uno!  Scioscia may love Jeff Mathis, but I’m here to tell you… we Angels fans love Hank, and we want to see more of him!

By the time the game had ended, I had completely forgotten that Ervin Santana had started this game… and not to sound unappreciative, but who cares!  It was all about Trevor Bell for me tonight!  This guy was absolutely lights out, going four innings, striking out three and not allowing a single run to score.  He collects his first win of the season, and only his fourth career victory, on just 56 pitches.

Now… I can’t not say anything about Bobby Abreu, but what is there really to say?  His 13th inning two-run single to right ultimately won the game!  He went 1-7 in the game… better late than never I suppose.

As excited as I am about tonights win, the Halos’ performance really just reaffirms my belief that the Angels still have some tweaking to do to their lineup and their apporach at the plate in scoring situations before this team really gets it.

The Halos went only 3-11 with RISP, and left 13 runners stranded on the basepath.  First inning, bases loaded, one out… Callaspo grounds into a double play.  Top of the 6th, one out, Aybar on second, Izturis on first… ground out by Hunter, pop out by Callaspo, inning over.  Top of the 11th, Amarista on second, one down… Strikeout, groundout, inning over.  Three instances in one game where the Halos failed to capitalize with runners in scoring position and less than two outs.

This is clearly plaguing the Angels offense, and I am still uncertain if it is the coaching decisions made in these situations (opting not to utilize the sac bunt), or the complete lack of self confidence in the Halo bats.  You can refer back to the last article I wrote just this afternoon (http://socalsportshub.com/2011/05/04/boston-has-our-number/) and see that this trend is killing the Angels run production, and almost cost them yet another game tonight! 

All in all however, a good time was had by all!  I stayed up later than I really wanted to just to see our guys finally win one, and I was told that the Red Sox ownership handed out branded trash bags and free coffee to all the fans still in attendance when the game finally resumed.  That’s a nice touch.